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windows into wisdom

In 2012 I had a wonderful time thinking with a group of high school students and adults about wisdom. What is wisdom? Where is it found? How do we grow it within ourselves? Together we designed and created an installation reflecting our learnings on wisdom.

I enjoyed the wisdom imagery resonating in my head. Being slightly crazy, I decided to try to work in a series AND to try to work larger.  I designed several quilts on paper, but began serious work on a fourth quilt. This quilt,  “Wisdom: many laws to one love”, was the first quilt to be finished.

I made a small sample door quilt, but the first three quilts were languishing on the design board, and in the meantime I had drawn a design while listening to a workshop on grant-writing. “Wisdom: shoots and branches” was the next to be completed. Creating this quilt, I just kept powering through (not overthinking can be a good thing for me), and finished it within weeks.

 The next three quilts were tough. The designs didn’t flow, composition was so-so, …. imagine a brick wall. I finally decided that I needed to power through and “finish” them all – no matter what! I sewed the last one to its backing yesterday. Perseverance! Below are four plus the sample in the sunny studio today. The fifth has a home with my mom (who loved all the squares and gave invaluable composition help to get me unstuck).

So, what did it take to just “finish” them? The second from the left was on a green background – ripped it off the background, picked a happy light blue, changed the size of the background, then needed to make the circle of wisdom smaller, added some squares just because I could! The fourth from the left still has composition flaws – added watercolor pastel, then some white gesso, bright coral thread for the border. Lesson learned – if the composition isn’t quite right, fix it before you start sewing! The fifth one from the left, over a year later after literally living on the design wall – added watercolor pastel, narrowed the canvas, added more watercolor pastel, added white paint, and more white paint, and I finally stopped. And to think this all started with the sample door on the right.
 

I’m glad I finally powered through.  I may come back and document single quilts more fully, but today I am simply savoring the sense of having pushed though a time of creative drought. Feels good.

And I’m thankful to be taking pictures with no snow on the driveway in Ann Arbor. I’m blessed.

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avoidance or dance?

I find my artistic side balances the science side of me … except, when it doesn’t. Sometimes crafting just the perfect figure for a paper takes extensive use of the creative side of my brain and I find myself enjoying sewing as almost a meditative space.

This Saturday morning as the sun came up I was enjoying a break from scientific writing to audition thread for a quilt in the wisdom series I have been working on. The series has been giving me grief, but I decided to simply finish each of the quilts in progress without agonizing too much, and learn something from each one. These quilts will probably never make it onto a wall, but as I worked in series I found that branching out when inspired makes a more interesting series!

This quilt had a different shape, and different background, and I was ruthless in editing to get closer to what I was envisioning. I’m still not too sure about it, but enjoying the sun coming up over the snow-covered ridge while enjoying thread colors can’t be beat.

Then, mid-morning after ruthless editing of more scientific writing I put the finishing touches on these cards that make use of quilted squares from my unfinished projects box. Somehow the simple squares (the complex bits were all done already) were just what I needed after editing out 100 words from a 330 word abstract!

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Wisdom waiting at the door

I’ve been quilting, but progress has been very slow as I get back into the rhythm of art quilting. I’ve been working on a couple of my wisdom quilts, the first isn’t worth posting because I am still seam-ripping out a bunch of free-motion quilting that just didn’t work. However, I’m starting to enjoy where this quilt it going, so I wanted to share the “work in progress.”

Finally decided to keep the lower portion simple, and just start to quilt. Turned out the be a little too simple, so I got to work with watercolor pastels. Definitely wasn’t where I was going, but I’m going to keep at it, and see where it takes me. Stay tuned.

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Holiness is a way of life

My blog thoughts have been more art and less musing since my favorite daily thoughts from minEmergent slowed, and I’ve had to replace my morning musing with other sources. I’ve enjoyed the blogs of both Kathy Escobar and Rachel Held Evans, and the phrase that caught my attention this morning was

“wisdom isn’t a single decision; it’s a path, a road, a way. 
Holiness, too, isn’t a single decision, moment, position or thought; it’s a way of life. “

Read more here. This dovetails in less-than-obvious ways my recent thoughts on grace – how creating a Sabbath day helps us soak in how much we are loved even if we are not “working” to “do” something, how radical grace is in our world today, how grace starts within myself towards myself, and how living in grace means following a daily path of life with God, journey of wisdom, way of holiness.

