Aullwood: Maxine Thomas and Maude Haeger

Maxine S. Thomas, "Japanese Spring", 24.25" x 20" $225

Maxine Thomas and Maude Haeger are two more of my friends.  Maxine is a member of the Miami Valley Art Quilt Network and lives in Jamestown, Ohio.  She, like Maude, is also a member of the Studio Art Quilt Associates.

In Maxine's other life, she is a lawyer and she spent time in Japan as a Fullbright Professor  which influences her work.  In addition, Maxine almost always uses a bright color palette.

I saw the beginning of this piece in a thermofax screen printing workshop Shelley Brenner Baird held for us earlier this spring.  The "woven" background and the ginkgo leaves are both commercially available screens which then then printed on the fabric with thickened dyes.  She added more elements later.

Once again, Maxine's artist statement says it better than I can:  "Ginkgo leaves remind me of the trees I saw in Sendai and always bring back warm memories.  The art of Japan is very special to me and my quilts are ways that I can travel back to Sendai through art, illusion, emotions, texture and color.  Quilts appeal to my lawyer's notion of what is right and useful and my artist's love of freedom and whimsy.  Applique's discipline is new to me and I have done stenciling here for the first time.  The end result is my celebration and summons  to others to take their own evocative journey.

Maxine S. Thomas, Spring Iris I, 29.25" x 20" $250

This piece celebrates Maxine's spring garden.  She photographed her iris, then hand painted them on silk and rendered them into this quilt.  This is one of a series she is working on which "pays homage to (her) garden."   Even in the deep of winter, looking at the quilts will bring her back to the garden and spring and all that comes with that.


I had the pleasure of meeting Maude Haeger after writing about her work at last year's show.  Maude lives in West Chester, Ohio, so it is a ways from Aullwood, but not in midwestern terms.  After writing her, I found that her husband was also fighting cancer and we met at Aullwood to discuss that, and lots of other things besides! Maude is a teacher and is an exuberant, life loving person.

Maude Haeger, "Sunshine in the Garden, 58" x 40.5" NFS

Maude dedicated her Sunshine in the garden to her husband Walter, who has supported her in her artistic endeavors throughout their marriage.

"This quilt was created during the time he was going through chemo and radiation.  I was, of course, very worried and was not sure of what was going to happen. Walter loves it when I use bright colors and he loves gardens.  I chose to work on this piece as my way of pushing the cancer away.  Our earth is beautiful.  It also has sad and bad things in it.  We have to choose what we will concentrate on.  I like to try to overcome bad with beauty.  It is worth the effort of trying."

Maude Haeger, "Volcanic Rift in the Sea", 65" x 34" $1,000.

Her other piece, is just as rich and jewel like as this one....and I really love it.  Maude has illustrated the cracks in the ocean floor, a volcanic rift which oozes lava and gases.  I am afraid that this photo really do it justice as it glows with the reds, blues, and violets...

Maude heavily machine quilts her pieces, often using decorative threads.  She has also added quite a bit of beading to this piece to really make it come alive.

Here's a detail of her work...all of those little red dots are beads...

Thermofax Workshop with Shelley Brenner Baird

 Today, Maxine Thomas, Deb Bentley, Sue DeSantis, Mindy Marik and I ventured over to Columbus to do a workshop on printing on fabric with thermofax screens with Shelley Brenner Baird.

Shelley had lots for us to do while we were there....Seeing Shelley is always great fun and her workshop just continued that fun.  Shelley made each of us small thermofax screens with images we provided so we could see the whole process.  Then, we went to town printing on various fabrics we had brought along.

The first image you see here is an interesting set that Maxine Thomas did.  She printed on gauze and had a layer of fabric underneath to get what when through the thin gauze.

Debra Bentley brought along some commercial prints which were "old" and not something she would use anymore.  One piece was a decorator weight, coarsely woven  material printed with a funny green print.  Deb's overprinting with the thickened dyes were just wonderful.

Mindy did some really fun stuff, and what she's working on in the last photograph shows a piece of vintage fabric (a slip I think which had lace inserted) which she had dyed a plain color, and now she was working up a print to go over the top.

I didn't take too many pictures, and didn't get any good ones of Shelley and Sue because I was too busy printing my own.

It's now batching under it's own electric mattress pad, all nice, warm and cuddly.  I won't be able to see what came out of it until tomorrow, but since I was only working with plain PFD cotton and a piece of burlap (all that I could really pull together this week) I will probably do some over-dyeing as well as adding extra stuff....whether it be foiling, or paint or....

Yes...thermofax....the old, out of date mimeograph machine which so many tatoo artists now use for making their stencils....only we use a different material.