Tag Archives: full moon

Wind Moon

Posted on June 19, 2009 by Alyson| 2 Comments
Wind Moon
Wind Moon
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander

Hare Moon, Seed Moon, Moon of budding Trees,
Let fertile magic sprout within me,
Kali, Hathor, Ishtar, Bast,
This abundant, creative cycle now be cast.
-Dallas Jennifer Cobb

Living in the DC Metro area, there is one thing that you just cannot escape from in the early part of April – the Cherry Blossoms.  The delicate, ephemeral quality of these of these blooms attracts me…I don’t know what it is about ephemera, but I love it.  Maybe it’s just the sound of the word itself…I wrote a post a while back in my personal blog all about my love of ephemera…when I have a little time and some patience, I will sort through those posts and link to it here.  But anyway, I digress.  In early April this year, in the DC Metro area, when we were firmly in the grip of the Cherry Blossom frenzy, that is when the full moon fell.  Known as the Wind Moon or the Pink Moon it wasn’t just apropos that the idea for this quilt include cherry blossoms.  They are the herald of spring for us, after a very long spell of cold, dry, brown grass and barren trees and things stirring IN the Earth, but very little on the surface of the Earth that we can see.  The cherry blossoms are an explosion and a celebration of life after the winter has ended.

Wind Moon detail
Wind Moon detail
Originally uploaded by alyson_olander

I quilted this piece with the swoops and swirls and spirals that you would see if wind were visible, then used thread painting techniques to create the tree branch that passes in front of the moon.  I clustered beads together on the branch as they would appear on an actual cherry tree and added swirls of beads flying from the tree as the flower petals get caught up in the wind.  The beads are a combination of small and large seed beads purchased from the craft store; and small & large Swarovski crystals and sequins, purchased from Accessories of Old in Bethesda, MD.

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Storm Moon

Posted on June 10, 2009 by Alyson| 1 Comment

Seed Moon, Plow Moon, Moon of Winds,
Illusion ends as true growth begins,
Hecate, Athene, Astarte, Morrigan,
In pure inspiration the cycle begins again.
-Dallas Jennifer Cobb

Once again, I was left in the dark; clouds filled the sky on the night of the full moon and there was nothing for me to gaze at in order to find my inspiration.  I had to imagine it all. 

I find that I am generally fascinated by water color quilts & the idea of taking the traditional quilting methods and weaving them into an art piece.  I love that I can create a piece from tiny little squares of fabric that give you the impression of texture.  Have you ever looked at a stormy sky?  At first glance, it seems like it is all one color, but there are shadows and tints and shades hiding in those clouds.  The same goes for the moon, it is not one solid color either.  That is the idea that I am attempting to convey by piecing both the sky and the moon with tiny 1 inch squares, the texture of a stormy sky and the true face of the full moon.

The piece is quilted using three colors of thread in a style usually used to convey the impression of water – here it is also used to convey water, just in a different form.

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Quickening Moon: Seedling Ambition

Posted on May 27, 2009 by Alyson| Leave a comment

Hunger Moon, Wild Moon, Ice Moon stealth,
in quiet preparation I love my self,
Brigit, Persephone, Diana, Kuan Yin,
Help to cleanse and heal what’s within.
-Dallas Jennifer Cobb

In February, I watched for the moon for days before and days after the after the actual full moon event, to no avail.  The sky, for days, was completely shrouded in clouds; not even a peek at a star could be seen.  I imagine before the modern days of electric lights or even the earlier gas powered lights, these nights would have been very, truely black.

The Quickening is when tree sap begins to flow again and the Earth starts to awaken.  Each year, there are seeds that sprout too early while their brothers and sisters sleep just a little deeper down in the dirt.  This quilt is about those ambitious seeds, dreaming of the coming growing season, and jumping the gun, awakening too early.

Three little seeds (apple) are nestled within their own little full moons, but one has jumped the gun, so excited by his ambitious dreams that he popped out a little bit too early. I machine embroidered the tiny seedling onto its moon first, then attached each of the 3 moons to the quilt.  I free motion quilted the piece being careful not to let the quilting lines touch the seeds that were still ‘sleeping’.  Finally, I attached the seeds and tiny glass seed beads to give the impression of stars in the sky.

This piece will be shown at Artomatic 2009, but will not be offered for sale on Etsy—it has already found a permanent home.

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Wolf Moon – complete!

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Alyson| Leave a comment
Wolf Moon

Uploaded by alyson_olander

Snow Moon, Cold Moon, Quiet Moon abide,
Let protection and strength grow inside,
Inanna, Sarasvati, Hera, and Sinn,
Sew new beginnings deep within.
—Dallas Jennifer Cobb

In my research about the Wolf Moon, this rite struck me as just perfect to begin my year long full moon journal quilting adventure.

The full moon on the night in question was shrouded in clouds, but the moon shown through, creating these amazing rings of color around herself. This is represented by both layers of fabric and of thread – 8 different fabrics and 4 different threads. The clouds seemed the carry the glow of the moon far beyond what we would normally see. Also, that night, the moon was huge, the largest we will see all year; as she passed on her closest path to the earth.

In years past, this was the time of year when families huddled together for safety and warmth, with wolves howling outside – it was the most difficult time of year, the winter was in full swing; food was beginning to run low; the wolves were particularly fierce in their own hunger.

Originally, I was planning to place a heart, to represent the family, swaddled and protected by the layers of the moon, but it seemed too trite in the end. I liked the starkness of this image, it leaves the story open for interpretation.

Take from it what you will.

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Artful Dilemmas

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Alyson| Leave a comment

I decided that I would make my full moon celebration quilts 12″ x 12″. I have nothing attached to that number; there is nothing significant about it, it’s just an easy one for me. I have a 12.5″ x 12.5″ ruler, and I trim the edges when the quilting is done so I’ll have nice straight edges and the quilt will be 12″ x 12″. Easy as that.

There is a continuation of the journal quilt project going on. It’ll be an online exhibit only. And since my plan is already to make journal quilts, why not enter them? But here’s the dilemma. The journal quilts are going back to the old format of 8.5″ x 11″, vertical orientation. And I had already decided on 12″ x 12″. In fact, I’d already started creating a quilt for the series in 12″ x 12″. I could cut it smaller. I have little to no problems doing that. But I’m not sure that I want to do it, just to get the quilts into a show. I could just finish this one and complete the rest in the smaller format and just not enter this one as one of the three in the show, but I kind of wanted them all to be the same size to tie them all together. I’d like to make the decision before I start quilting the piece, so that I don’t have to quilt unnecessarily. Free-motioning is a lot of work, dontchaknow, and especially when you are working in a small format, every stitch counts.

In addition to that dilemma, I feel like the quilt I’m working on needs more, and I was thinking about putting in a snowy landscape below the moon, but I really didn’t want these quilts to be quite so…literal. It changes the whole perspective of the quilt and it would be changing the point of it almost completely and I’m not happy about that either. But you can’t force art and I am feelin’ the landscape. If only I can make it look as good as it does in my mind.

So anyway…didn’t work on it yesterday because a) I was tired and b) dilemmas.

Any thoughts?

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