Father's Day

Some countries, including Canada, are celebrating Father's Day today.

In Italy, it is celebrated on March19, Saint Joseph's day.

Four generations

What did I get from my dad? 

My creativity. My sensitivity. My independent thinking. My problem solving ability. My work ethic. My gift of constant ideas. My love of family. 

Happy Father's Day, Dad.

Circa 1965
I am on the far left.

Quilt Heirlooms

I am sorting through my children's books. I am packing up the ones we want to donate and setting aside the ones we want to keep.

There are many!

I came across Patricia Polacco's The Keeping Quilt.

It made me wonder about MY quilts.

Three of the latest quilts...
all old tops that were recently machine quilted.

Will they be passed down? Will they be blankets that start a conversation about the great-great-grandmother who made them? Will they be discarded and forgotten and eventually sold at an Antique Quilt Market?

Three more..
T-shirt quilts and simple squares

Right now my children love the quilts we have around the house. Each child has a quilt that I made especially for them. Each one is personal.

I love making quilts.

Follow your passion and you will find your purpose

Birthday Presents

My niece turned 11 yesterday.

I made her two pillows for her room using a pineapple quilt block as the front.

I used old shirts for the backs, therefore forgoing the time consuming step of button-hole making.
(Clever idea from teacher Johanna Masko)

Men's shirts used for the backs of pillows.

The pineapple block centre is perfect for fussy cutting a special design.

I made a pineapple block quilt about 20 years ago. I used the traditional foundation piecing method. But the method I learned at the Workroom was shorter and one could square-up the block after each addition. It was great! I had a fun time and did learn some things even though I have been quilting for about 25 years.

Fun centre cut.
If you don't have enough of the same fabric to make 4 strips
you can use two different fabrics and place them facing each other
in the round. Your eye tends not to notice the differences that way.

For the first pillow I made, I started with the shirt colour.

I picked up this shirt at Goodwill for cheap and
resewed the buttons using embroidery floss in a nice colour.

Then I chose the corner piece from my stash, which went well with the shirt.

From there, I went through my 1 1/2 inch strips and selected the blues and whites.

I'd like to make a full-size quilt using darks with brown and orange strips. The design that appears when each block is put together is very effective.

Photo from the book Quilts by Judy Wentworth,
published by Crescent Books
This quilt is from the 19th century, thought to be
made by a plantation slave in the southern United States.

Past

A few weeks ago I was in Lucito, population 745.

Lucito from the roof tops, photo credit: A. Pizzuto

It's a small town in the mountains in the province of Molise in southern Italy.

Lucito in the background.
My cousin on the far left, me the far right and two of my children in the centre.

I stopped by the comune (city hall) to do some research about my roots.

My grandfather was born in 1912 and his father is 1883.

This might inspire a new artwork.

To see a past work about my grandmother's immigration to Canada click here. The art work is entitled Pages of my Life.

I am a Textile Artist

I make quilts (blankets) out of cottons and I make textile art (to hang on your wall) out of painted and dyed fabric, plastic and paper.

What is wrong with doing both?

One of my daughters says I will not be taken seriously as an artist if I make blankets!

I AM a serious artist.

a friend and I (right) discharge dying with bleach

speaking about my art at Quiltitalia's National Conference
 Rimini, Italy, November 2009

detail installation, Toronto Public Library
Spadina Branch, 2010

detail La Poesie d'un Plume
exhibited MoA Gallery, Verona,

detail, 'reuse reduce recycle'
international juried show, 13th Carrefour Europeen
du Patchwork, France

AND

I love making quilts.

One of my daughters and I cuddling under her grad quilt.
All her friends signed it!

Quilting has given me an opportunity to teach and travel in Europe. I love doing that. People enjoy my classes. I had 90 people signed up for my class last year at Quiltitalia's National Conference in Cervia, Italy. Seeing what is going on in Europe regarding textile art has enriched and inspired me as an artist.

Why can't I do both?

Working on one means less time for the other- I understand that.

The time management skills I have honed as a mother of 4 are coming in handy!

me, the 4 children and the dog, 1993

Omni News interview

Click here to view the interview. (THE INTERVIEW IS NOT AVAILABLE AFTER SEPT. 1, 2011)

Click Italian News Ontario-July 7, 2011, which is on the right of the video screen.

The interview is at 17:50 minutes.

The interviewer, Laura D'Aprile, filmed all the works in the show. Two of them are mine. She also got some shots of some of my other art works and blankets that are not exhibited in the gallery.

My grandparents in circa 1965, Montreal
One of my pieces is about her.