Genome Quilts by Bev St. Clair

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Gina

Quilted DNA

Beverly St. Clair is a practicing psychiatrist who has explored the aesthetic and discipline of quilting for many years. Her unique focus is on what she has termed the genome quilt.

“My idea for genome quilts grew from the juxtaposition of two experiences at Wesleyan University in November 2001. First I viewed an exhibit of work by Anni Albers, an artist I have admired for many years. The show included her serigraphs of triangles arranged in a grid. I was struck by their similarity to quilt patterns. The next day I attended a lecture about the Human Genome Project and was impressed by the beautiful shapes of the proteins illustrated and the interesting patterns made by the microarrays. I realized that I could use a simple quilt block to represent each of the four bases in DNA: cytosine, guanine, adenine, and thymine.

DNA Code

To create 4 different blocks, Bev bisected a square into a light and dark triangles and rotated it into four orientations to resemble the letters C, G, A, and T. Bev then places these blocks in sequences determined by the base sequence. It’s possible to then read the genetic code by looking at the quilt. Her color and fabric choices influence the overall look of each unique DNA Code/design.

The quilts are visually pleasing, with their strong colors and seemingly traditional design, but they hide and reveal an entirely other construct of information.”

hepatitis virus C gene, 63x70 in

While in college, Bev’s nephew worked in a lab at Massachusetts General Hospital on the genetic sequencing of a piece of the Hepatitis C gene. For his graduation gift, she made him this quilt, shown left in which she encoded that particular gene segment.

 

 

 

 

 

Bev’s genome quilts have been featured on the covers of Nature Genetics December 2008 and July 2009. Her quilts have been featured in American Quilter’s Magazine, March 2010, and exhibited at The Quilters’ Gathering 2003 and 2007, Nashua, NH, the Lowell Quilt Festival 2004, Lowell, MA,and the International Quilt Festival 2005, Houston, TX.

WIG 1 Gene

WIG 1 Gene detail

Bev's personal Mitochondrial Data, 58x58 in

detail of Bev's mitochondrial DNA

In conjunction with the 2009 exhibit The GEEE! in GENOME at the Children’s Museum in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada five of her genome quilts were displayed.

detail from quilt back of Human Red Cone Pigment gene, 63x63in.

Bev also creates commissioned Celebration and Liturgical quilts with prices ranging from $1-$5,000.00.

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Men Quilting Today – five perspectives

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Gina

Matt Squirrel, quilter, shop owner, long arm specialist

Five unique male views on quilting:

inmate sewing groups- Fine Cell Work charity in the UK, which teaches prison inmates how to create the soft furnishings that it sells online at finecellwork.co.uk, includes an all-male team of quilters. “Belonging to a quilting group can certainly have a great psychological impact on people,” says Fine Cell director Mairi Duthie. She reports that the men say, and often for the first time in their lives, that they develop a sense of pride and achievement in the beautiful work that they do, and they say they have a sense of belonging to something ‘shared’ that gives a different perspective on life and living a better life.

- Moncton, New Brunswick resident Lawrence McPhee is one of the growing number of men who quilt and he is 85 years young. “I’ve been quilting for 10 years. I got started because my wife was doing it, so I decided to quilt, too and got my own sewing machine. It’s something to do. I have to keep busy.”

- “Some men are drawn to quilting by the complex long-arm quilting machines they get to use”, says Matt Sparrow, (shown above in banner), owner of Sparrow Studioz in Edmonton, Canada, and the father of nine kids. “My daughters’ friends’ fathers come over and they’re right down on their knees looking at how it all works. Men see it as pretty much just a big power tool.”

Before he got into quilting, Sparrow was a website developer. But within weeks of purchasing his own long-arm, he quit his Web job because he had so many requests from female quilters to help them finish the stitching on their pieces. His romance with the craft started one day when his wife was struggling to stitch together a multi-layered quilt. “I wasn’t confident she was doing it the right way, so I looked it up on the Internet,” he says. “She wasn’t.”

He wasn’t afraid to tell her. That’s one of the biggest differences between male and female quilters, according to Sparrow. “Women will look at each other’s projects and tell them how fabulous it is, even when it’s not”. he says. “But I’ve noticed that men can take one look at something you’ve been working on for years and they’ll tell you the truth right away.”

- Many men are fascinated by the geometry involved in quilt making. Al Heslop of Airdrie, Alberta Canada is a proud quilter. And no, it was not his wife’s idea. It was the other way around. Heslop dragged his spouse to the quilt shop to pick out their very first patterns, one day about 5 years ago.  Heslop enjoys the math connection. Apparently he can find trigonometry in a Star of Bethlehem pattern.

