Aullwood 2011: Merry Havens and Kathleen Irons Sweeney

If you have been able to visit the Aullwood Nature Center's art quilt shows in the past, or if you followed my blog posts from last year, you will probably recognize Merry Haven's name.  She, along with several others, usually submit pieces every year.  Not everything gets in, it all depends on the juror, but is it a pleasure for me to see how they interepret the theme.

Merry Havens "A Wrinkle in Water Wisdom 56" x 27" $1,200

This year, Merry, who is from Thornton, Colorado, has two pieces in the show.  The first is "A Wrinkle in Water Wisdom."  In this larger piece, Merry shows ten fish swimming upstream, all of them endangered because of introduction of non-native species, installation of dams, pollution and overfishing.  The fish are (from top to bottom):  Lake Chub (2); Southern Red Belly dace (3); Northern Red Belly Dace (3); Colorado Pikeminnow (1); Suckermouth Minnow (1); Plains Minnow (1); Rio Grande Sucker (3) ; Humpback Chub (1); Boneytail Chub (1); and Razorback Sucker (1).

Havens, "Wrinkle in Water Wisdom" detail

In this detail you can see some of the decorative cut work appliques that Merry used along with some of her quilting.

Merry Havens, "Two Fish", 11" x 35" $385

Merry Havens, "Two Fish" deail.

I'm a lover of bright colors, particularly oranges, reds and blues.  Merry combines all of these in "Two Fish".  This piece doesn't really have a weighty statement, it's just plain fun! 


In the detail, you can see Merry's use of couched decorative threads and yarns.  In addition, she used real hand painted stones to give an extra element of color and texture.

Merry has a blog and you can see it(and examples of her work)  here.  You can also see the piece she had in last years show here and here

Kathleen Irons Sweeney, "Tautology", 34" x 24" NFS

Kathleen Irons Sweeney who is from Cedarburg, Wisconsin taught me a new word.  This is her piece which is called "Tautology."  She explains it, and her piece, in her artist's statement better than I could:

"While pondering the question 'Why is the sky blue?' I asked my daughter, a movie buff, what came to her mind.  She immediately answered, "It's a tautology." referring to this very question as it was discussed in the movie 28 Days.  The word itself and the image it evoked were so vivid that I knew immediately this was the inspiration for my quilt.

By definition, a tautology is a repetition of the same idea in different ways.  In this instance, the sky is blue because it reflects the color of the sea which is reflecting the sky above.  . . I chose fabrics to blend from the deepest earth through water to the outermost sky.  Separate elements lending and  reflecting back to each other ,  effectively joining land, life and cosmos in one representation."



In this detail, you can better see her choice of batik fabric and her little boat.  It's a simple design, but I think a very effective one.  I'm also always happy to add a new word to my vocabulary, but probably one I won't use very often!  You can see my post on her last year here.

Kathleen Irons Sweeney, "Tautology" detail

Aullwood: Kathleen Irons Sweeney

Kathleen Irons Sweeney is a quilter after my own heart. Her pieces are deep--thickly laden with texture. Multiple layers of unusual fabrics, manipulated in order to give the essence of the texture of tree bark, highlighted with with gems.

Notice how her pieces, for the most part, are not contained, but continue off the edge. This piece is called Into the Wood, and I'm afraid my picture doesn't do it justice. It was over my head and in an alcove making for a very tough shot.

This is Shaded Glen. In it, Kathleen employs tulle and other sheers in order to create the ghostly tree shapes in the background. The tree itself is made of a very odd sort of fabric---similar to ones I find in the "red tag" section of JoAnn fabrics.

By Wooded Water shows a pool at the edge of a forest path. In the details you can see how she frayed linen in order to make the mossy sort of forest floor. One of the great delights in this piece is that she used a brocade which effectively created water. I don't think I would have thought of using the fabric in this particular way, but it is really quite wonderful.

Kathleen says that this is a vintage fabric which she found at a used clothing store. "It just called out to be water." I'm glad Kathleen listened to the call!


Kathleen lives in Cedarburg, Wisconsin and is a member of North Shore Quilters Guild as well as belonging to other quilting organizations. She has been a moving force in encouraging other quilters.

She doesn't have a website, but if you google her name with the word "quilt", you'll find lots of her other work.