Gone, Finished!

Got my registration number, made the label and GONE is ready to go. The binding went on smoothly, but there was an unfortunate color change at the join - I'm tempted to use a little black water color to make it less obvious.

I like to make my labels special too, so I used the tree and some of the background color.

I'm not sure I like the thread effect as much as I thought I would - might have been better with a thin poly black, but it is what it is. I do really like the two extra tiny footprints, though!

All that is left now is to square it up and bind it. I'm going to use the same hand dye black that I did for the trees.

Gone, Artist's Statement

I really find it useful to blog about a piece, mainly because seeing the picture or scan online can give you perspective that having it right in front of you doesn't. Staring at it just now, I wrote the Artist's Statement, which will hang next to the piece - should it get juried into Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope.

In a world suddenly awry with foreboding shapes and colors, the dementia sufferer wanders; looking for something familiar to anchor himself to. As his path gets more and more frightening, he is slowly gone, unreachable, and finally, lost forever.

Gone, Stage Three

Back to the scanner today since I fused everything down yesterday. Next step is to thread paint the trees with this fab variegated black thread I found in the Superior Thread booth at Rosemont last month. This will give the bigger trees some texture and fill in the branches on all of them. Think I'll add one more tiny set of footprints too.

Gone, Stage Two

After my week in FL for the MS150, I have finally gotten back to this, which is a good thing, because there's a deadline looming in less than a week. I'm adding the trees, will still be tweaking a few things on the two larger trees and need to add many more trees to the distant tree line, but I feel better now that I can see the design becoming real. A large chunk of the big tree will be trimmed to make the 9" wide requirement, so I'm not worrying too much about thinning it out.

Gone, The Beginning

I decided to try making my blog a little more interesting by posting progress pictures of what I'm working on. Those of you that saw Solitude can guess where this is going . . .

Of course it's hard to guess when I forget to upload the picture before I hit "publish post."

This is more of my sister Beth's hand dyed silk from Quilters Stitch Together.

From Heartbreak to Hope Name Quilt

This is a section from the third 6" wide by 7' long name quilts I'm quilting for the AAQI new exhibit Alzheimer's Illustrated: From Heartbreak to Hope. The three I've quilted will hang with 180 others, each bearing the names of 55 people who have or have died with Alzheimer's or a related dementia. Will mail Monday to Kathy Kennedy-Dennis in Houston for finishing!

One of the nicest parts of working with the AAQI is getting to know (even if it's just virtually) so many wonderful women from all over the country. The AAQI is totally volunteer-driven and it takes a lot of us! Quilters are wonderful people, in general, and really pitch in when someone needs help. Especially if they can do it using fabric, needle and thread! So, if you've ever wanted to make 9x12 quilts, you now have a purpose for them! Read Make a Donation Quilt.