Woolooware Australia quilter Robert James

Somr people buys magazines but Robert James, age 69 quilts them. The colourful, machine-sewn paper artwork looks just like a real quilt until you get up close and see it’s actually magazine pages along with a range of “found” paper.

But quilting paper was fiddly, time-consuming work and James is happy to return to “real quilting” which he started doing 10 years ago. He became addicted immediately. “My family calls it ‘rug rage’. I get an idea and I have to put it down on fabric,” he said.

Until he retired two years ago Mr James used to quilt between 8.30pm and 10.30pm. Now, with a home studio and tons of fabric, he spends most of his day cutting, sewing and hand quilting to make glorious heirloom pieces. His latest is an art quilt project requiring 12,500 pieces and is expected to take six months to complete. All his quilts, large and small, representing untold hours of precise work, will be donated.

 

Some websites created by male quilters:

http://rkentwilliams.com

http://dfwannerquilts.com

http://davidwalker.us

http://georgesiciliano.com

http://remarkablequilts.com

http://quilts.bruceseeds.com/

http://community.webshots.com/user/scottmurkin

http://www.windriverquilting.com

http://www.alanrkelchner.com

http://www.lukehaynes.com

http://michaelcummings.com/

http://africanamericanquilts-bostick.com

http://tristanrobinblakeman.com

http://philbeaver.com

 

 

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DMC 762, Pale Gray

Posted on August 28, 2011 by Gina

Bogie in Pale Gray and Lavender

a poem of color by Stephen Beal

I can be stitching along on a canvas, needing a shade that holds the light without getting hot,

and 762 will come to mind.

I am always grateful for this gray.

I take it from my plastic bag of grays feeling good about my choice,

the way that Humphrey Bogart, private eye,

would select a linen suit for a busy summer day:

morning spent on a case, then lunch at the track,

followed by the afternoon trifecta.

With his pale gray suit Bogie wears a lavender shirt,

a navy polka-dot foulard.

His hat’s a cream Panama, banded with navy,

and the camera follows the races through reflections

in his sunglasses, smoked gray with gold rims,

the horses thundering across his temples toward Alexis Smith,

who has plans for him that afternoon.

Bogie’s boxers are blue broadcloth,

too full for his bony frame,

and you can see a wet patch at the base of his singlet

as he leans over to snap his garters just as Alexis fires.

“So you’re the one who killed the Countess!” he declares.

Alexis in a peach satin slip is weeping.

“This doesn’t mean that I don’t love, you, ” she responds,

then blows her brains out on the bed that would have marked

the start of her redemption,

had she not loved money more.

What do you say about a gray that goes to bloodbaths

and comes out looking spiffy every time?

“Customary cool,” the morning Eagle blares.

In the front page photos, Bogie stands

on the sidewalk with  the cops, turning to light a cigareette

as the medics wheel his lady love away.

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Repurposing Scraps of Others’ Lives

Posted on August 18, 2011 by Gina

in the CQA Quilting News

From the Columbus Dispatch, by Melissa Starker, June 11, 2011

“Everyone Can Find a Different Story in my Quilts”

Quilters often incorporate fabrics that hold meaning from a previous use – clothes that a child has outgrown or a favorite shirt worn thin in places.

The practice makes each work partly an example of thrifty functionality and partly a commemoration of a family’s history.

Drop by Drop, Maya Chaimovich

Maya Chaimovich, an Israeli artist living and working near Tel Aviv in the city of Ramat Gan, follows the tradition but uses scraps of fabric from strangers, recycling clothes and bedding obtained secondhand from flea markets in her intensely worked art quilts.

Chaimovich explains: “An important part of my design experience is the use of materials from clothes worn by people I don’t know. I give them a life of their own and design my own creation. In that way, the art quilt becomes a language for me, through which I tell my own personal story.”

Her “letters” communicate in abstract patterns and textural contrasts – inspired by “feelings, shapes, exciting events, painting and drawings, and many times my imagination,” she says.

Starting with a color scheme, Chaimovich sorts through her large collection of scraps and trimmings, allowing shapes and patterns to form. In the final product, they are fused to backing fabric and further secured with stitching that fills practically every square inch.

Her work approaches impressionism. Drop by Drop, conjuring up an underwater view, or perhaps suggesting a beautiful, colorful world in the reflection of a body of water in which calm is shattered by a light sprinkle (with her stitches forming the ripples).

