Alike but Different

Dear Diary,

More poking around in the studio, I found a quilt piece I did jointly with my mother back in 2000.  She died in 2002 so it was one of the last projects she worked on.  She was, like her mother, a master traditional quilter.  Although I love fabric, the repetition of traditional quilt making wasn't for me.  I did the textile collage panels with cut out fabric flowers and free-motion stitching on the machine.  My mother made the Cathedral Window squares, my grandmother's favorite pattern.

Perhaps it was my art school background but I needed the freedom to create in my own way.  I've added an extra quilted collage.  It is a part of a Women in Art quilt I made around the same time.  I transferred  my drawing of Georgia O'Keeffe to fabric and worked it into the square.

We are so influenced by our mothers and grandmothers but we must find our own way.  My mother followed patterns, I didn't.  Both are valuable.  My mother, grandmother and aunt gave me my basic needle skills but then I went my merry way with them.  We were so alike but at the same time so different.  Like the artist's books, these art quilts are a past chapter in my life.  I will always do some kind of needle work, right now I am making mittens as Christmas gifts.  Who knows, I might try my hand at it again...time will tell.

First full day of autumn: "At the heart of autumn's gifts are the twin energies of relinquishing and harvesting." - Christine Valters Paintner