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

One Earth -Making Art Without Borders

One Earth Golden Dawn 2010 One Earth Blue Waters 2010

Borders are artificial lines that disregard the natural movements of people, animals plants, water and air. Crossing the border from Canada to the U.S. in the mid-1800s didn't make Quebecois, Acadians and Metis, Americans. Across the U.S. Canadian Border tribes from Mik'maq, Abenaki, Mohawk, Anishinaabe, Lakota, Blackfeet to the Northwest Coast continue to assert their land is on both sides.
Today hi-speed internet makes it possible to communicate, cooperate, share and collaborate with people across borders all over the world.
This series of art titled "Brings Water to Desert" started in early 2010 when I saw some photographs of Niagra Falls by Yotanka Coicou who lives in Quebec Province. Yotanka graciously gave me permission to combine some of her photographs with my own photographs and art from different times and places in an alchemy of light and time art.
These paintings combine the light of the southeast with the water of the northeast to create a kinetic connection between them.
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Art by Charleen Touchette with Yotanka Coicou 2010

Art by Charleen Touchette 2010

Printing. Painting. Photographing. Connecting. Collaborating.
Layering.
Light and Shadow.
Water and Sun.
Quebec and Santa Fe.
Waters pour on liquid light.

Layering.

Manually with paints, hands and brushes.

Digitally with moving finger connected to electric light energy.

Layers of light and shadow.

Illuminate and define.

Or mystify.

Layers of color, shape and form.

Emerge.

Layers of light and shadow.

Illuminated.

Earth without borders.

Yotanka and Elk.

Wolf and Cougar.

One Earth. One People. One Love.

Waters of Niagra Falls meet Santa Fe's liquid light.

A girl suspended above the falls.

A hand clapses her ankle.

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Art, Text and Photos by Charleen Touchette 2010

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Art above - is mixed media/rag paper

8.5 x 11".

Inquire at TouchArt@aol.com for sales.

"Why Death of Old School Feminism is a Good Thing"

By Charleen Touchette


In response to the question posed by Lainie Alexander in Santa Fe, New Mexico –
"Is feminism still relevant in the 21st century?"

I feel as though the old school sisterhood feminism from the 1970's and 1980's is almost non-existent these days." Lainie Alexander, March 7, 2010

Calling Bees Home by Charleen Touchette 2009

In some ways, yes, the “old school sisterhood feminism” is gone, and in a lot of ways that is a good thing. The "old school sisterhood" turned out to be as exclusive, hierarchal, and classist as the "old boy network."
"Old school sisterhood feminists" in the ‘70s and ‘80s generally excluded women of color or invited us to be their handmaidens, do the work and not get any credit. Then when they write the history, they are the (s)heroes and leave out the rest of us.
Unfortunately, the "stars" of the feminist movement never learned that the core of patriarchy, which is hierarchal thinking that elevates some over others, must be abandoned for women to have true equity.
Ask Patricia Spear Jones about how it felt to be a crucial part of The Heresies Collective in NYC, then to be omitted from the recent Heresies documentary which focused on three women who are considered "gatekeepers" but who weren't there to do the hard work.
This is not just a race issue however, but, is one equally rooted in class. Sabra Moore who was instrumental in the Heresies Collective was also initially excluded from the documentary, which she attributes to her pride in her East Texas blue collar roots. Sabra was able to get herself and two women of color into the Heresies documentary, but many others who were instrumental to this work remain excluded.
This is how today's "herstory" is being written, with the same twisting of fact and exclusion of people and their stories that the second wave of feminist writers in the 1970s accused history of doing to women's stories.
Unfortunately, the "stars" of the feminist movement never learned that the core of patriarchy, which is hierarchal thinking that elevates some over others must be abandoned for women to have true equity. Until they change their faulty thinking and return to the egalitarian thinking and action of matrilineal thinking at the core of indigenous societies, they have just replaced a system run by men with one run by women who think like men and continue to oppress others to elevate themselves.
Women from outside the mainstream have often complained that "Feminism" neglected the fact that women outside of the white, middle and upper classes do not share the same need to oppose their men, sons, brothers, uncles and fathers who are often as oppressed as they are.
What is hopeful is that the women coming of age today are generally more open-minded and aware of race and gender and their complexity. I would like to see a new wave of feminism that returns to the core belief that no one should be discriminated against because of sex or any other real or perceived difference. "Old School sisterhood feminism" served few besides the "stars." I hope New School Feminists will think about looking back to our intact indigenous communities where women have real respect and freedom that depends on mutual respect, sharing and love of all our relations.

I hope New School Feminists will think about looking back to our intact indigenous communities where women have real respect and freedom that depends on mutual respect, sharing and love of all our relations.
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By Charleen Touchette 2010
www.OneEarthBlog.blogspot.com.

Building a Solar BathHouse - in progress

by Charleen Touchette - Spring 2010

For years, we have been planning on building a solar bathhouse in a private sheltered area below our home and patio. Over the years we gathered water and beverage bottles intending to create our One Earth BathHouse with adobe bottle walls with mud and sand from the arroyos.

Laziness combined with inertia until we had lots of plans and sketches and lots of piles of bottles that looked more like trash than an earth friendly green bath house with water heated by the sun. This year, the high cost of propane (more than doubled since 2001) and the dire state of the economy put urgency behind our plans to cut energy costs and switch from fossil fuels to renewable solar energy.

So we took out the shovels while the snow melt was sending waterfalls down the arroyos separating sand from clay on the banks and built a sample bottle wall.

Next we dug the outlines for a solar shower basin, round hot pool and lower pools and wetlands, built up a retainer wall of rock and bottles to level the area we will top with sand from arroyo and flat stones from hillsides.

Solar hot water collector will be on hillside below pools and employ thermosiphon principles to send hot water up to shower and hot pool above.

Connecting streams with rock and sand filter water as will the wetlands planted with cattails, reeds, horsetail, willow and other water filtering plants transplanted from our koi pond.

Our Solar BathHouse is a work in progress and will take some time to figure out and get working smoothly and ecologically. But now that we've begun digging and putting our ideas into practice, it's clear there will be multiple benefits from our project including the joy of playing in sand and mud and enjoying springtime on the mountain.

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One Earth Blog

Text, plans and photographs by Charleen Touchette 2010

Thanks to Temple Grandin on National Autism Awareness Day

by Charleen Touchette 2010 OneEarthBlog