A Weekend with Friends



Susan and Gayle at Quilt National a few years back


 Just a quick hello to you, as I close up my suitcase to head south. I am going to Quilt National this weekend with my old, dear friend Susan Shie. I am really looking forward to the drive time, as she always has a lot of great stories to tell.

Have a happy holiday weekend, and I hope your weather is nice!


My book on display in the Athens book store downtown for the Quilt National opening weekend, where I was speaking.
Andi Stern's artwork is in the background.

My Week; What Was Yours Like?

This snapshot says it all: my week was a busy one, and I am still not finished yet.

In addition to working on two custom orders from my etsy shop this week, I presented a lecture and book signing in Medina, drove another hour and a half to pick up artwork from an exhibition that was ending, did grocery shopping, and weeded in the garden while the world was supposed to be ending. I created two new workshops to offer in the fall, took pictures to email to the venue, wrote class descriptions for the newsletter, and prepared student supply lists.

What I have not done yet is clean up my living room, the repository for this week's activity, where I came in the front door, turned right, and left a pile to be put away later. You can see my artwork stacked up, leaning and lying on the coffee table. On the couch is an antique quilt I sold on ebay, that needs to be packaged and shipped tomorrow. Books from the book signing lie stacked, ready to be boxed up again for my lecture in June at the Akron Art Museum. On the floor is one of my archival quilt storage boxes loaded with quilts brought to my lecture, and covered on top with one of my art quilts just removed from the exhibit.

Since most of these artworks need to be re-photographed for digital format, I have told myself I will photograph them, then put them away. Let's see if they're still there next weekend! Oh, and I will be out of town next weekend. Heading to Quilt National in Athens. Hope to run into some of you there.

Wearables for Spring

 I finished this jacket recently for a client, so thought I would show it to you. It is custom made completely: she picked the design, shape, sleeve length, and the colors she wanted from a selection of fabrics. I did the rest, and it came out beautifully.

The jacket is assembled in my personal collage style. I create my art quilts, Magic Baby clothing and wearables for adults in the same way: put bits and pieces of this and that together to create a quirky, fun and beautiful finished design. Hope you like it!


Detail of closures, jacket front



Jacket back in beautiful batik

Next up: a busy week ahead. I am giving a lecture and book signing for my book Thursday evening at the Medina Public Library. On Friday, I need to pick up my work from the exhibition Piecing it All Together: The Art of Collage. That means also either rehanging it or preparing it for storage once I get it home. I really need to schedule an appointment for professional photography of the pieces I finished for the show at the last minute, too!

Speaking of exhibitions, my friend Terry Jarrard Dimond is participating in an art quilt exhibition at BookSmart Studios. I received her invitation this week. I also received the Call to Entry information for The Artist as Quiltmaker XV from the new curator, Ruta Marino. The entry deadline has been pushed back from September to January 23, 2012, so get busy with your entries now.

Mother's Day Update

Howdy stranger! I have been absent a bit this past week or so, as I have been heads-down working, and trying to balance paperwork, computer time and actual studio time.

Oh, yeah, and Happy Mother's Day to all of you out there who are mothers. We had a nice, quiet day here. The sun even came out, so I was pleased.

Rearranging closets recently, I came across this handsewn silk jacket that belonged to my mother. She has been gone twenty years this year; hardly seems possible. Anyway, she had given this to me many moons ago, and I have tried to care for it to preserve it. It is absolutely gorgeous in its construction and detail, especially the hand quilting and the hand made trim.

My own Mother's Day and upcoming birthday are made special by my sweet daughter helping me to set up a website and separate blog for Magic Baby Designs. I am so excited, and I hope you will also check it out when you get a chance. The website isn't 'live' yet, but the blog is begun. More to come!

Itching for Hand Stitching

I have a spring jacket that I hardly ever wear. I bought it when I went to visit my daughter in Galway several springs ago back, knowing how misty-moisty damp the weather in Ireland can be. After stubbornly putting away my winter jacket while hoping spring would actually arrive here on the North Coast, I had to pull it out today to keep the still chilly weather at bay.

