In this year’s New Year Resolutions I pledged to use fabrics from worn out clothing whenever possible. I don’t need to hunt in thrift shops though, because I have enough much loved shirts and some household linens that really must be retired.

In January I cut up and saved the best bits of a much loved bright pink Jones of New York classic poplin buttondown shirt, at least 12 years old. Such things never go out of style, but the poplin had worn so badly on the collar and cuffs that the white stiffening was showing through at the edges in holes that were now so big the felt tip pen dabs I applied for a while no longer fooled anyone, and the cuffs were threatening to part company with the sleeve.

Those pieces didn’t sit around long waiting for their assignment, though, because soon I partnered that pink with a charcoal grey sheet, cut both fabrics into strips and shapes, machine pieced and hand quilted a 50cm x 70cm work I called it “New From Old”. It was juried into the SAQA Oceania Region’s exhibition “Opposites”, and is now touring Australia and NZ quilt shows with that collection, but I forgot to post the whole view after it was selected:

A few weeks ago I simply had to face similar realities with two more classic buttondown shirts by J Jill, in white and milk coffee brown linen. They’ve done good service for at least 8 or 9 years, and although pure linen, they weren’t as high quality as the cream Maggie T linen classic button down shirt I’ve been wearing for nearly 30 years. (I’m into investment drassing!) It recently underwent a little discreet mending, and while it’s no longer suitable for Sunday Best, Going Out wear, it’s still fine for daily doings.

I’m currrently working on a couple of small works in my Out of Order series, to enter a juried call, so I won’t say any more about them, except that one’s finished and this week I started the second, using some of the milk coffee brown shirt linen. Works in that series have distorted grid layouts, but the large tacking/basting stitches you see in these photos will be removed before I stitch the grids in a technique yet to be decided.

Most of the materials I auditioned have now been knocked back and set aside for a future project, but as I still haven’t decided how I’ll define the grid, I won’t put them away for a few days.

The modern world is heavily dependent on petrocarbons for fuel and energy, fertilisers and the production of over 6000 other uses including the huge variety of plastics on which we all depend for packaging, insulation and building materials, to name a few. You’d have to be living under a rock to not be aware that disposing of the world’s rubbish, of which plastics are a large portion, is the greatest environmental problem today. Large amounts of plastic waste are swirling around in rivers and streams that eventually make their way to the oceans. Everywhere along the way plastic bags, rings, lids, containers and other items endanger animals, birds and fish, and foul fishing nets. It is true that increasing amounts are being recycled, particularly in advanced countries where considerable advances have been made with salvaging and recycling projects resulting in road sealing materials, outdoor furniture and play equipment for civic parks and gardens, fencing, building cladding, new packaging materials, and many kinds of fabrics for both clothing and upholstery. But, as I say, that still leaves a lot of raw material for creative people to make things with.

A quick google brings up pages of links to many artists using salvaged plastic as their chief raw material, and one could spend many enjoyable days researching this topic. However, I don’t have to look far for such artists with whom I am very familiar.

The first is Jessica Grady, a UK embroiderer who uses packaging materials+stitch to create her richly coloured and embroidered surfaces. I was privileged to take a StitchClub workshop with her in 2021 that really inspired me – and looking back through my posts then, I re-discovered this photo, which I’d completely forgotten –

I found other pics of samples I did around that time, too, reminding me to re-visit the whole idea of trapping this lovely shiny mylar stuff and fabrics between layers of plastic for what Jessica Grady calls ‘sequins’.

While browsing around Instagram this week I discovered an inspiring artist, Imogen Williams who’s doing wonderful things with recycled plastic water bottles; and her work reminds me to seriously consider getting the heat gun that’s been on my mind a while.

Next is a Uruguayan artist here in Montevideo, Felipe Macqueira and this website page takes you to one of his fabulous works fashioned with modern technology and application of heat, and his materials list and statement give insight to his inspiration from that symbolic woodprint The Great Wave from the C19 Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. For stitchy fibreart people like myself, the rest of his website with more examples, and his studio too, are tremendously inspiring.

Another artist is Margery Goodall of Perth Western Australia, a good friend since we met in Kalgoorle WA in the 1980s. Back then she was very involved in Kalgoorlie’s quilting group, the Patchwork Pollies, and eventually I took her suggestion and learned traditional patchwork and quilting, QED. Always one to push technical and materials boundaries, this interesting work is one of many recent works in which her traditional patchwork and quilting background provides clear grid design structure for works expressing her concerns for the impact of throwaway plastic items on the environment; and a visit to this post on WAFTA West Australian Fibre Textile Artist site contains further examples and statements.

On the SAQA members FB page each monday and thursday a question is posted for us to think about and respond to, and resulting discussions are usually interesting and stimulating.

Today’s Thursday Question was “Symbols can be found everywhere we look. From the golden arches to ripples in a puddle. Are there symbols you find you incorporate into your work? Do you find they create a reoccurring theme?”

My inital response was to ask whether the question was about symbols or patterns that become symbolic to us?  A morning walk later I went back in and edited my response to add “For example, I have always liked the grid as a layout for repeated units in a design – the repetition has a unifying function even if the units themelves are not exactly the same – think the typical traditional sampler quilt, for example. These days in my designs grids, and the units themselves on/in them are becoming less uniform as a response to the increasing chaos around the world today – grids have become far more important to me as a symbol than I ever thought they would.“

Here’s just a few (in chronological order) from down the years, 1988-2025, I’ve spent making quilted fibreart:

In the most recent works of the Out of Order series, the grids have become far more distorted; so here’s a detail of #7 – to go into a juried call, so I won’t show the whole thing – but you get the idea:

How pleasing that Spirogyra 3, In The Weeds has been accepted into the biennial, Quilt Visions26, which opens at the Visions Museum of Textile Art, VMOTA, on October 13th next.

In my recent solo exhibition, it was possibly the one that most people commented on, and is a particular favourite of mine, too, although they are all favourites while I’m making them!

Someone recently asked me “may I ask how you stitched the skinny pieces onto the surface? Are those running stitches that you did by hand?” Being a fibre artist myself, my first glance at something either tells me how it was made or has me wondering. This detail shot shows both machine and hand stitching, and I can’t remember exactly the order in which I did each step – sorry – but you’re welcome to play with the idea and have fun!”