Untangled Threads: Untangled Threads: March 2018

First Existential Congregation of Atlanta

470 Candler Park DR

Atlanta, GA. 30307

The Art Committee took my pile of quilts and canvases and created an impressive gallery. I am more than pleased with what Patton, Nancy and Edi arranged here, as they balanced the colors and textures of my accumulation of work. They made magic happen.

Here Edi Kelman is fulfilling her vision of hanging the Lakeside High School banners. These were made with the help of Laurie Walton and daughter Mariel's Class of 2006. These filled the atrium of Fernbank Museum of Natural History for Prom 2005. Flipping them horizontally filled the church with color to conjure spring.

Edi headed up the platform ladder (again)

This Heart Labyrinth quilt I created according to guidelines provided by the Las Vegas Modern Quilt Guild. This quilt will be donated to honor and remember the victims and first responders of the 10/1/17 massacre of 58 people. The guns used, essentially weapons of mass destruction, shoot nine bullets per second.

The resistance to any gun control is surreal until you follow the money. You find who is bought and sold to protect the gun manufacturers. Their lobby group, the National Rifle Association, provides millions in donations to purchase our leaders. Follow the Money to see why meaningful legislation hasn't seen the light of day. Post massacre conversations from those owned by the NRA are maddening and chillingly pro gun, full of thoughts and prayers.

The Heart on this quilt is left over from a donation I made to the survivors of the Orlando Pulse Nightclub massacre. With the recent Parkland, FL massacre, I haven't kept up with these comfort quilts. The carnage continues with NRA backed propaganda. The tale that 2nd Amendment rights are under attack is pure BS. These aren't protective guns, they are weapons of war. #FEARLIES #ENOUGH

#LASVEGASSTRONG #LASVEGASMQG

These three below include Grandma Baker's framed doily. She taught me to quilt and I'm thrilled to include her handwork in this show. The quilt 'Lucky You' celebrates community involvement. It was made with help from my friend Michelle Hiskey. I'm lucky to have good friends and family both in and outside my quilter world.

The Red and White mandala quilt was made using Grandma's doilies. This donation is part of a worldwide project to remember 70,273 disabled people murdered by the Nazis in 1940-41. Each condemned person was marked with two red XXs on their white medical file and then killed. www.the70273project.org. Thanks to Jeanne Hewell-Chambers, project originator, for attending Untangled Threads opening night reception.

Two small quilts, 'Arrow West' and 'Decatur Arts Festival Roses' fill the gallery corner with colors. I like using this smaller format to try new ideas. A T-Shirt from An Marshall says "To Quilt is human, to finish Divine."

'Here Comes the Sun' (Ten suns) is Color Play using joyous warm suns on a green garden. This quilt, along with many shown, are hung using Ten Thousand Villages's www.tenthousandvillages.com bamboo hanger, imported from Vietnam.

The three 12" Embroidery hoops allow a circle in which to create quilts. The Turtle, Poppy and Liberty Moon return to themes I enjoy in my quilts. I carved the turtle stamp decades ago.

These four quilts include Two Full Moons, a Poppy and the original dude Bill Murray. The Kennedy Space Center and Bill Murray quilts are created using iconic T-shirt logos.

The Tree of Life with full moon I made with brightly colored flower leaves.

The past year has been maddening for us who scream at injustice. I'm fearful that the Lies being told incite more violence than we've seen. Fear is being used to separate us and make us afraid of those not the same as us. We are less powerful when we are divided.

The ultimate lie is that we should be afraid of those different from us. There are good and bad people in all races, beliefs and socioeconomic levels. To declare someone as "other" makes them easier to hate. We are all the same race, Human.

'Fruitful Justice is Color Blind' is also a collaboration with Michelle Hiskey.

Poppies II is made to remember those who have gone before us. It's important to acknowledge and express gratitude for the sacrifices of ancestral Patriots.

The Haitian Fisherman batik below was gifted by Martha Cook and Anne O'Sullivan. I added several fabrics to frame him. The batik is one of the best I've seen.

The gold framed color study is a loose interpretation of the Deschutes River in Oregon. I spent enough time here to absorb the colors. I used a scale sized map and included the Columbia River into which it flows. The quilt is stretched around acid free foam board before mounting in the frame.

The Indigo Tree is my most recent Tree of Life. I've made many of these through the years and enjoy this theme, always to include a bird. The Red Framed House started as a color study, then the house appeared.

My most recent of these "quilts" is a color study I did for husband Matt's PA Factory floor plan. I first saw his drawing in 2015 and immediately saw a quilt design. I applied dress patterns using ModPodge to the canvas, then transferred the scaled down architectural drawing. Playing with colors, I applied fabrics and paints for the individual enclosed blasting or painting rooms.

Indigo Tree of Life, Red framed House and Matt's Factory Floor plan

Picasso's Quilted Musicians is one of three completed quilts we called The Picasso Project. Each quilter made the three musicians on individual panels and then traded two. These three guys were made by Mary Williams, Debra Steinmann and Melinda Rushing.

The Atlanta Arts Festival kite flyer continues my obsession with T-Shirt logos as art.

The Yellow Poppies were made both in remembrance and the urge to say THINK. Fear Lies.