The Book Of Ruth

If I create from the heart, nearly everything works;

if from the head almost nothing.

-Marc Chagall

(The ring on the glove was my grandmother ring and is used to keep the book closed)

I made this "Legacy keepsake Album" last week for a workshop proposal for artfiberfest.
The photos are of my grandmother Ruth whom I was named after.
(when I was little they would call her Big Ruthie and me Little Ruthie)

My premise for this book is to combine your personal or found photos along with small tokens, mementos and Paper Ephemera to create pages to tell a story (personal or fictional)
The use of combined text is symbolic to my grandmother, I used the the book of Ruth passage from the bible as I have memories of her reading her bible daily. The Japanese text represents my grandfather. The child in the photos is my Mother.

This is a interactive book as the mementos and hand written letters come out of the pockets.

pockets are used to house mementos or various small art work.
machine stitching combined with hand stitching adds delicate texture to the pages.

A album much like this one will be in my book:

Layered, Tattered and Stitched: A Fabric Art Workshop
(due out fall 2009)


I have been very busy working on the words for this book the last few weeks, as the deadline for the words are just a few short weeks away! (word to the wise, never have a major deadline, two weeks after Christmas if at all possible!)


I am pleased to report that I am 90% done with the writing.

(thanks to Kristen Robinson who has made me
red velvet cup cakes along the way to keep
me motivated to write and has gifted me
with her keen wit and eyes as she
has been editing my words along the way!)

I am now working on the intro to the book,
I have chosen to write a “walk down memory lane”
and share how it was that I found my way to fabric art.
It’s almost therapeutic in many ways to look back and reflect on why we make choices
that lead us to our passions.

so why do I still struggle with calling my self a artist
and when I refer to my work space as a "studio" I almost laugh every time?

It makes me think about this quoit:

The reason angels can fly is that they take themselves so lightly.  --G.K. Chesterton 

The other day I was reading out loud an email some one had written
expressing how much my work touches them...
to my husband and kids.
Bronson my 15 year old nephew who has just recently moved in with us
declared to me after I read the note that he did not think it was good for me to read
all the nice things that people write about me because
then I will start to think that I am to good and not try as hard.

I laughed and told him:
“Oh no Bronson! It’s the opposite;
I worry that I may never come up with another good idea!
If anything it makes me try harder!”

I believe the only thing that must keep us creative types creating
has to be the love of the process combined with the delightful playfulness
that fills us as we create.

(binding of book)

The hallmark of creative people is their mental
flexibility... Sometimes they are open and probing, at others they're playful
and off-the-wall. At still other times, they're critical and faultfinding.
And finally they're doggedly persistent in striving to reach their goals.
From this I've concluded that the creative process consists of our adopting
four main roles, each which embodies a different type of thinking... These
roles are: Explorer, Artist, Judge and Warrior.
~Roger von Oech