Although the quilts are given life by her experiences, the source of her materials adds a sense of universality. She encourages viewers to find personal meaning in the patterns.

“I like that everyone,” she says, “can find a different story in my quilts.”

 

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Prison Stories from Stitchers

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Gina

LEE – a sense of belonging to something shared

Quilting is not just for women; Fine Cell Work charity in the UK, which teaches prison inmates how to create the soft furnishings that it sells online at finecellwork.co.uk, includes an all-male team of quilters. See an earlier post on this topic.

“Belonging to a quilting group can certainly have a great psychological impact on people,” says Fine Cell director Mairi Duthie. “They develop a sense of pride and achievement in the beautiful work that they do, and a sense of belonging to something ‘shared’ that gives a different perspective.”

Lee was brave enough to stand in front of about 200 people and tell them about his contact with Fine Cell Work at the 2010 Christmas sale. Here are his own words:

‘I’ve been in and out of prison since the late 80s. I never make a license period, I normally get out of jail and I’m back in within a number of months.

One day I went into a room and found Fine Cell Work. I’m really glad I did because when I started to sew I found it so relaxing and therapeutic. I could start thinking about how I was living my life, how I was still hurting people on the inside of prison. I started to feel empathy; I never knew what empathy was until then. I got that through the sewing.

I was a very angry person; I had no control over my anger and my violence. I had put barriers up to block everything out and by doing the sewing I started to get in touch with emotions I’d never felt before. It was a long, hard process for me to go through. I was sewing for Fine Cell for 6 or 7 years, and if I look back on where I started sewing to where I am today the change is enormous.

Today I’m working with kids that were in the same space as I was at their age, where they’re just getting into trouble constantly. I’ve been working with young gang members, trying to integrate the gangs together. If you’d asked me if I’d be doing this 10 years ago I’d have laughed at you. To look back now from where I’ve come to, I do owe it to the sewing, to Fine Cell, I really do.

FCW has been such a support for me, with the sewing, the conversations, the letters. I was shut down to everything and this gave me like a family feel. It was a really great feeling for me, to know I was talking to someone outside of my world.

I used to have a vocabulary for just one thing, and now I feel that I can sit down and talk to anybody.

 

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Study Shows Quilting is Good For Us

Posted on July 30, 2011 by Gina

in the CQA Quilting News

The Daily Telegraph, UK

by Judith Woods, June 22, 2011

Quilting Helps Cognitive, Emotional and Physical Well Being

Apparently, quilting helps cognitive, creative and emotional wellbeing, especially among older people. According to researchers at the University of Glasgow, quilting is “uniquely” good for us, offering an outlet for creativity and bringing benefits that mere physical and outdoor pursuits can’t provide.

It is all there; bright colours to uplift, geometry to engage the frontal lobe and a boost in social confidence. Quilters have an inner glow that comes from a pride in their intricate craft – or does it? A closer look at this traditional handicraft reveals it to have a dark underbelly.

While quilting may typically be an act of contemplative creativity, quilts have been used for centuries as a covert method of illicit communication; a forum for domestic anarchy or a mischievous platform for venting spleen.

Last year, the Victoria & Albert Museum mounted a major quilt exhibition, including a cot quilt from Deal Castle in Kent, circa 1690. Made from silk and ribbon, it featured the seamstress’s diary written in code. Other examples included informative quilts showing Biblical scenes and a primer for conduct between the sexes, maker unknown, c 1880. Continue reading →

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Fine Cell Work – rehab through sewing

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Gina

“The sewing helped me to think about where I’d gone wrong in my life…”

Behind the door you cry

The prison term “behind the door” refers to time spent in the cell. Convicted prisoners spend an average of 17 hours a day in their cells. On weekends and holidays it can be as much as 23 hours a day. Here are the words of Karl, ex-offender:

I served 7 years, just under. I was doing Fine Cell Work for 6 ½. I thought people would laugh and then I thought, well you get paid for it. I saved a few pennies and was able to talk to the children and send them some money for Christmases and birthdays. You got a choice, you either sit there for 3 or 4 hours and earn a couple of quid at the end of the month, or sit there for 3 or 4 hours and earn nothing.

That’s all I did…I sewed and sewed… You can’t show any weakness inside. So it just gets more and more built up and then you get angry. Sewing made me stop and think about how things could have been different, and what I could have done differently. It helped me change the way I was, cos I used to be quite an angry fella when I went inside. I was quite moody and aggressive and people said I was defensive. I never knew I was but when I was sewing I used to go back over my life and thought…perhaps I am. It gave me the space I needed.

