Moonflower Quilt

This is a quilt I started for Catherine before she was born.

This is the center of the quilt.
The fabric was given to me by mother.
These are mother's favorite colors to wear.

It is for a full size bed with a two foot over hang.

I want to just show a flower at a time for now.

When I get it done I will show the whole thing.

I named it Moonflower because these flowers bloom at night.

The boys and I had been collecting and we had been researching moths that summer.

Isaac found a very large caterpillar that summer, we put it in a jar and it made a cocoon.  

We went to the library to find out what it was, but we weren't able to identify it till it hatched out.

Winston had found a couple very large moths that turned out to be the same breed as the caterpillar.

One of the moths was a female and she laid all her eggs in the large gallon jar.
They are active at night.

Moths also pollinate the Moonflowers.

Not the same moth as the ones the boys found.

But I guess for me there was this connection.

Love this Quote from Winston Chruchill

I love getting the Painter's Keys Twice-Weekly Letter.  When I read the quote below I thought of our boy named Winston.  He is going to love it when I share it with him.

In his remarkable little book, Painting as a Pastime, Winston Churchill said, "I have always had a curious nature; I enjoy learning, but I dislike being taught." Winston understood one of the basics of learning--self-direction--the way of the autodidact. He would have been proud to announce the triumph of independent curiosity.

I am waiting for the batteries to recharge to show you some things I have been working on.

You might like to visit my other blogs.

Hard Times Living More With Less

Art Swap Barter Trade 

I haven't been doing as much on them as I would like...so I think I am just making a micro movement to posting more on them.

Not Feeling Well

I have the flu so I am not going to be blogging or doing email till Monday.

PICTORIAL LANGUAGE - Valerie Jaudon

To regard these paintings is to participate in an act of translation – to move from a map, a diagram, archaeology of overlapping circuits, into an experience. Jaudon is concerned with setting up the conditions of observation, showing the viewer how to look, not what to see.


 


This video has made me think about experience vs. our memory of the experience and how this relates to happiness.  Not only does our mind spend a lot of time playing these memories over and over but we are also concerned with making future memories or avoiding unpleasant future memories.

Comparing one-week and two-week vacations in the same place:
“For the remembering self, the two week vacation is barely better than the one week vacation because there are no new memories added. You have not changed the story. Time is actually the critical variable that distinguishes our remembering self from our experiencing self. Time has very little impact on the remembered story.”

“We actually don’t choose between experiences; we choose between memories of experiences. And even when we think about the future, we don’t think about future experiences. We think of our future as anticipated memories. You can look at this as the tyranny of the remembering self, and you can think of the remembering self dragging the experiencing self through a set of experiences it doesn’t need. I have the sense that when we go on vacations, this is very frequently the case. We go on vacations in the service of the remembering self.”


Daniel De La Harpe Golden said:

• Mar 6 2010: I believe training or modifying memories through safe recall, story telling, and interaction with a participant in the process forms a major part of many psychotherapeutic techniques.

  
  

  
  

   I read this blog by Jane Schner, about a "found photograph" art project she did in response to "What anchors us in these situations?"

  
  

  So I was thinking what anchors me?  I wrote this to a friend:

  My anchor has always been the memories that I am making...the more good memories the stronger the anchor.  I would like to say that people are our anchor...but only in relation to the connections we are making with them.  If we treat people like a fixture in our life then they become an object, we are probably not going to be thinking about the memories we are making with them any more than you think about the memories you are making with your tv...even though you may spend time with you tv.  But if you think about how much time you are spending laughing and enjoying each other...that is the anchor part.  

  
  

   

  
  

  In reading this now I think that even in thinking about people in the context of being memories is somewhat like making them an object of my happiness....so I don't think that is necessarily true.

  But I think what I was trying to say was that the emotional aspect of the memory is important.  But wonder if one negative become the focus of an otherwise perfect memory?  This would be like taking a beautiful picture and painting black over the whole thing...We could chose to put the black paint brush down..but how do you do this mentally?

  The Ten Coolest Art Therapy Interventions

  I am interested in Art as Therapy as a language to translate our experiences so that we can have control over how they will effect us rather than just letting them control our lives.

  
  

  How can we gain better ways of seeing so that we are happier?

  There was a poem that someone quoted to me one time....I can't quote it and I don't know who wrote it and haven't been able to find it though I have looked for it.

  
  

  The poem is something about some cream someone had. 

  The flies got into the cream. 

  That totally ruined the cream for this person, until

  he was able to look at the cream and ignore the flies.

  The point being that there will always be flies in our cream and if we want to be happy we need to learn to ignore what we can't control, and be grateful with what we can.

  
  

  So how do you do this with regard to memories or future memories?  Teach me...if you have developed a way of looking at the terrain of your memories that will translate in creating more happiness.  It may even be illogical as in Valerie's painting.  Or as in looking at the cream rather than the fly.  

  
  

  I have just thought of the serenity prayer and this is a good place to start.

