Spring Snow by Charleen Touchette

Spring blossoms,

sudden snowstorm.

Covers mountain.

________
Spring blossoms,
sudden snowstorm.
Covers mountain.

Photos and Low-ku by Charleen Touchette 2010

Making Maple Syrup, Gathering Pinons, Gifting and Storytelling

Come Hear
“Making Maple Syrup, Gathering Pinons, Gifting and Telling Stories”
An informal conversation with
Authors and Artists
Charleen Touchette and Jim Northrup
At Two Rivers Gallery
Minneapolis American Indian Center
1530 East Franklin Avenue
Minneapolis, Minnesota
On Sunday, May 2nd at 10-11:30 a.m.
Free and Open to the Public.
Followed by booksignings.
Documented by Sage Paisner, MA, CalArts.
Thanks to Juanita Espinosa and the Minneapolis American Indian Center.
May Day Parade starts at 2 p.m.
Call # 505 470-7754 for more information.

http://www.maicnet.org/

http://www.nativewiki.org/Jim_Northrup

http://www.oneearthblog.blogspot.com/

One Earth Blog Poll on Star Quilt

So the question is, Do you prefer the black center or the yellow? Remember the shapes are placed loosely and will be the regular eight-pointed star whether black or yellow.
Thanks for answering my poll.

Making a Star Quilt - Part Three

Figured out the pattern for eight-pointed star and corners and triangles.

by Charleen Touchette 2010

OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com

Making a Star Quilt - Part Two

Once the colors are picked, I place them to form the points of the eight pointed star. Quilt-making like many handarts done by women depends on an understanding of geometry and number. Eight-pointed stars are, as would be expected, are based on the number 8, so each row of the star is cut in multiples of 8. Eg. 1 black in center of point is multiplied to 8 to form the eight-pointed star and 5 red diamonds in a point means I cut 40 red diamonds. One point times eight equals 8 black diamonds, 2 white equals 16, 3 yellow equals 24 and so on, 4/32, 5/40, 6/48, then reduces to 5/40, 4/32, 3/24, 2/16 and 1/8 for the pale yellow outer points.

The corners of the quilt are big squares. To include the 8 directions, I cut 8 triangles in colors from the eight-pointed star and put them together to form the square.

The point starts to emerge with 1 black diamond in the center.

I liked this version with 6 green, but I didn't have enough green for the last two points. The solution was to replace the inner two green diamonds with an indigo brocade that I had bought to make Sage a vest when he was a boy.

It took trying out several different versions to get the final design of the eight-pointed star.

From the center, each point of the star is 1 black, 2 white, 3 yellow, 4 red calico, 5 red, a row of 2 green, 2 indigo brocade and 2 green, a row of 2 turquoise, 1 fish batik and 2 turquoise, 4 yellow craddleboard prints, a row of 1 yellow baby print between 2 lavender calico diamonds, 2 sky blue, 1 yellow.

Like putting a square of batik with fish in center of corners. It works with the fish batik diamond in each point.

The triangles between the star points are black and sky blue for night and day.

A few options for the triangles that make up the four corners. Once I pick one, I will make all four corners the same.

Part Three is to sew the diamonds together into strips of six, then sew six strips together to form points.

But first, because lots of my material is almost 30 years old and not colorfast, I need to wash quilt pieces in hot water with vinegar to let them bleed and shrink, then dry and iron flat.

Watch for Part Three of Making a Star Quilt as it happens.

Photographs, text and quilt-making by Charleen Touchette 2010.

OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com

Making a Star Quilt - Part I

The first step is to decide your colors. I picked the six sacred colors - yellow, white, red and black for the four directions, blue and green for earth, sky and water. Since this Star Quilt is for our second son Sage Daniel, I added the colors

lavender and pink from the Holy Man Dave Swallow Jr.'s prayer flags.

The diamonds are cut from fabrics left from garments, gifts and other quilts made for Sage and family members. The solids are from my Star Quilt and calicos are small scraps left from cutting pattern pieces for ribbon dresses and shirts, craddleboards and baby quilts for Sage, his sister and brother and cousin Jasper. The black and white are left over material from placemats I made Sage's grandparents and aunts and uncles year's ago. The pastel solids are from cloth brought to share at Inipi ceremonies. Some were gifts from dear sisters who have known Sage his whole life. The red was gifted to me and Sage by a generous and wise woman at Bear Butte to pray. Part of the red cloth, I gave to Nila Helper whose grandfather was saved from the 1890 Massacre at Wounded Knee by a beaver who sheltered him in its den. Each piece of material holds a story.

I cut over 300 diamond shapes to get the 288 diamond shaped pieces for the eight-pointed star
in the right colors.

It is quite a workout to lay out the colors. I lay another finished star quilt down on the bed and put down the colors the way I sketched out in my planning drawings. Had to change them around several times before it worked.

In the next blog, I show the colors I chose for the eight-pointed star.
Part Two is to choose colors and cut triangles for the 4 corners and the 4 triangles in middle of each side.

Photographs, story and quilt by Charleen Touchette 2010

One Earth Blog