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The month of January 2024

Carly Mul • Jan 30, 2024

The month of January is ending.  It has been a whirlwind for me.


The writing of my Organic Color Collage book proposal has been finished and accepted by the publisher. Now I am working on making samples and illustrating with photos what I am trying to explain. That is a lot of work and requires much better lighting, setup, and camera, than a shot for Facebook and Instagram.  I am surrounded by white umbrellas! 

Thank goodness I have a husband who enjoys photography and who is good at cleaning up photos. He's cropping, and removing little threads that are all around me to give the photos a clean and professional look. Next, he organizes them in all kinds of files to give me and the publisher easy access.  He has always done this for Webfabrics when it was still my business and this allows me to focus on the fabrics and colors, much more my strength. It almost feels like we are back in the day!

I am a little bit in a hurry because ideally, the book should come out at Market, but that is short notice, considering that I just started writing after the last Market!  I am not sure this will happen, but snow days and a lack of outdoor activities are helpful! After the visuals have been submitted I will know more.



A little sword is hanging above my head. My mother may be living her last days on earth and I expect to go to Europe within the next few weeks for a goodbye. Most of you know that my mother is suffering from Alzheimer's and her (requested) death will be the end of the misery. That is how she sees it in moments of clarity. That is how all her children see it. We have had many discussions about situations like this in our family and know her wishes. We are extremely grateful for a most wonderful, loving, and dynamic mother who up to age 84 had a very fulfilling life. These last years have been difficult for all and she is now in a situation that is not her.

 Many of you know her. In her younger years,  we have attended many shows together and she loved being in the shop. She became an accomplished quilter  herself after initially saying about my quilting "so you buy fabrics, cut them in pieces and then sew them back together again?" My basket of great memories with both my parents (my father passed away in 2011) is overflowing.  I have been so extremely fortunate with them and we have enjoyed each other so much. "Smell the roses"  is indeed almost a family slogan in my family and has been passed on from generation to generation.  We all are trying to do this and the built-up gratitude that comes with it is helpful in tougher times, which are also a normal part of life.

My parents have been the most amazing grandparents to my children. I have big shoes to fill and hope I can honor their legacy.


My quilts will be on the road! "Abundance" and "Homage to Yaagov Agam" have been accepted into the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show in Hampton. Agam will be hanging in a special exhibit of quilts inspired by artists of the 20th century. I sent a message to the Agam Museum in Tel Aviv, but haven't heard back. I am not sure if the museum is even open these days. Mr Agam is now 96 years old and I have been a fan since I saw his work for the first time in Paris a long time ago.  His sculptures are all over the world and when in the area I look them up. I once, on my way to Houston, drove to the children's hospital in Birmingham, AL just to see the outside of the building! It was the Pompidou room in Paris that made me an immediate fan, but he has made so many amazing pieces of art.  He is a sculptor and can express with color and movement how perspectives can change. The connection with quilting is in my view obvious.


The Alzheimer's quilt  (official title "My mother has Alzheimer's. These last 5 years) has been selected for the SAQA  Sew to Speak exhibition in Germantown, MD at the Black Rock Center for the Arts ( I entered it there because it was such a good fit with the theme of the show).  You can understand that this is now even more special to me. The exhibition will run from  March 9 until April 22, 2024.  


At the moment I am making these show quilts ready by attaching sleeves and labels. Do you know that a sleeve has to be attached to the top of a quilt? I discovered a next day that I had sewn my sleeve to the bottom...so smart.. I can keep myself nicely busy!;)


We had another wonderful Open Studio Day where 5 students spent all day in my Studio working on an Organic Color collage. I know these students are truly enjoying the day and so do I. We all learn so much about the technique by listening and looking at each other's work. I can finetune my teaching and I know this last group heard it much more clearly than when I taught it for the first time at a guild. It is wonderful to be on a color journey with like-minded quilters! 

The next open Studio Day will be 4-27, 2024.  The cost is $229.00 for an all-day class with access to all my fabrics and supplies and lunch provided by Panera. Email me if you want to be included or would like some information. Students who have taken the class have expressed an interest in an "Agamy" Stripes class as well. I will schedule a date for that a little bit later.  I have made another "Agamy" Stripe quilt, but it still needs to be quilted. Later.


Another quilt is finished: "Growing color"  uses the organic color collage technique for the background. The idea behind the quilt is that we all can choose to look for the good, grow color, even when life is not perfect. I tried to make the background, the effort,  "perfect" and the individual flowers on purpose not perfect.  They have flaws, one I even cut!  Are the flowers the most important part or should the background be the most important part? A viewer may decide. 


I added to my website some new fabric packages. The new Kaffe Fassett collection that came out last month (Vintage) is available in a builder size. 20 pieces of fabric in size 4.5 x 10"! Big enough for collage people who make great quilts with small pieces! Remember, you can always ask me for packages with little pieces. I made these Single Shapes packages whites, low volume, and almost whites, for a student. How else do you get 75 different pieces of fabric in whites and superlights?


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