Thursday, November 19, 2015

Catching up....

It's been a long several weeks and I am now just catching up with life and work...

Our big business project for the year - The San Francisco Fall Antiques Show - has come and gone. it involves weeks of planning beforehand, the ten days in San Francisco actually doing the show, and then the decompression and re-organization, catching up on everything afterwards ... So it is basically a two month slog. It is an exhausting process that we have been undergoing for 34 years! It's just that after 34 years we are older and slower.

If you're interested, here is a photo of our stand this year complete with furniture borrowed from Daniel Stein Antiques in San Francisco and a gorgeous floral arrangement from Jessica Frizell of Oakleaf Floral Design 




Too much standing, too much walking in San Francisco compounded by a long march to Costco and a very enjoyable day with friends exploring the new The Broad Museum in DTLA  on our return left me with a very painful knee problem which kept me on crutches and out of my Studio for several days, but thanks to modern medicine and some injections I'm back to normal and back in the studio after - wow, it's hard to believe -  almost 6 weeks!


So, after finishing a few charity quilts for Westside Quilters' big November philanthropy push, "Giving For Thanksgiving" during which our guild finished over 60 quilts which will be distributed to local Los Angeles Children's charities and Quilts for Wounded Warriors, I'm finally back in the studio working on a long put off project.  Below is the pile of quilts from the November 7 sewing day ready to be delivered. Wish I hadn't been on crutches and could have been there....


 I have long wanted to do a quilt based on the Florentine art of pietra dura - the exquisite hard stone inlaid panels often incorporated in very high end furniure from the 17th and 18th centuries. I've collected images on individual panels for years - from museum trips and auction catalogs. Last January I began a tall narrow panel in a workshop with the wonderful Jenny Bowker at Road to California, but put it aside to work on other projects that had deadlines.

 

Now I've removed it from mothballs and have spent the last several days working on the appliqué
and designing a medallion style quilt using this image as the central field and surrounding it with other smaller panels. I'm using the luscious velvety hand dyed cottons from Cherrywood as well as my collection of prints and hand dyes that resemble various types of semi precious stone and marble. It's going to be a long haul project and I'll blog about my progress as it continues.



This work has inspired me as well as some great news yesterday from Road to California. Both my entries - Mated For Life and The Green Man - have been juried into the show and I am humbled and grateful. I'm so looking forward to being there in Ontario in January for 4 days and taking a 3 day workshop with Susan Brubaker Knapp learning her painting techniques on fabric.  

The Green ManMated For Life

I'm also so happy to learn that my "Swan Song" which is included in a selection of pieces from Sacred Threads 2015 will be traveling even more extensively than I originally thought through 2017. It is going to be nearby in Pasadena at the Fuller Theological Seminary in February and will also wend its way to the Texas Quilt Museum in La Grange in 2017! I've posted the entire schedule as it now stands on my website at www.sallywrightquilts.com 

Swan Song

Check out Nina Marie Sayre's Off the Wall Friday's at http://ninamariesayre.blogspot.com