Yikes

I was finishing up the straight line stitching this morning and my sewing machine locked up completely. I was able to extract the needle to release the fabric but nothing I tried would would make the machine go again. Luckily I had a spare machine so I finished up the sewing and the fabric is now shrinking in my miraculous new washing machine with steam.

I have moved on to the last finishing details on my other piece for the My Corner of the World Show. There's not much to see there. 

So here's another art quilt. I think I finished this in 2013 but it wasn't seen anywhere until this past September when it was part of an adjunct show to Structures at the Inverness County Centre for the Arts. It is part of a series based on poems by my mother, Nancy Nielsen.

Gritty Wind Blues

Thereʼs no crayon in the box for this,

nothing as dirty as old ice,

nothing as cold as the jagged bay,

nothing as tired as the matted grasses

and the ubiquitous plastic bags

impaled in the roadside branches.

Weʼre all ground down to a nameless shade

of worn.

So itʼs not surprising that I saw the woman

with the shopping cart as defiant.

Way to go, lady, with your ribbons,

with your improbable rainbow garden

of plastic flowers. Red, pink, orange,

purple, green, a whole fistful of colors.

Just what we needed, spunky graffiti

scrawled on the grit of the day.

Gritty Wind Blues

Gritty Wind Blues detail