cross my heart

From June 3 2009  Magic

magic was very important
the chalk circle you drew around yourself  to protect yourself from elements and the like
it's gone out of fashion now which is a shame
why will it work?
It works because the personal space is always the same, it's a force field around ourselves

as long as our imaging powers are weak, it's useful to have something to remind us

Jeanette Winterson - from oranges are not the only fruit


Cross My Heart is one of my most 'famous' quilts - as the central detail of the stitched crosses has been picked up by pinterest and the quilt itself was accepted into Quilt National 2011.

I started the piece during a rough time in my life - the month of my mother's death.  I actually worked at the stitching at her death bed...the beauty that came forth from the stitched crosses shocked me and I didn't know how to proceed.  I ended up saving the piece of two sided cloth - (the squares are stitched to dyed cotton velvet and the reverse of the stitching seemed so open and trusting I didn't want to cover it up with a backing cloth)...for years.

Finally in 2009 I put it together with some large pieces of striped silk I had bought from a tailor's shop in Toronto - and began to stitch a beautiful large quilt very intenseley with spirals.  I took it to Alaska for my baby Jack's birth-time in October of that year....but in 2010, the scale of the piece over whelmed me and I cut it back drastically and entered it into Quilt National and was surprised by its acceptance.  I miss the largeness of it.

That's the story.