On the Quiltart list today, one writer, Delores, announced she was determined to take her art in some new directions this year, mentioning both techniques and themes.   That reminded me of another artist friend who for a year did not teach, write, exhibit or attend any classes but focused on thinking about her work and coming to terms with where she wanted it to go, rather like a sabbatical.  There were several interesting responses to Delores’ post, and I wrote about what I have long recognised about my work over 20 plus years.  (I am quietly cerebral …) I thought my blog readers would probably also like to read this expansion of some of the material in my bio page, elsewhere on this website .

Long before I began making quilted textile art in 1998, I had a background in creative, interpretive stitchery, which indeed occasionally included the quilting technique as a surface texture.  But since 1988 I have been making quilted textile artworks, aka ‘quilts’ and during that time there have been several identifiable changes of direction: never because I have felt ‘bored’ with what I was doing, but always in response to one stimulus or another that has periodically lured/steered me off on a new path.  My website galleries (menu above) are arranged MOL chronologically, but like in the zodiac there are ‘cusps’.  So, I can say that the I recognise the following stimuli in the development of my work :

1. I relocated From Outback Australia to Denver USA – where learned traditional quilt construction and at the same time met some very stimulating creative textile artists with common and overlapping interests in quilt designing, making, exhibiting, writing, contemporary embroidery … and in 1988 began what became my Ancient Expression series
2. from mid-Ancient Expressions when I became interested in strips and linear boundaries, I did two workshops with Nancy Crow in 1990, 1992, and Colour Memories developed
3. The Ebb & Flows developed from Colour Memories because I suddenly found myself living in Uruguay  (1) where I could not buy fabrics I was used to working with and so brought bags of scraps and offcuts (as well as some yardage) over from Australia each time I came,   (2) around 2000 – 2002 I was thinking about the frugal origins of patchwork and how they have influenced modern quilted textile art   (3) and people here use up resources/materials or pass things on   (4) I also was gobsmacked by the intricate piecing being used in her colour explorations by Perth Aus textile artist and close friend, Margery Goodall www.margerygoodall.com   (QN09 exhibitor Erin Wilson also used extremely intricate piecing construction for her beautiful work)
4. The Tracks series began when (1) around 2004 I started cutting into leather and experimenting with it with a view to using it somehow (the leather is a a symbol linking my australian life with Uruguay)  (2) Landscape processes have always been part of my vision but as I have aged they have became metaphorical for ‘Life’,  (3) around 2004? I did a workshop with Chungee Lee, so the potential of sheers, not the Korean construction itself, assumed an importance which has rolled on  (someone somewhere around this time mentioned ‘woodburning tool’ …)

If you do go to my website galleries after reading this, you’ll find I have just added some new works to Tracks and Ebb& Flow galleries, since they  are now on exhibition here in Uruguay www.galerialoscaracoles.com

The above quilt, “Mission Beach” 1995, photographed against black, is one of quite a number of irregular shaped works from my Colour Memory series – click on the drop down gallery menu at the top of this page. 

Recently discussion on the Quiltart and the SAQA lists I read came around to edging issues again.  Rarely do makers of traditional quilts need to think about this, but the edging can make or break a non-traditional or ‘art’ quilt.  As these works commonly hang on the wall, very often a facing is a good way to finish if the maker doesn’t want the line of a binding or a border around the design.  Recently there were a number of links to variations of putting a facing on a rectangular or square quilt.  Facing is a valuable dressmaking or tailoring technique and has been very useful to me edging irregular shaped quilts – such as the one above,  and others of mine such as “Obiri”, “Kimberley” and “Green Island” 

It was this group of work s in the mid ’90’s in particular that led me overcoming certain technical difficulties, and to being asked to write and teach about this.    I have written articles on this ( DUQ magazine nov. 1997)and a chapter in “Workshops From The Guild” published in Australia in 1996.  The link at the end of this post is a summary of tips and diagrams from that writing that might help some readers to successfully finish some larger irregular shaped pieces.  Facing irregular shaped quilts

On a quiltart post this week someone asked about links to fibre artists working with  primitive style stitching in their art.  Of course, it all depends what you think of as ‘primitive’.   In the mind of a quilter, does this mean switching attention to a thick thread and sewing large stitches with a big needle? or is it something more? I suggested to just either take up a needle and thread and begin doodling on a cloth, (sample making) or thinking of each line as a straight stitch (the quintessential primitive stitch) begin making pencil marks on paper in various combinations and patterns – in other words, to just get started.

But I also suggested the quilter do a bit of thinking about what she considered the essence of  ‘primitive’ and think about what she wanted to do with primitive style stitching in her work.  The suggestions were well received by the original writer on this subject, but further comments from others set me thinking  about what I myself see as the essence of primitive.  As some more links rolled in from others on the list, a number of artists were suggested  and although I love their works I wouldn’t describe as them as primitive in the way the original questioner seemed to be thinking.   So then I got into a dictionary and then wikpedia,  and found the whole field an overlapping zone of confusing definitions bringing in terms such as rudimentary, primordial, untrained, naive, folk art , ‘primitivism’ – covering everything from art to anthropology and biology, none especially connected to stitchery but a good starting point for considering art through stitch.  People began to talk about several ethnic embroidereries employing running stitches,  such this one a work which I have not given a title to yet despite it being 3 years old and twice exhibited….

This next one is “Desert Tracks 3”

And next is “Desert Tracks 5”

So, although I didn’t have  ‘primitive’  in my mind when I was doing these pieces 2-3 years ago, perhaps that was part of my purpose.  I am not a great journaller and so didn’t record  much about them at the time apart from thinking of them in terms of ‘tracks’ left across surfaces.  

But in relation to the untitled one, I was really focusing on the very very basic pattern of a square within a square, primordial not just o early patchwork patterns but primoridal in a human design sense; and in that context I wanted to present it as ‘unskilled’  – one of the terms I found comes up in the plethora of words surrounding ‘primitive’ in the dictionary.  Now that I think about that, this does have more than a touch of the primitive about it.  Anyway, regardless of my largely unrecorded contemporaneous thoughts, they all certainly  influenced the development of  more recent works, which you can explore in the Tracks gallery on https://www.alisonschwabe.com

Another point that was discussed recently was how looking back over your work, and also writing about it, can give new insights even when you think you know or knew it well at the time.

Following on from the previous post (october 22nd)  showing the stage where gold arcs applied to the almost-black fabric were then removed until a satisfactory design balance was achieved, this next photo shows  the arcs being sewn down.

And after the various stages outlined in the previous posts were done, the final stage, burning, produced texture like this.

Now I am in the process of burying threads from the back to the inside or sending gold threads caught up between layers through to the front to hang; and once that’s un-tidied up , I’ll add a sleeve and it’ll be ready to be photographed.