You can see above that my quilts are in temporary storage! The one on top is the piece I've been working on for many years, still unfinished after so many life journeys, and the one on the bottom is my baby quilt. There are others (my favs) inside this roll.

To furnish my home, I've shopped at local furniture stores. (They all seem to be part of huge chains of shops; when did that happen?) Since then, I've been shopping at St. Vincent de Paul thrift stores to augment and balance the budget for those few expensive items I acquired. Best thing I ever did! I've just about stocked my kitchen hardware for a pittance, and everything I bought was in fantastic condition--like new! I even got a butcher-block knife stand, brand-new, still in the box, for $20, and that's half the price quoted online for it anywhere!

Throughout the last few years of my life, I've had to confront a truth that has not been entirely comfortable for me to embrace:  the Universe is in charge!

I use the term "Universe" because mentioning any living or imaginary entity has become contentious. The last thing I want to do is to offend anyone by mentioning any deity they do not recognize affectionately. I also like the word "Universe" because it is not gender-specific but omnipresent, universal, and oddly comforting. 

What I've learned is that the Universe is in charge of everything. The best way to live, and possibly to die, is to welcome the Universe into our hearts and daily lives, allowing it to control whatever happens, even as we focus on the acceptance, gratitude, and peace of knowing that all will be well. 

"Sonny Patel" put it well in the movie, "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel:"  "In India, we have a saying: 'Everything will be alright in the end.' So if it is not alright, it is not yet the end."

If it is not alright, be patient and wait. Things always change, and as change arrives, you will see then why you have been waiting. 

If you undertake any new objective and feel it is unnecessarily difficult to accomplish the task or achieve the goal, you probably should not be engaged in that activity. Stop and try something else. If the other thing you try works easily, that is what you were meant to do. If it does not go easily, try something else. Eventually, you will slip into some activity that is successful and immensely rewarding. 

The Universe tells us that sometimes, it is time to wait. When you feel there's nothing you can do without a huge struggle, don't even try. Wait and see what comes along without much effort on your part. That is probably what you are meant to do and will do successfully.

I can hear you! You're saying even now, "Oh, but that flies in the face of everything I've ever been taught about accepting challenges and never giving up. How will I accomplish my goals if I give up on my projects?" See how "me"-focused are these remarks?

Trust me, learning to relax and let the Universe look after you is far more productive than spinning your wheels, wasting resources and time, and becoming dispirited and disappointed over your "failures."

Let me share with you a simple instance of how the Universe works:

Yesterday, a good friend mentioned being interested in the Cincinnati Art Museum's "See the Story Book Club," a program offering a combination book club meeting to discuss a specific book with a fine arts tour to complement the book's subject. I heard her, but honestly, I didn't give the idea much thought.

This morning, however, I received a subscription newsletter from CAM containing a reminder of the next book club meeting on September 16th. This meeting features the work of Amy Tan in "The Valley of Amazement." I like Amy Tan's work, but it's been a long time since I read anything by her. I went to my Libby app and checked to see if I could obtain the ebook with enough time to read it before September 16th. The app told me the book was available, but I would have to put a "hold" on it, and it would likely be two weeks before I could download a copy. 

I returned to the email and the CAM website to have a better look at what's available and coming up soon. Suddenly, I had a message on my phone. The book I had just requested was immediately available for download! Apparently, whoever had it before me chose that precise moment to return the book. I downloaded it, knowing that I'm now obliged to read the book and to attend the September 16th meeting at CAM. 

Would I have turned my back on the chance to download and read the book? Not for a minute! Why? Because I now know there's some important reason for me to attend that meeting on September 16th. It may or may not have anything at all to do with Amy Tan, but the Universe has sent me a signal, and I will do well to heed it.

When good things fall into your lap unexpectedly, thank the Universe! When you fail miserably at a long-held goal, let it go. You're not meant to be doing that task, and while wasting time doing something you shouldn't, you will have missed out on how you should spend time and all the good things that will come from using time in synchronicity with the Universe.

Please remember these ideas the next time you're stuck in traffic or waiting in a doctor's reception room. Find patience in the knowledge that everything happens for a reason, even if you cannot see what that reason is. Be aware when the Universe shifts the course of your life trajectory. Graciously and gratefully accept the change in plans. If you do, you will move happily with the Universe instead of always painfully swimming upstream.

Seeing West Virginia's historical memorabilia on display was a particularly emotional experience for me. I'm an amateur genealogist, and my grandparents and beyond were from West Virginia, so many of the exhibits tugged at my heartstrings.

More importantly, for our discussion here, my timing was excellent! Can you imagine my surprise to enter the building and be confronted by the West Virginia Quilters' annual quilt exhibition?

​The building is beautiful, and the entry hall is dramatic in its own right. The show was bold and dramatic because viewers could take in many quilts in one view. The colors and patterns fairly danced on the walls! 

The quilt display was impressive, especially for someone (like me) entering the hall for the first time. However, a close-up inspection of these beautiful quilts was impossible for obvious reasons. 

Certainly, the quilts were protected from well-meaning "touchers," people who do not know that excessive handling of quilts damages them.

My advice before you go to see this show? Take your binoculars!

Find a list of the winners and awards here. It's unfortunate that the site fails to publish photos of the winning quilts. It would be good to see which quilts took awards and prizes. Surely, these fine, talented, and hard-working quilt-makers deserve the right to display their work proudly.

