JellyFish ....Yes Organza Jelly Fish

 I have been blessed to guest blog on the Slow Stitching Movement Blog...see it here.https://theslowstitchingmovement.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/guest-blogger-lorri-lee-chambers-talks-about-her-slow-stitching-and-art-quilt-process/

Thank you Mark Lipinski!!!




This story is about my latest commission piece designed for a beach home in the Outer Banks .



Back In June of 2014 I was talking to a friend from facebook that lives in Hatteras ,NC She was building her dream home and wanted something special for it.  She talked about how people in her life had special quilts made for them, but she never had one made for her.  I am not and never have been a traditional Quilter , I see the art in the fabrics and somehow magically can take an image real or illusion and create in a tactile want to crawl inside and live there manner.  One day Paula was sharing some inspiring photos and one was of the Jelly Fish...it was beautiful, peaceful and ethereal .  I wanted to make it into Art , a Art Quilt...but it had to be fabrics that could do this amazing colorful photo the brightness yet softness it needed.  I have been working with sheer fabrics for years, in my PAS technique, and in layering fabrics , threads, fibers and scraps into New Fabrics, making Artist Trading cards and small art quilts . So Organza was the only way to go and no batting so that Light could come through lighting them up and letting them glow and dance.  This is what became of Paula's Dream ,, a Massive 9 feet by 7 feet Art Quilt , that will hang from the rafters of her new home , 28 feet in the air and will be back lit by Beach Sunlight and the tentacles will dance in the Ocean Breezes.

Am I happy with it yes.. I am .. I wish could have done a few things differently in construction but I do not have a big studio with space to lay out such a monster piece of art!   All I had was a 6 foot table, some card tables my Brother Sewing machine SQ 5090 Named "Stitches" and the perseverance to create The JellyFish  formally known as Paula's Dream.  But it is birthed as babies are coming out of the smallest place into the world to grow into big and beautiful existence.

Never say Never ...anything can be if you just Believe

I will follow up with pictures after it is installed in Paula's beautiful home this upcoming week ...stay tuned

Addendum: March 23.24.25,  6  1/2 hours of Ferry rides and Island Hopping, the quilt is delivered and installed.
 June 2014 , a friend was talking about her dream house and posting pictures of ideas for it.  Paula Dawn​  posted this photograph of Jelly fish very ethereal , and I stated I could really get behind that photo as a Art Quilt.    Paula commented that everyone she knew (well almost) had special quilts just for them...but she didn't,,so we talked more and we came to a understanding that I would interpret that photo into a Art Quilt, not a traditional grandma quilt but something that would accentuate her dream home.  and So I began the drawing, mind mining and more to create this piece of Art.  I finished it finally, but the weather where I live delayed its delivery.  This Monday I left to drive the Jellyfish to Cedar Island , NC.   What this entailed was driving 5 hours from where I am currently staying to where I used to live (still do sorta) then drive to the end of Hatteras (an hour) catch a ferry to Ocracoke,   drive 14 miles to the other side of the island catch another ferry to Cedar Island (2 hours 15 minutes) one way .  The glitch was the Ferry arrived at 3:15 and left at 4:00 so I had to make a dash to Paula's drop off the quilt and get back to the ferry to repeat my island hopping.  Paula's dream house is beautiful and in an amazing place....and Paula's Dream aka the Jelly Fish Quilt looks so perfect there.  The wall color Paula chose matches perfect.  So after all this time you would think that was it???  Nope this "quilt" opened my eyes to a style I love working in and exploring all the options , And I owe it all to Paula.  thank you for inspiring me and giving me a chance to live out some dreams I didn't even know I had.  and P.S. I have always despised ferries and boats...but I managed quite well so My courage factor was uplifted as well.   Thank you

Life's Aspirations or ArtSpirations....

