Moonstones Won!

I'm so excited and pleased that Moonstones won the 3-dimensional division of the 2009 GCC artshow. Andrew's artwork is so amazing and unique. When I saw the watercolor that this one is based off of, I begged him to let me try to replicate it in cloth. I promised Andrew that if I made a hash of it, I wouldn't enter it. I'm glad the judges and my artsy friends liked it as much as I did!

Using the Kuna Indian's mola techniques and traditional reverse applique, I was able to do it. It has over 96 pieces and I limited the project to 32 colors. (Oh my!) Thank goodness for Batiks!! They are the only kind of cloth that will give the depth that a watercolor painting has. Normal cloth would have looked very plain and boring. The cigar lines has the Kuna Indians call them, are slits in the cloth pulled apart, turned under at the very edge and stitched down with teeny tiny applique stitches. It was actually intended to be flat...but I just can't resist making it three dimensional. It's like I crave the look and feel of depth and texture. I couldn't really quilt it in the traditional sense because it was too thick. I sort of 'stab' quilted it, but I needed to stitch down both sides of the white lines to keep the definition. It really helped the shapes to stand out.

Thanks to Margie Lawrence, who taught me needle-turn applique, I was able to tackle this project and do a barely creditable job of sewing. I kept hearing her voice saying..."Smaller stitches, Donna!". That was eight years ago! When I look close I feel so anxious about not having done a good enough job. Sigh...perfectionism rearing it's head. Next time, I'll work through the summer so I can go slower!

Even if I had not won, I would have been thoroughly happy...I knew that my artsy friends loved it and that was plenty enough reward for me! I feel like I know Andrew's painting inside and out after analyzing every color, shape, and nuance. Someday the world will appreciate his style as much as I do! Thanks Andrew--this would not have happened without you.

And thank you so much Shona, Shannon, Marcus, and Colleen for your encouragement and inspiration. Shona and Shannon especially have been assuring me that what I do is 'art'...after two winning entries...maybe I will begin to believe that I really am my 'father's daughter'. He is a wonderful artist and sculptor and I think I'm beginning to realize that I did inherit some of his talent. :o)

I can't wait for next year's show! Without the art show, I'd never have a deadline, or judges to give that feedback.


I also entered my Sunbonnet Sue quilt which is a gift for Lena and Elisabeth, my daughter-in-law. It didn't win, but that's ok...they like it and that's all that matters. Really, the wonderful thing about entering things like that, knowing they aren't particularly 'artsy' is the enjoyment they bring to others. We like to see each others work even if everything can't win! Everyone likes to ooh and aah over each other's creations. I'm always so amazed at the art our church turns out...even the kids' work is astonishing!

Moonstones from start to finish!

New Projects I'm working on

Lena's quilt is almost done! Then I will be able to finish Brenan's quilt. I hope to enter this in our church art show this Oct. 31. You can see my earlier work on just the blocks on older posts.
This is my other entry for the art show. It is a 3 dimensional rendering of Andrew Rieth's water color painting. He painted the piece on an 8x11 piece of paper and I blew it up with a copier to 18 x 24". I'm using reverse applique and layering techniques of the Kuna indians to sew the designs. I'm using trapunto techniques and boutis to stuff each part of the picture though not all the pieces have been stuffed yet in this picture. In fact, this is only about a 1/3 of the whole piece.
This is a mock up (just folded cloth and cut outs of horses trees and fence posts) of a wall hanging that I'm going to do, on commission, for the Spendlove's new home. The mountains and hills certainly won't be so pointy and I'm buying special batiks with some artwork already printed on them for the mountains, sky, and pasture.

I always said that when the kids grew up, I was going to do custom wall hangings for people, as a home business. I discovered, a few years ago, that I was pretty good at designing cloth pictures when I was doing row quilts where each woman traded quilts for a year and worked on each other's quilts. Shannon Mucha said..why wait? I asked my dear hubby about it the next day and he said wondered how I would find a 'client'. I told him not to worry. I was sure the Lord would bring someone along who needed something new and original. How ironic it is that we were having this discussion on the way to help paint trim on our friends' new home. Gee...I wonder who needs a new piece of wall art? Hmm...Can you believe that it really didn't occur to me until I was on the floor painting trim to ask Kim if she needed anything? Voila..my new home business is born! Of course this is very much just a starting place.

