Lotus Lantern.

 

I made this lantern from a kit, in a Zoom workshop sponsored by our local public library.  The Korean-American activity leader shared a bit about the symbolism of the lotus. Among other attributes, the flower is a symbol of rebirth, which seems appropriate as we enter a new year in our Western calendar.

 

Thanks to everyone who visited my blog this year, and best wishes for 2022! - Ellen

 

Jolly Holly Quilt for Christmas

Holly Quilt, Fran Soika, 1979.

To everyone who celebrates Christmas, a safe and happy holiday!

 

The quilt above was published in the 1982 Quilt Engagement Calendar, and was made by the reverse applique method.  The design is cut in the light green top layer, revealing the dark green layer beneath, and all edges neatly folded over and stitched down. The holly berries are individually stuffed, and the piece has overall contour hand-quilting. Exquisite!

Made to be used on a bed - the blank area would be under the pillow shams, I believe.

Salley Mavor - "My Bed" book and exhibit

Russian child sleeping next to a traditional thick-walled clay stove, in a country home.

 

The New England Quilt Museum is hosting an exhibit of book illustrations by Salley Mavor; her third show at the museum.  The book, My Bed: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep Around the World, features of children's sleeping arrangements from all over the world.  Going to bed is something every human does. As always, the hand-stitched and embellished scenarios are delightful. Why hasn't this artist won a Caldecott award yet?!

 

More of Salley's work can be viewed at her website.

 

Detail of endpaper; note that the background is pieced from Salley's preferred wool felt.

Goodbye to Nip Bottles

In Memoriam Nip-orium wreath.

No, this post isn't about textiles, but celebrates my city deciding to ban the sale of "nip" bottles, those 50ml or 100ml plastic containers of alcohol commonly known as nips. As neighboring towns were, until recently, "dry," those folks came over the border to Newton to buy their booze.  

 

Nip litter is a real problem during community clean-ups of parks and conservation land, when volunteers find dozens of these non-biodegradable things, which cannot be recycled using the city's current system.  So, I helped spear-head a drive to convince the alcohol licensing commission to ban the sale of nips. For once, success! 

 

The wreath, since ancient times, has been a symbol of victory, so I decided to make a celebratory wreath. No problem finding the raw materials - nips are everywhere.

Dry fit of nip bottles and caps.

I used a corrugated cardboard "donut" as the base - outside dimension is 13", inside hole is 4".  First, I painted the base with some leftover red paint. Also punched a hole for hanging.

Painted cardboard "donut."

To aid in even radial placement, I first used my trusty glue gun to attach bottles at the "compass" points.  Next, I infilled each quadrant, and, lastly, glued the small nip caps along the outer edge.

Bottles at four "compass" points.

Add bottles evenly spaced between compass points.

The completed wreath was placed in a kiosk on a converted rail trail pathway, from which most of the bottles were recovered, with an explanatory note. (The title "In Memoriam Nip-orium" was suggested by a clever member of our local area council.) If only the Commonwealth of Massachusetts would ban these, or add them to our bottle deposit system.

Laura Petrovich-Cheney - Wood Quilts at the New England Quilt Museum

Homesick, 2020, detail.

 

We recently visited the New England Quilt Museum to see this exhibit, Wood Quilts, by Laura Petrovich-Cheney. I had previously seen a small selection of her salvaged wood sculptures, with designs inspired by patchwork quilts, at the Fuller Craft Museum.  It was great to see even more of her work, which is on view through December 31, 2021.

 

Homesick, 2020.

 

Gallery overview.

 

Ms. Petrovich-Cheney uses shop tools - band saws, sanders, etc. - to cut the salvaged wood into her desired shapes. She doesn't paint the pieces; the colors are as found.  A video of her process is here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8ptQAvhLUs

 

Roll with the Changes, 2021.

  From the wall text:

Creating abstract patterns is my way of dealing with life's ambiguities and uncertainties.  After Hurricane Sandy, when that storm destroyed my childhood home, I realized how quickly home and community could be destroyed and forever changed.  After the devastation, I collected the wooden debris that was scattered throughout the remains of the broken communities.  My takeaway from the storm left me more compassionate, empathetic and acutely aware of how life altering an unexpected event can be.

Heart Centered, 2021

Heart Centered, detail.

 

Wall text, cont'd:

Dresser drawers, kitchen cabinets, cedar siding, doors - anything made of wood is now my raw material.  I believe that material has memory.  I never paint or repair what I find - the faded colors, scratches, nail holes mark the passage of time and are vital remainders of a once-lived life.  Working with discarded materials invites exploration of ideas universal to the human experience: nostalgia, second chances, renewal, memory, and the beauty of imperfection.

