May Your Reds Never Run

Today is Saint Hunna's feast day.

She is known as the Holy Washerwoman and is the patron saint of laundresses and washerwomen. Other names for her are Oona, Una, Uma and Oonaugh.

She might protect you from bleeding and fading dyes.

Woman washing clothes

 in camp during the Civil War

Woman Ironing by Degas

As a child raised by nuns I believed there was a saint for every cause. I've often needed the intercession of Saint Hunna. I've made several shrines to her with collage and Photoshop.

 I am not the only one who needs some help with the reds. Here's a quilt from about 1910 when reds were absolutely unreliable.

So to celebrate St. Hunna's day: Prewash some reds and be grateful for recent inventions like the washing machine.

Federal photographers recorded this

Texas woman doing laundry in the 1940s.

Here's a book comparing painters's views of laundresses to that of this artist Jean Baptiste Greuze

Buy this book by Colin B. Bailey by clicking here:

http://shop.getty.edu/product368.html

See some disasters by clicking here:
http://juliebagamary.blogspot.com/2011/03/ugh-bleeding-fabric.html
http://lazygalquilting.blogspot.com/2008/05/new-fabric.html

And check out Jane Davila's post on Willie Cole's art inspired by the iron.
http://raggedclothcafe.com/2008/01/09/willie-cole-by-jane-davila/
Here's more on his work that he calls Scorches
http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=66215
See my Print on Demand book with more Saint collages from Blurb.com by clicking here:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1836309

A Book of the Saints for Quilters

I've always wished I could paint well enough to create a little Renaissance-style masterwork (a rather major ambition). Photoshop has helped me achieve my goal in a way. I've been altering masterpiece paintings and entertaining myself by the hour.

Saint Ann, on the cover, is the patron saint of seamstresses

Now I have figured out a way to publish my digital doodling. I've created a book in Blurb, a print-on-demand publishing site.

Here's what you'll find if you go to this web page:
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1836309

A Book of the Saints: For Quilters

Quilt historian Barbara Brackman has created 26 photo collages celebrating patron saints especially for quilters. Lost a scissors? Adding another UFO (unfinished object) to the pile? Worried about your reds bleeding? There's a saint for that.

 

St. Thomas is the patron saint of academia, including mathematics.

 He reminds you of the Pythagorean theorem,

which allows you to calculate the long side of any right triangle.

It's a 30-page paperback, just a little wisp of a book, a perfect gift for any textile artist.

It costs $15.95 plus shipping.

The only way to order it is from the online Blurb Bookstore.

St. Lucy's Day is December 13th.

She's the Patron Saint of Vision---

useful if you plan any counted cross-stitch

The Blurb books are so easy to do that I am sure I will publish many more from my new I'll Just Do It Myself Press. Check on my print-on-demand publishing empire by going to the online Blurb Bookstore(http://www.blurb.com/bookstore) every once in a while and doing a search for my name.