Grace,
Jen

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Wisdom – font of life

  

I’ve been machine quilting the twin size quilt I am working on to donate, and pondering the design of this quilt. I like the idea, but the person-like “arms” and “legs” aren’t working for me. I have a notion of how I might be able to reverse applique aqua semi-circular arcs that run from edge to edge of the fabric instead. Hmmmmmm … a work in progress (just like me)

The machine quilting on the Sandy quilt (which may turn into the “….” quilt at my speed) is going well. The quilt looks even better with the stitching (which is always a good thing) in brick red up and down.

Blessings on your Lenten musings, whatever font of life God is leading you towards.

PS Sorry for the horrible photo – Photobooth on the mac works, but not super well!

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Wisdom – shoots and branches

Deep into a seminar on grant writing, pondering how I ended up in that room at that time, I sketched a quick drawing on my legal pad, juxtaposed with tips on honing specific aims in a grant.

Thoughts of wisdom imagery, of wisdom waiting in the town, up on the hills, at the door, welcoming me into a thoughtful life. Thoughts of life, of journeys, growing, new doors, and re-entering doors. Yet, always the possibility of the sprouting of vivid new life.

Don’t love how it turned out … used felt with batting, and have it pinned onto another piece of felt to ground it. But, it is nearly finished, and I learned something.

If I tried it again, I would make it more colorful and graffiti-like I think, but still with the seedlings popping. Maybe a traditional backing and binding? However, my goal was to try to make progress on a series of art quilts, and this is forward movement!

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Wisdom: many laws to one love

 As my faith community studies its way through the Bible this year, we considered how the Jewish faith has the Torah, many laws that help guide and craft a thoughtful, good life. Jesus, when he came to earth, turned the law upside down, focusing on one love instead of many laws. My faith draws me to walk in this way of love. Life constantly challenges me to figure out what this means. Living a life filled with love for God, myself, and others is a constant dance, filled with thought-provoking, life-provoking moments.

This quilts many colorful squares represents the Torah, full of life, in many bits. Its drifts down into a growing circle, representing the love and wisdom that Jesus calls us to lean into.

The idea for this sampler quilt came to me last fall, but the design just would not fall together! Finally, I think it is finished.

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Hands open with grace and gratitude

Been helping Taylor photograph her portfolio, so I’ve not been doing much fiber for the last week, but I started a sampler “wisdom by bits” that is waiting for finishing. Thought I had the layout, stitched the top, and the ensemble was still bugging me. I’m listening to my voices, so mom helped do a little fixing, and I have a little more to go. So for now, just a “snippet”!

Found this drawing as we were working on Taylor’s portfolio – it is not mine, but one of Taylor’s sermon musings – she called it “hands open with grace and gratitude” which seems particularly appropriate as Thanksgiving approaches.
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Wisdom

Wisdom: AACRC Fall 2011: In working toward a design for this installation, we the members of the Worship and Art interim class considered the passages of Proverbs 8 and Ecclesiastes 3.
There were many images that came to mind as a result of these passages. As a group, certain things stood out–one of them was the perception of Lady Wisdom who predominantly figured in our corporate minds in white flowing garb which has led to the back drop of white that you see in this piece.
We also looked at the description in Proverbs 8 of Wisdom’s presence everywhere–in the city and in nature as well as at home.
The depiction of a colorful globe represents this inclusiveness and the beauty of life with Wisdom in the times of abundance and the times of need.
Finally, the door way is the reminder that Wisdom is waiting at the door for our response and gives a sense of the security of being at home there.

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Wisdom: before the earth came to be

I’m sewing a fabric installation that we created in our January interim “Worship and the Arts” Sunday School class. What great energy and creativity I experienced as we dialogued about wisdom and faith! This small piece was the inspiration for a piece of our larger installation …. a color play I did over Christmas break in lovely warm Christmas colors that we translated into slightly brighter colors to evoke the variety of seasons of our life here on this earth.

A copy of this piece also formed the backdrop for “Welcome wisdom”.