I've done lots of custom projects over the years: baby quilts where they just told me, "we like these colors, and want this theme etc."banners for various ministries, and themed quilts to give as gifts to friends and family. I not only get good ideas for designing these, but also, have learned so many techniques for quilting, applique, embroidery, and beading, that I can do just about anything I can imagine. So the Spendloves agreed to commission my first one. Hurrah!


Kim wanted three main colors--the ones they painted most of their main living areas with: Deep purple, tan, and a darkish spring green. They had no art work to go with the new colors they painted with--she just loves those colors. The theme will be the Colorado Rockies.

We will add a pieced border (herringbone pattern) and possibly a scripture border on the bottom. I don't think she wants any rows of quilt blocks added, just the picture and border. I'm pretty good at lettering too which is fun. I have tons of experience with banners and even do soft sculpture. I may try to work that into her wall hanging as well as embellishments for the pasture. It may end up being about 4 x6' since they have a very large living room wall opposite the fire place, because they have a vaulted ceiling. It will be fun to see where we end up!

The Art of Mola Making

Cuna indian girls wearing molas stitched to their blouses which were made by their mothers.

One of the most interesting textile art forms I have ever scene is the art of mola making traditionally done by the Cuna indians of San Blas Islands, Panama. My mother brought one home after visiting Panama and I just knew I had to try to make one some day. I was amazed to realize that the designs on her 'picture' were done by reverse applique but with many layers of different colored cloth and in pencil thin lines. It was a beautiful piece of stitching and art.

Click on the following link to see a wonderful web page on Molas and the beautiful Indian women who make them. It is a great page for kids! It has intriguing native music playing in the background as well. http://charlottepatera.com/html/MAKE%20A%20MOLA/makeamola.html

In America, we do a very simple form of reverse applique using only two pieces of cloth. We cut away the shapes we want to reveal from the top layer of cloth to show a color below and then stitch the raw edges of the top layer down to the bottom layer. This technique is used for flowers, leaves, or even animal shapes. But never do we attempt such intricate lines or so many layers of cloth.

There is very little information available on how to do this, but as you can see from this picture, I am attempting a practice piece. I also bought a book from Dover publishing that has many authentic Mola indian designs that I may try to use for a piece for next year's art festival. It is much harder to do than it looks but it is really fun to try!

This is my second attempt. The cloth on my first mola was too thick allow me to do a good job on the applique stitches. In this mola, my lines are still wide. The pieces of cloth layered beneath the top layer of black cloth were not even, which is why the blue shows through the fish at the bottom. In the photo, you can see at the top that I have just cut slits to reveal blue for radiating lines. I used a white chalk marking pencil to draw the main designs and to plan out where I was going to cut. I'm mostly designing as I go.

Molas were made by the Kona indian women of Panama to replace body painting. A woman sews two identical pieces, one for the front of her blouse or dress and one for the back. She wears the dress with the mola until the dress is worn and/or faded and then rips the mola off and sews it onto another dress until she is tired of it. Then she rips it off again and sells it to local tradesmen who sell it to tourists. The average cost you will pay to buy one is around $75 to upwards of $200.00. If the mola doesn't have torn threads on the edges, or isn't a little worn or faded, it probably isn't authentic. The tourist versions are often made by machine and are not very well done. The artwork is also not usually traditional.

The most authentic mola designs are geometric. More contemporary ones incorporate more modern imagery. You will often see flowers, fish, birds, and other jungle animals. You will sometimes see Christian imagery from missionary influence. Some molas have indian spirit symbolism in them, if they are for religious purposes.

To learn more about this art see the rest of the links below.

• Kuna Indian women and their art - http://www.panart.com/molainfo.htm
• Mola Art Gallery - http://thorup.com/mola.html
• How Molas are made - http://thorup.com/makeamola.html
• Detailed instructions on how to make a simple Bug Mola. (Very Good!) http://charlottepatera.com/html/MAKE%20A%20MOLA/makeamola.html
• Kid's Construction Paper Mola project- http://www.artprojectsforkids.org/2008/08/how-to-make-mola.html
• Link to a great book -Molas!: Patterns, Techniques & Projects for Colorful Applique (Paperback-Buy used for less than $5.00)http://www.amazon.com/Molas-Patterns-Techniques-Projects-Colorful/dp/1579902235/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1227384982&sr=1-3