Diane Cadrain: Stitching It All Together: Seeking a Path through January

Let's face it: in New England, the end of January is the pits. The only good thing about January is getting it over with. I don't know about you, but I find I have to go out of my way to find something to feel good about.

This January, I didn't have to scrounge as much. The art world honored me with three bonuses.

The first was that I sold one of my quilts, Glowing Cabbage III.

The second was that two other pieces were juried into Out of the Loop, the West Hartford Art League's fiber art show.

The third was that I was asked to participate in EdJohnetta Miller's invitational quilt show at the Windsor Art Center.

One of the pieces juried into Out of the Loop was Seeking a Path, a felted image of a path in Connecticut's Penwood State Park in the early fall. The piece takes its name from a benediction spoken by Jon Luopa, who in the 80s served as minister of my religious congregation, the Unitarian Society of Hartford. As each Sunday service ended, he would say,

If you see God, may God be with you

If you embrace life, may life return your affection

If you seek a path, may a way be found, and the courage to take it, step by step.

The wooded path in the shimmering light of early fall, captured on an afternoon walk with my two dogs, suggested that prayer.

I've been doing a lot of felting lately, and I have to say, I knew I had become a felting nerd when I got excited about buying my first pair of hand carders.

But I digress.

The second piece that made it into the West Hartford Art League show was Glad Sandwiches.

I guess I realized I was a knitting nerd when, at the huge open air antiques market that transforms the small town of Brimfield, Massachusetts three times a year, I was thrilled to find yarn that looks like whole wheat bread.

Several of my friends, including Carol Vinick, Mickey Lawler, Margaret Freedman, Elena Gibson, and Phyllis Small also had work accepted into that show. Brava, ladies!


West Hartford Art League

My second piece of good news was the sale of Glowing Cabbage III, a mounted quilt that had been on view as part of Natural Inspirations, a solo show at the Farmington Public Library. Glowing Cabbage III was part of a series I made in the summer of 2011. All my quilted images were based on this photo of a cabbage growing in my yard:

Here's Glowing Cabbage III, based on the image above:

The purchaser was camera-shy, so I didn't take her photo. But I wasn't too shy to pose with Glowing Cabbage III before taking it down from the Farmington show and handing it over to her:

Finally, my good friend EdJohnetta Miller, whose spirit and skills I admire, invited me to be part of Fiber and Friends, her show at the Windsor Art Center.