All Directions Point That Way, 2021.

The traditional quilt patterns referenced in the wood sculptures include Blazing Star, above, and Postage Stamp (many, many tiny pieces) below. In the piece below, an early work, Ms. Petrovich-Cheney utilized wood from damaged structures, found after Hurricane Sandy, and purpose-painted new birch wood squares.

 

Onezie, 2015.

Onezie, detail. All squares are 1" in size.

Center Stage, 2015.

Around it Goes, 2018.

Plaid, 2018.

Some of the designs, such as the one above, are inspired by woven textile designers, including Anni Albers, Lenore Tawney and Julia Bland. 

 

Plaid, detail.

Crazy Quilt, 2021.

 

Other influences which Petrovich-Cheney acknowledges include Indian textile artisans, including Premaben Versinh Dangera, a rural villager who makes quilts in her own improvisational style.

 

Pathways (Find Your Way), 2019.

 

And lastly, a wood quilt based on an updated kaleidoscope pattern; the skillfully placed colors just vibrate.

The Light in Your Eyes, 2021.

Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer at the Cooper-Hewitt Museum

Entry wall text.

On a holiday week-end last month, DH and I went to New York City to visit family and take in Suzie Zuzek: The Prints That Made The Fashion Brand at the Cooper-Hewitt museum, on view through January 2, 2022.  The first major museum exhibit of her work, this show celebrates the colorful, appealing textile prints created by artist Suzie Zuzek (1920 - 2011) for Key West Hand-Prints and utilized by fashion entrepreneur Lilly Pulitzer.  

Ms. Zuzek was a top student in her class at the Pratt Institute; marriage brought her to Florida.  Her work for Key West established her style of animated line drawings of closely observed elements of the natural world, combined with bold colors.  The silhouettes of Lilly Pulitzer's garments were fairly simple, such as the shift dress below; the print made it special and eye-catching. The dress was designed by Pulitzer in the late 1960's, the fabric, Mum-A-Lily, by Zuzek.

Shift dress, Lilly Pulitzer, ca. 1969. Print by Zuzek.

There were relatively few garments in the exhibit; the focus was on the watercolor/gouache drawings from which silk-screens were made in order to hand-print the fabrics.  Through the efforts of researcher Becky Smith and others the original drawings were retrieved from storage and are now archived and  properly cherished.  Several of the drawings are gifts to the museum, and exhibit curator Susan Brown has mounted an excellent, informative exhibit.

Ensemble, Lilly Pulitzer, 1969.  Ponchita's Petunias print, Suzie Zuzek.

 

One of Zuzek's designs became the logo of Key West Hand-Prints -  Suzie's Suns, below, now in the collection of the Cooper-Hewitt.

 

Suzie's Suns, 1965.

Suzie's Suns, detail.

 

After Pulitzer and Zuzek met, more or less serendipitously, all of the print fabrics used by Pulitzer were Zuzek designs.  The printed garments were immensely popular and Pulitzer expanded into menswear and items for children.  Notably, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and former New York City Mayor John Lindsay sported Pulitzer attire.  The wall below, collaged with Zuzek designs, features photos of Onassis, Lindsay, and others, wearing their Lilly's.

 

Wall of Zuzek designs, photos of Pulitzer-attired celebs.

Lilly's Llamas, 1967.

Lilly's Llamas, detail with "Lilly" worked into the llama fur.

So closely intertwined were Zuzek designs with Lilly's company, that Zuzek began incorporating the name Lilly into some of her drawings, as in the llama above.

 

Some of the archived designs have been revived, in a limited way, and the recreation of the silkscreens, on a printing table, is shown below. There was also a looping video showing the steps involved in making a silkscreen fabric.  The inclusion of process, not just the end products, elevates this show above other similar exhibits.

Video of silkscreen process and recreated silkscreen on printing table.

Color separation silkscreens.

Zuzek, who later worked in many media and opened an art gallery, was inspired by just about everything. Her designs include imagery one would expect for a tropical seaside locale such as Key West, but Zuzek celebrated foliage, vegetables and especially animals, which were closely observed and, while anthropomorphized, accurately proportioned and detailed in her free pen-and-ink linework.

The Reef, 1979.

 

Tropical Harvest, 1973.

 

Sweet Corn, 1972.

Cole Slaw, 1972.