  The secret is in the STORY.  

  I am sure that sometimes there are experiences that are painful and may never be "fixed" completely...and we have to learn to let go of our attachment to repeat the story line or believe in the shame of the story.  The story is there to teach us to practice a different way of looking.

  These are just the tailend of my thoughts after writing this, I am not a therapist and I cannot provide much more than questions as I am a pilgrim searching.

  
  

  
  

I love this commercial, it is so powerful

Here's to the crazy ones.  The misfits.
The rebels.  The troublemakers.  The round peg in a square hole.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And  they have no respect for status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough to think
They can change the world
Are the ones who do.

(in order) Albert Einstein, Bob Dylan, Martin Luther King, Jr., Richard Branson, John Lennon (with Yoko Ono), R. Buckminster Fuller, Thomas Edison, Muhammad Ali, Ted Turner, Maria Callas, Mahatma Gandhi, Amelia Earhart, Alfred Hitchcock, Martha Graham, Jim Henson (with Kermit the Frog), Frank Lloyd Wright and Pablo Picasso. The commercial ends with an image of a young girl, Shaan Sahota, opening her closed eyes, as if to see the possibilities before her.

A Magical Garden

This is starting to get a fairy tale quality about it.

I have a "story" in mind but I want to leave it up to the viewer to create their own interpretation

or story line that suits them.

Also this makes it where the story can continue to grow and change

and that makes it more interesting for me as I work on it.

An ancient video of a top that Winston made

This was made about three years ago.  Look at how small Catherine is?  She is really going at it chewing her chewing gum.  We didn't buy that for them very often so that was a real treat.

  I thought I would share this because I don't have a lot to show in cloth right now.  I have been cleaning house and cooking.

My Magic Garden

"All the worlds a stage and we are merely actors."

I wanted to create a magical stage that I might add little pieces

that could be moved around and played with.

When I was a child I really enjoyed creating the scenes or props for my dolls.  

After I had kids I enjoyed giving them props and 

watching them in their environment.  

 

I think this is just a extension of playing and having fun.

The Spiral - a symbol.

 

(This cloth was made for me by Ancient Cloth.  Thank you!!!)

The Spiral

For me the spiral mean Expansion.  

It is a Unfolding of a seed.

It is Growth.

 

It shows a Journey and

a logical Progression.

It starts from Within and moves out...

But also what is out can also effect what comes in.

Ebb and Flow.

 Yin and  Yang.

 

It is not about speed.

It is not the shortest distance between two points.

It is about Digestion,

Assimilation,

Observing,

Creating.

Quilting in 3-D

 

  

 

  

  

  

 

The Kids

My husband just edited and put up this video of 

Winston our son's homemade Tesla coil. 

His hair was really long in this video. 

He got it cut last month and donated his hair to Locks Of Love. 

 

Here is Catherine and Isaac playing with a 1980's Tomy robot. 

They have had a lot of fun trying to get it to do voice recognition.  

Every time you turn it off it loses its memory.

The good old days. huh?

On the front of the table is an electric remote control boat that Isaac built.

He made it from an old electric car that he had.

He used the wheels shaft for the boats rudders so that it could be steered.

TEEPEE - Symbol

TEE-PEE BY ANCIENT CLOTH 

The teepee represents the family for me. 

It represents a journey shared with others going through this world with God 

(the tee-pee points up) as a guide. 

It reminds me of Abraham who searched for a city whose builder and maker was God.  

I have never bought a house, because I enjoy moving around.  

I wanted to experience a lot of different places. 

I have collected houses...different kinds of structures, and thus different living experiences.

A house is a stage we live our memories on. 

 

 There was a time when I wanted to have a baby in a tee-pee, but that didn't happen.

 

This quilt was inspired by
the year 2003 Feb comet ...the corrona of the sun looks like the eye of Ra and 

Van Gogh's Starry Night.  Did the star declare something to the earth? 

I don't know but I like historical quilts and wanted to make one.

 

This is the "spirit cloth" that Ancient Cloth did for me.  

I blogged about the Cicada,

The Eye 

The Fig

This Video is for Lynn and all those that want to come and lend a hand.

Spirit Cloth - The Fig

 Ancient Cloth's Spirit Cloth that she made for me; blogged about here.

The symbol of the figs represents PASSION. 

It means living a SUCCULENT life.  

I like the fact that it is organized as a pointalism of the tiniest seeds. 

The seed, to me, represent intentions followed by actions.  

As those intentions and actions ripen 

the fruit is sweetened and the aroma becomes fragrant.  

 To me this symbolically represents an authentic life.

A life that is connected through WISDOM and PURPOSE, 

to be lived for the design that I have been put on earth for.   

In my own art work of the figs I have put passion flowers around the edge. 

Living life on the edge requires that you be flexible.  

The catalyst for passion in creativity

 represented the ELIXIR of life, THE FIG. 

Figs are a small decadence that I give myself ever summer.  

I love taking pleasure in the small things of life.