When the silhouettes of the trees on the horizon begin turning that beautiful shade of lime green, I know spring here is around the corner, and my mind automatically starts making lists of things to do: rake the leaves away from the emerging spring bulbs, gather up dead tree branches, wash the kitchen floor.

Gayle's stitched collage, Changes
In my Magic Baby work studio, I am slowly sewing up the piles of designs I tend to cut out at night while watching the news or a movie with my husband. Once I have finished a design idea and my prototype, I sit and cut and cut and cut at night, and end up with large piles of sewing to await me each morning when I start to work.


Detail, Changes by Gayle Pritchard
I have decided to stop cutting out new garments to sew until I get my piles of unsewn ones under control. I get stir crazy, though, if I don't have something creative to do while I am sitting. Spring's imminent arrival has made me itchy to have some handwork to do.

At I seminar on creativity and work productivity, I made a note of the speaker's comment, paraphrased here. She said, when you want to begin new work, and have nothing in particular in mind, go look at your body of work and be inspired by that. I have always remembered that. I am rarely short on ideas, but frankly, at the end of a long work day in my self-created sweat shop, I am tired. I still want something creative to do with my hands, but I also want to relax. Handwork, for me, has always fulfilled that desire. With a composition already created and put together during my peak thinking hours, at night, I can just sit and stitch. Rhythm, pull the thread, put in the needle, repeat. It's wonderful.

The framed collage here hangs in my living room. I have always loved it, refreshed by its quiet colors and serene symmetry. I love the raw edges of the antique linen and other fabrics used for the collage, and I love the stitching marks that lead my eye around the piece, and back to the slightly obscured drawing I transferred as the focal point. This will be my inspiration for some light night stitching.

Happy spring, Happy Easter to those of you who celebrate it, and may peace find you in the wee hours of the night.

The months seem to be flying by already this year. The calendar says it's late April already, and yet, as I look outside today, the trees on the horizon have not yet achieved their lime green spring glow. The weather is cold and rainy. Only the daffodils know it is spring.

Detail of I Hear Voices In My Head by Gayle Pritchard

I have been accomplishing a lot in the studio as of late, and at least spring activity, bringing me out and about, is heating up.
I had a great time when I made my presentation to the East Cuyahoga Genealogical Society last month. Tomorrow night, I will be presenting a lecture and book signing for the Willoughby Hills Quilt Guild. On May 19th, I will be in Medina for a lecture at the public library, and June 23 at the Akron Art Museum. I am so pleased that interest in my book continues, and love having the opportunity to speak with large groups about the amazing treasure trove of fiber art that exists in Ohio.

The struggle of balancing paper work and household responsibilities with studio time continues. Luckily, I still have the energy to work 14 hour days! Have a great week, and hope to see some of you at my upcoming lectures.

The Art of Collage Opening, Part Deux

I wanted to post the rest of the pix I have from opening night of Piecing It All Together: The Art of Collage. As at most openings, pictures standing in front your own artwork is a prerequisite : ) As I mentioned previously, there were a lot of artists represented in the exhibit, and a lot of great work. Hope you enjoy seeing a few more pieces here.

Me, standing in front of one of my larger pieces, Beauty Queen. On the wall to my left are works from Opie and Linda O'Brien, one called Sorry, and, above that, Unlock the Magic.

Two black and white collages by Jeff Kallet, being studied. These were very interesting, and almost assemblage in their dimension.

I love the stitched details in Shirley Ende Saxe's work.

More typical of Gail's work historically, here is This is What a Feminist Looks Like

These two collages, Her Cocoon, by Shirley Ende-Saxe, and Aujourd by Jeff Kallet, complement each other perfectly, and are both warrant study.

Hope you enjoyed your vicarious visit to the exhibition. Now, get back to work : )