When I came out the kids thought that it was big and clever that I’d been in prison. My son’s friends go in for a couple of months and they think it’s all clever and it’s not. Cos they don’t really do prison, they just do 2 months.

I can explain to them now that it’s not big and clever. It’s just stupid. But you can work through. All through one word: sorry. The only way I got to that was through sewing. That’s why I changed my life.

teacher and student

 

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Amazing Spiral Quilts

Posted on July 14, 2011 by Gina

Spiral Quilts Galore!

Since the publication of RaNae Merrill’s two books about making spiral quilts, there has been an outpouring of interest in “spiralling”. Spirals allow the quilt artist tremendous opportunity to showcase terrific printed and color shaded fabrics. Blending and contrast create a lot of interest when applied to the geometry of spirals, by making a spiral zig zag and zing!

Read my earlier blog post about spirals focusing on Fibonacci’s principle. I have recently reduced the pricing for my Spiral Patterns downloadable files.

Capturing a great deal of attention right now are RaNae’s books, Simply Amazing Spiral Quilts and Magnificent Spiral Mandala Quilts. RaNae’s quilts have been widely featured in quilt publications and exhibits, including multiple times in Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine (in the current June/July issue).

 

EQ featured RaNae’s quilt art in one of its advertising campaigns, plus articles in American Quilter, American Patchwork and Quilting, Quilt Magazine, Quilt Life, and the Israeli  Quilters Association and numerous quilt shows have honoured RaNae’s quilts.

 

RaNae has a lot going on at her website RaNaeMerrillquilts.com as well as two blogs, each blog dedicated to enhancing our enjoyment with her two quilt instruction books. When you register at her site, you will receive a free pattern.

Enjoy some of the quilt art from RaNae Merrill’s books: in order L to R, top row first: Court Jester, Fruit Salad Spinner, Crimes of Passion, Easter Mandala, Exploding Rainbow, Infinite Rainbow, Sails and Waves, Sultana.

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the Sudoku loving quilter/blogger

Posted on July 9, 2011 by Gina

Now Self-Published-Advanced Sudoku Solving Techniques, by Gina Delorenzi

In addition to my fascination with all things quilt, I am also an avid fan of Sudoku. A few years ago I started to study advanced solving techniques to solve really hard puzzles and the result is now that there are only 3 or 4 known puzzles I have not been able to solve.

While teaching my sister-in-law some of these concepts, my husband said, why not start teaching others. The end result is that my new eBook, Sudoku Beyond the Basics is now available at its new website, learnsudoku.ca

For my regular readers, I am asking you to visit, to tweet and to forward the website’s URL to help get the book title noticed by more people and by search engines, via increased traffic. I can promise you that anyone will learn at least a few techniques and give themselves more solving fun and a sense of accomplishment. The tag line is Advanced Techniques Simply Explained.

Sudoku Beyond the Basics is 134 pages, 134 diagrams, 44 examples, and 24 puzzles in increasing difficulty levels with the solutions. The eBook uses several colours to highlight the teaching topics. Here’s a sample:

After buying the eBook, you can print a colour PDF version as well as view the eBook on your computer, on an iPad, iPhone or a Kindle. Obviously the larger the viewing screen, the easier it will be to see the puzzle grids and text.

Because of the plain english, clear explanation style of writing and carefully developed diagrams, just about anyone can follow the planed progression of topics and concepts. I believe Sudoku Beyond the Basics makes a wonderful gift for someone you know who is “into sudoku”. I think Sudoku lovers want to know and be able to advance to higher levels of success. It would be an appreciated gift.

I thank you in advance for helping me bring this valuable teaching system to a wider audience.

BTW -The hardest known puzzle is called the Easter Monster, because it was first published on an Easter weekend at an Australian website.There have been at least 2 spin offs of the Easter Monster, I admit I cannot solve any of them.

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Cancer Quilter’s Horoscope

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Gina

Cancer, June 22, July 22

Cancer, you are the most perplexing of all the signs. Your symbol, the crab, with its claws represents the dual nature of your personality – loyal, caring and energetic on the one hand versus overly emotional, reserved, even moody.

zodiac sign cancer zodiac sign, cancer zodiac sign, cancer
International postage stamps images by zeevveez, Flickr

Your love of quilting reflects your deep maternal, (or paternal instincts), for after all, making a quilt for a loved one is the ultimate symbol of sharing love, warmth and security. Continue reading →

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