Sneak Peak into My Life of Passion

I'm busy working away, adding the finishing touches on my Passion quilt while hiding out in front of the air conditioner. I had a hard time deciding on a direction, but I think I've finally found a visual to describe Passion in my life. My husband is a little embarrassed by the title, but I just had to let him know it's not all about him. Now, I'm off to add a little more embellishment to make sure I'm expressing myself in my own style.

Peek- a-boo

Here is a sneak peek at my Passion piece which I finished tonight. I know that it does not look very passionate. When I told my daughter Steph the title of the piece, she totally got it. That was such a relief.

It is too hot to sit with a computer in my lap. Signing off.

IQF Long Beach

I guess if I can't meet all my 12 x 12's, I can at least meet their artwork friend . I was able to get down to Long Beach for a quick run thru before leaving for New York, and came upon this beauty made by my friend Deborah Boschert.

Along the way

Like most, I think my first reaction to the word passion was to think of lust and love. But who's lust and love? What's passionate to one person is not to another. What one person is passionate about, another may not be. This idea needn't apply only to the amorous definition of passion -- it applies to the larger enthusiasm. It's very personal. 

With all these thoughts in my head, I considered that passion itself resides in one's head. Heads led to images of phrenology, which made me think of Victorian imagery, which is ironic because that was a period of passionate repression of passion. 

This is a sketch I started with the idea of embroidering it as if on a hanky or tea towel. I opted to go another route, but I still like this idea. I think it's instructive to see the processes and paths we take. This one may be worth returning to at some time.

Finished

Last night I put the final stitches in my "Passion" piece. I like how it turned out, but I am still not entirely satisfied by how I finally chose to portray "passion". Passion is such a big word and should bring up very strong and personal feelings and experiences, I kept thinking. In a way I stepped back from that personal connection and went for someone else's passion. But perhaps being moved by another's passion inspires passion in ourselves.

I almost want to make another one, but I probably won't. If I did it would be a heart, filled with complex color and texture. I know a heart is a trite motif, but it is one I revisit and always love. I create a valentine every year and always include a heart. Here is one of my favorites from quite a few years back.

Share the Rising Passion

In just two weeks (on 1 August US time), we will be sharing our passion themed art quilts right here on this blog. In the meantime, our sewing machines and stitching fingers are running hot!

If you would like to shadow our project, it's not too late for you make you very own passion themed quilt. Just let us know by leaving a comment and leaving a link to your blog and we will add you to our Friends of Twelve by Twelve blogroll. If you are just happy to enjoy our art quilts, you are welcome to join up as a "follower" by adding your details to the widget in the sidebar.

While you are waiting for our passion quilts to be displayed, you might like to take a look at the latest art quilts shown by some of the Friends of Twelve by Twelve at:

• Art for 12 - Lizards
• Art Quilts Around the World - Connections

And don't forget, you can subscribe to our blog RSS feed or receive updates by e-mail by using the subscribe buttons in our blog sidebar. You can also subscribe to the comments feed.

A peek at passion

At last I am well into my passion piece. It has been very difficult to settle on a concept that I was comfortable with. Now I am so enjoying the processes that are going into this piece that I cannot resist posting this tease. Pieces and parts. Can you tell what it is?

A Passionate Pause

I am interrupting our passionate talk to let you all know that my chair piece, Salvaged Chairs, is going to travel to San Antonio in September for the Foto-Fiber-Fabulous show at the Fiber Artspace.

Breakthrough

I have been very quiet so far this challenge. I was beginning to wonder if this was the month when I would be the first to let the whole group down and not manage a quilt at all. Well, no, I could always have done a pink heart and a bit of lace and had done. But I would have let myself down doing that. So, there I was pondering and fretting and forgetting that for most themes it has taken about the same time for insipration to hit, then suddenly - I had the story and the visuals followed in about two minutes.

So tonight I shall see if I have the technical abilty to pull off my idea which so far exists only in black line drawings scribbled in my journey whilst drinking spicy red tea in the London Review Bookshop's cake shop. The above are two of the 'ingredients' I think I shall need.

What? You want a bigger hint? Don't they say that in polite company conversation should avoid sex, religion and politics? Well, on the basis that my fellow Twelves seem to have the sex bit covered, I thought I'd take responsibilty for the rest......

Refreshing!

I've been on a family vacation in Antigua. While on an "eco tour" I had yummy cup of passion fruit juice! I'm not sure it will make its way into my passion 12x12 quilt, but it's still fun to share.I also tried tamarind juice. Very unique.

A Passionate Post

I got such a great idea for my Passion piece yesterday. I can't wait to get started. First, I have to finish the aspen piece.

Are the roses a hint? Or not? They sure exude passion and I needed a visual!! I will be using this fabric.


Hope you are having a great week-end. Those of you who are not on Facebook should join us. It is a fun neighborhood kind of atmosphere.

Tango Auditions

Reds and oranges do not feature very prominently in my stash or my quilts so it has been a challenge to work in this saturated palette for this theme. You can share my struggle over on my blog - it takes two to tango. Care to dance anyone?

All Fired Up

After some false starts, I think the passion thing is happening now. I've [almost?] given up on fire ideas. After all, I have made a 12inch x 12inch fire-themed quilt before as part of my earthwaterfire triptych:

Passion and colours...

This is the state of the question here today...

Don't ask me what I'll do with this, I don't know yet. I'm going to sleep on it, and then, maybe...

Feeling unpassionate, or maybe that's dispassionate...

but definitely not impassioned, about this challenge.

Aaaaaargh!

I simply cannot think of a thing that doesn't seem overwrought, cheesy, sleezy or X-rated. Rather than trying to depict the actual emotion I am now mulling over "things" or activities or people who represent passion in some way. Hmmmm. I copied a bunch of images of Flamenco dancers into a file. I think my viewing of "So You Think You Can Dance" (which, BTW, seems to be the ONLY decent thing on TV this summer) has me thinking along passionate dance lines. But 12" is awfully small for a whole Flamenco dancer, especially if she has her arm up over her head. I'm telling myself, "simplify, simplify" but passion does not seem easy to simplify.

I am imagining that you who are more abstract minded are probably well into this, flinging paint and sequins and angelina, passionately at your piece. I am stuck and haven't even started anything.