 There are things many of us aspire to do and see   and become....me it is to be recognized as a Artist without the words so what do you do for your real job....Um...this is my real job and know its not easy to make a living at what my passion is , but its what keeps me sane?   So when I was asked to guest blog after talking to Mark Lipinski on the phone ,,,I cannot express how excited I was.   So visit the Slow Stitching Movement Blog and read about my Vision...and then read some of the other wonderful people on there as well as visit the Slow Stitching Movement   Slow Stitching Movement -should be a way of life!!!


https://theslowstitchingmovement.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/guest-blogger-lorri-lee-chambers-talks-about-her-slow-stitching-and-art-quilt-process/

Guest Blogger Lorri Lee Chambers Talks About Her Slow Stitching and Art Quilt Process

Posted on February 22, 2015

Any Creative Dream Can Be Yours if You Just Believe and Move Forward — If Only a Little at a Time.

by Lorri Lee Chambers

I have followed the path of Mr. Mark [Mark Lipinski] for a while and checked out his Slow Stitching Movement website and the Facebook page ( loved the story about the old man knitting penguin sweaters). I related to his idea of slowing down and stitching as a process and not a result. It’s what I do. Slow stitching is my life every time I sit down to my sewing machine or to hand stitch pieces of fabric.

Hope

When my husband and I were told that the cancer he had been battling had returned, slow stitching got me through it.  It was at that time I began to my quilt, HOPE.    We were staying in a hotel in Durham and I didn’t have one sewing supply with me during this stressful time. I knew where the closest Hancock Fabrics was located, so I picked up some fabric remnants and needle and thread to keep me sane.  This was supposed to be a one-time, short trip to a fabric store for a small project.   Back at  the hotel room , we had to wait for him to have yet more tests the next day.  Instead of fuming in anger at him and the BEAST, we call cancer, I began to sew the quilt.  The quilt started out as  black and grey and pretty dark in color and tone. Like my mood, it represented my anger and fear.


I scrounged around the hotel for the leaf shapes I used for the quilt.  I literally used leaves from the ground that I found outside of the hotel for my patterns, but after I finished the background, things were looking up and he began to feel better, That’s when I added a Big yellow sunflower in the middle of the quilt…each stitch a prayer for better things ahead. It was slow stitching through a spiritual experience, as Mark talks about in his Slow Stitching webinars and lectures.  

“The quilt started out as  black and grey and pretty dark in color and tone. Like my mood, it represented my anger and fear.”

Stitching for me is therapy. Sewing is therapy, too. If I could not sew or be creative they would have to lock me away somewhere. It’s how I have learned to process my feelings.  I’m a professional quilter and the struggle to earn a living at what I do is worth it because I cannot survive any other way.  I worked on HOPE until  all hours of the night,  again in waiting room after waiting room over the next days, sharing it with other people who were going thru the pains and trials of life that my husband and I were going through. to read the rest visit the link below....you will be glad you did.  Have a blessed day !


https://theslowstitchingmovement.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/guest-blogger-lorri-lee-chambers-talks-about-her-slow-stitching-and-art-quilt-process/

Yes I am a Art Quilter !!!

When we are at art shows or other special events with our work , for the most part people do not understand or comprehend what we do. They will look at our work and say oh yah grandma did that...or I can do that...and pray tell some could if they tried .   But Art Quilters in my mind are the people who love fabric, and all the treasures that seem to follow them , buttons , beads, trims, yarns and more to "Paint" pictures with.  Now some of us have made or maybe still make traditional quilts , but unless we are doing a Baltimore Album quilt that we designed all the blocks ourselves , most people do not consider it art.

But I feel that anyone who can sit down and take fabric and patiently create colorful functional objects in the pain staking manor to which they are created , and the meticulous details in most.  They too are artists although there are traditionalists that refuse that title.

I love painting with fabrics, now a days you can find so many wonderful textured fabrics that allow us to really think outside the box ,..or take plain fabrics and hand dye them ususally in fun batiky kind of way.
But you can take anything your imagination comes up with and create it in fabrics.

I like doing smaller pieces as I sell my work and prefer people to provide it with a good forever home.
But I also do smaller pieces because even at their size they are labor intensive and I could not sell larger
pieces for the money I would have to charge.

And lets face it unless you live in a mansion with unlimited white walls , large pieces are not going to be a viable option.

So yes my name is Lorri and I am a Art Quilter....let me create for you today...