"Celebrate Spring" IQA 2009 Acceptance

I'm pleased and honored to announce that Prickly Sow Thistle has been accepted into Celebrate Spring!, debuting at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago, IL, April 17-19. Only 39 quilts were juried into the exhibit. This quilt is currently hanging in my studio; it's a personal favorite because it is so bright and cheerful and has such a positive energy.

The images on the three panels are cyanotypes, and there's a heliographic print along the right side. I handpainted the other fabrics, with the exception of two small strips of an Indian handwoven plaid. There's hand beadwork on the leaves and flowers. It's not a complex work in terms of the number of pieces, but I think I got the balance of colors and design elements just right, and there are couched threads that add a sense of movement to the overall effect.

I am intimately familiar with several types of thistles and their prickles, having had to weed them out of the garden beds from time to time, and I realize that some (but not the prickly sow) are classified as noxious weeds, but I can't help but admire them. They are glossy and frilly, and grow with such enthusiasm!

The flowers are pretty as well, and turn into fluffy seeds that are spread by the wind--the secret to their success--and relished by finches.

Here they are en masse, at a construction site. They are aggressive colonizers of disturbed ground, growing quickly on crappy subsoil, and do their part to prevent soil runoff.

I seldom meet a weed without redeeming qualities.