Fran Saperstein » sew

so much for posting more…

Fran — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:43:15 +0000

Well, it didn’t take long for me to fail miserably at posting more frequently. But I’ve felt a need to just be quiet and to focus on my health, my home, and well, not share. I’m trying to get out of that funk, writing in my personal journal, but it’s a process, as many of you probably know. So I’m not going to fight it. I’m going to go with it. And, until I get out of this funk, there probably won’t be much here at the artsyfran.com blog. Then again that could change…

Personal Symbols WIP

But I’ve been quietly stitching here in the studio. It’s always a good way for me to contemplate other things while I keep my creativity going. It’s been a very good thing for me this past week. It’s not done yet. I need to add more beads, but I needed to take a break from it.

I have a busy week planned. I spent a good part of today running errands. Tomorrow I have several appointments and then Dave is playing poker with friends, so it will be a nice quiet evening here at Casa Saperstein. Then on Wednesday, I’m speaking about the Baha at the Fountain Hills Hearing Loss Association (HLA). I hope to get some time in for drawing in-between appointments. It’s been a while since I’ve spent time alone with my sketchbook, but that’s OK, too! I’m hopeful that Thursday and Friday will be quieter and that I can focus on art for the majority of both days. Next week is my treatment (already!), so I think that some art time prior to that is just what I need!

L’Shana Tova to all my friends who celebrate Jewish New Year.

Something different

Fran — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:25:49 +0000

Bead Embroidery Collage from Susan Sorrell's class

I interrupted my painting progress for a bit. I’ve been taking an online class with Susan Sorrell on Personal Symbols. I have always been intrigued by her work and I’ve also always found embroidery a very relaxing and healing thing to do. So, when I saw about her class, I decided to take it. Six weeks, online. I can go at my own pace. This week, we created paper collages on Timtex and then embroidered over them, adding in buttons and beads. Some people added lace and other trims, as well. I’ve posted my version here. Enjoy!

Vintage Linen Quilts

Fran — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:50:12 +0000

I am so excited to finally share with you a project I have been working on for a while. You see, when my MIL and FIL moved to Phoenix, we helped them to unpack and get settled. While unpacking, many family heirlooms were shared. My MIL’s mother, Sarah, was a sewer and an embroiderer. Among the heirlooms were many of Sarah’s hand-embroidered liens. They had been well-loved and well-used. Some had stains and holes in them. But they are still incredibly precious. Some are over 75 years old!

When we uncovered these, I knew that I had to do something to honor the work in them and to allow them to be displayed. It took a while, but I finally decided that was time to work on them about six months ago. I created small hanging quilts of these hand-embroidered dish towels. They each hang individual and they have minimal but highlighting stitching and quilting on them. The goal was for them to be displayed, rather than hidden in a linen closet.

As embroidery is so tactile, I did not want to just put them in a frame where they’d be stuck behind glass. I knew quilting was the answer. However, putting them together in one quilt without major cutting was not possible and I wanted to find a way to honor the individual designs. After laying them out, I decided that the best way to display them was through individual quilts that would hang among family photos.

To create some stability, I used Warm & Natural batting inside of them and I sewed skewer inside the top fold of each of the small quilts so that they could hang up. Finally, I added a plastic-covered jump ring with to each with some hand stitching. The construction of them is simple, but it honors the hours of work that Sarah put into

Today, I gave the gift of five of these quilts to my MIL. She was thrilled. She had known that I was doing something with them, but had no idea what I had come up with. I was so glad she liked them. It was an honor to work with some of our family’s history and to preserve it in a way that the detail can still be appreciated.