 

Our special treat was a chance encounter with one of Zuzek's daughters, Kathy dePoo (dePoo was Zuzek's married name).  She graciously chatted with us for a while, describing life with an engaged, endlessly creative parent always working on a project, and enlisting her children to assist with activities such as organizing and storing bottles and sea glass retrieved from the beach.  I apologize the poor quality of the image, which does neither subject justice.

DH with Zuzek's daughter, Kathy dePoo, visiting from Florida.

Beach Bottles, 1964.

The Pulitzer/Key West/Zuzek collaboration continued until 1985 when Pulitzer  sold her company.   Key West Hand-Prints ceased production in 2007.  I missed out - in the 1990's we took family vacations to the Keys, but I didn't realize I was near a fabric mecca.  Happily, an "internet friend" de-accessioned one of her Zuzek dish towels and kindly gave it to me. 

 

Key Bouquet, Zuzek dish towel.

Key Bouquet, detail.

 

I sent this nice person the exhibition catalog, published by Rizzoli and one of the best contemporary art books I've yet seen.  Titled Suzie Zuzek for Lilly Pulitzer: The Art Behind an Iconic American Fashion Brand 1962-1985, the ISBN is  978-0-8478-6764-6.  Printed in Italy, the color reproductions are spot on and many of the designs are reproduced at scale (no impossibly tiny images here.)

Finally this exceptional artist is receiving acclaim.  Now, we need some of those designs to be re-issued!

Quilters' Connection show at the Watertown Library

My quilt guild is based in Watertown, Massachusetts, and as part of an outreach activity, in part supported by a small cultural grant from the town, we mounted an exhibit of quilts in the gallery space of the Watertown Public Library.  The works are on display until November 30, and include student work from some the workshops taught by guild members as part of the grant programming. There is a lot of fiber art talent out there!

Berry Blue, Karen Hohler.

 

The show's installers were guild members Karen Hohler and Athila Jarrah and a big "thank you" to them and to everyone who worked on this project.  The quilts incorporated all sorts of techniques, including piecing, applique, machine quilting, hand quilting, embroidery and sashiko stitching.   Some quilts also highlighted surface design methods such as block printing, fabric painting and fabric marbling.

Physalis Alkekengi [lantern plant], Esta Lichtenstein.

The quilt above featured blocks Esta made with block printing. I love the driftwood hanging rod of the quilt below, by Tricia Deck.

Ladies Beach, Nantucket, Tricia Deck.

Amish Diamond (detail), RoseMary Koch.

All kinds of quilting traditions were on display, such as the Amish style of quilt, above, and it seems no quilt show can lack a quilt made with delightful Kaffe Fassett fabrics, as below.

Charming Chevrons, Missy Shay.

 

Amazing thread-painting - literally drawing on the surface of the fabric not with charcoal or pastel but thread - is shown in the portrait of two cats by Betsy Habich. 

Fredlet and Tommy, Betsy Habich.

Fredlet and Tommy, detail.

While Betsy did her stitching with a sewing machine, hand work, inspired by Japanese and Indian traditions, delights as well.  The two quilts below showcase sashiko stitchery, a centuries-old style of embroidery from Japan.

Sashiko and Koi, Diana Bailey.

On a Single Night, Carol Anne Grotrian.

 

Carol Anne's quilt, with gingko leaves both dyed and stitched, referenced plant lore that gingko trees "release" their leaves all at once.  There's a bit more to it than that simple statement, but there's no question that fan-shaped gingko leaves are particularly appealing and have inspired many artists.  Tricia Deck featured the leaves in her quilt too, below, in which closely-stitched areas alternate with un-stitched sections slightly lifted from the background fabric, creating a three-dimensional effect.

 

The Gingko Leaf Beauty, detail, Tricia Deck.

 

Since my quilts rarely leave their storage bins, I leapt at the chance to contribute to the show.  One of the best benefits of belonging to our guild, and to most guilds, is the opportunity to take workshops with some very talented fiber artists.  The quilt below showcased squares of hand-painted which I completed in a Mickey Lawler workshop.

 

 

On top - my quilt, Bright Skies.

 

Below, my quilt, Marble Triangles (bottom) share a rack with two Kantha-style wall quilts by Carol Anne Grotrian.  (The right quilt is Six Blind Men and the Elephant, while the quilt on the left is Fables for Our Times: Six Blind Men.) 

 

The fabric for the colorful triangles in my quilt was made in a fabric marbling workshop led by Elin Noble.

 

An eye-catching display.

It's very gratifying to see one's work in public and to be part of the community of quilters, which extends over time and space.  Quilting is gaining ever more recognition in fine art venues.  

 

I didn't have the patience to include all the quilts on display in my post - there are many more to see and enjoy.

Another look at the exhibit.