Gini Ewers

My maternal grandmother showed me unconditional love and personified kindness. And she taught me to sew and embroider. Our time spent together, surrounded by color, texture and pattern, fostered my love of textiles. I’ve been quilting for almost twenty years. My early quilts were traditional bed quilts made for specific people. Selecting just the right patterns, colors, fabrics and embellishments, to symbolize my relationship with the recipient, and to capture their special qualities, gave me great pleasure. In recent years, my exploration has been in the design and creation of art quilts.

I am drawn to combining complex machine pieced backgrounds, appliqué, hand stitching and machine quilting to tell a story. Recently, I have started to experiment with surface design techniques and printing on fabric to enhance the story.

As part of the Creative Strength Training community, I have been exploring archetypes as a means of better understanding myself, and in that process I have come face-to-face with many of my fears, especially the fears that limit my creativity. The bars of the bird cage in Making the Decision — Taking the Risk are embroidered words reflecting my fears. “Fear of not being enough. Fear of hurting the people I love…” While I can write out those fears on paper pretty quickly, stitching them was a much slower process. That gave me time to consider whether that fear served me in any way, or whether I could let it go.

The door of the cage is open so there is a decision to be made. Will the blue bird stay inside or venture out? What is outside the cage that makes it worth the risk? The branch is a dogwood; one of the first flowers to bloom in the Spring and a symbol of hope. Quilted into the background in my own handwriting are the opportunities that exist outside the cage. “Opportunity to love and be loved freely. Opportunity to create with my unique voice.”

It is worth the risk.

Making the Decision — Taking the Risk 2022 30” x 40” Art quilt NFS gini.ewers@charter.net