Is the fear of copyright violation so paralyzing that no one shows anything anymore?

Generally speaking, any light-reflective surface will attract attention, even if it does not provide a specific image. There are many such reflective elements we can add to patchwork quilts:

• Mirrors
• Sequins
• Beads
• Crystals
• Metallic cords
• Metallic threads
• Metallic paints
• Found objects

These items can take many forms. Mirrors, for example, are available in various sizes and shapes, including circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles, and they can be sourced in a variety of sizes, even cut and shaped to our specifications. Sequins, beads, and crystals share light refraction from segmented surfaces. Basic light reflection without imagery occurs on any shiny metallic surface like that provided by metallic threads and paints, as well as many found objects.

For my art piece, The Future is Now, a commissioned work produced for the Rockefeller Center offices in Kenya, I wanted to depict a stream of non-recyclable materials falling from the sky into the city of Nairobi. I used silver-colored silk and synthetic fabrics to define the landmark building towers of the downtown area. Then I embellished the quilt with recycled glass rings, sequins, glass and metal beads, a metallic mock-foil fabric, and even computer components!

I visited the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, last week. Traveling solo, I got to see everything I wanted to see, and because it was a Friday, traffic in-house was light. 

Clearly, most of the artists do not spend all their time in their galleries/shops, which tells me they are still obliged to be making/selling art elsewhere. Some need equipment they cannot store in the TFAA. For example, hand-weaver Heasoon Rhee reported a need to work on a second, much larger, heavier, and noisier jacquard loom at home. Other TFAA artists go out to shop for supplies, visit corporate clients, or need a day off. Nevertheless, there were enough actively working artists present to make my visit there well worthwhile.

Photos are not generally, for obvious reasons, permitted within the Torpedo Factory. Instead of photos, I share with you here the names and links of the artists whose work impressed me most, along with a brief comment about why I liked what they are doing:

There’s an art jeweler in my family, so I’m accustomed to seeing and appreciating beautiful workmanship with carefully selected gemstones, but I found the addition of finely-worked cloisonné added much to the pieces produced by Holly Hague. There’s always a risk of looking overdone, that is, too much cloisonné for the gemstone, but Holly’s jewelry, I thought, balanced the stones and the art of enameling well. What do you think? (Comments welcome below.)

Along similar lines was the work of weaver/glassworker Ruth Gowell. I found Ruth’s work stunning and reminiscent of a time when I hoped to work with the Kitengela Glass Factory many years ago to combine patchwork quilting and glass. The possibilities are, of course, endless, but Ruth’s work is a nearly perfect combination of the two media. It’s often hard to tell, in her Glass & Fiber Wall Art, where fiber leaves off and glass begins. Ruth does quite remarkable work—and her craftsmanship is impeccable!

I was generally disappointed in the fiber arts section of the Torpedo Factory because it was so small! One relatively tiny gallery held the works of multiple fiber artists, each of whom should probably have their own space—economics at work, I suppose.

I was pleased, however, to see the work of artists whose names I know, like Cindy Grisdela and Eileen Doughty (an old friend from SAQA), as well as the kawandi technique expressed by Linda Warschoff. Now, we’re talking MY language! Funny, though—my impression was that at least some work was underpriced; you should get it at these low prices while you can!

Photographer Irina Rosovsky’s interior landscapes impressed me because I know those places intimately from my own Spirit Works. Her images depict foggy landscapes with forms barely recognizable. There’s a consistency to the work on display that revealed the artist’s search through her mind.
 
As for paintings, there was a wide range of styles and media, as we might expect in such a venue, but one artist whose work really stood out for me was Mina Oka Hanig. Mina is painting patchwork—and it’s gorgeous!

Art quilter and Juried Artist Member of SAQA, Katie Pasquini-Masopust (not part of the Torpedo Factory) does something similar, but her work is very different. Although Katie has a background in painting, she seems to come at the work more from the quilting side, whereas Mina’s work seems to flow from the painterly angle. For me, it’s interesting that both artists find their voices with paint and patches. 

Other artists at the Torpedo Factory whose work I want to mention as noteworthy to my way of thinking include:

    Lesley Clarke for encaustic as well as other paintings

    Sally Veach for paintings

    Guido R. Zanni for fluid acrylics (if you like this kind of thing)

    Cindy Lowther for tapestry and other hand weavings

    Carol Takov for interesting stone mosaics
​
Last, but certainly not least, I want to mention the kinetic glass art of Alison Sigethy whose work has to be seen to be appreciated. Okay, I know it’s reminiscent of lava lamps, but Alison’s pieces have so much more to say. Kinetic work of any kind draws us in like a magnet, whether it’s good or bad, but these seemingly underwater scenes of delicate glass imagery offer much, much more. The rich colors and delicate structures of glass forms within each Sea Core are mesmerizing.
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We talked about the difficulties of selling patchwork quilts as works of art. Rachel recommended The Art Storefronts Organization and The Academy for Virtual Teaching, as well as Global Quilt Connection. I'm definitely interested and will be investigating these and other sites in coming days and weeks. If you know of any other useful resources for quilters selling art, please leave a comment below.

​Find out more about Rachel from her website, https://www.rachelderstinedesigns.com.​ ​