Working with fabric on leather, I came up with the core of this idea some time ago: I realised I could very quickly and evenly make lines of tiny holes on leather, or single very small holes in one spot, by using my machine and sewing with a large, very blunt needle but no thread top or bottom. (To make an old needle reeeeally blunt, scrape the point on a metal file, a brick or cement) Even normal sewing machine marks on some fabrics are almost impossible to remove, but on leather and plastic they’re permanent. Then the other day it occurred to me that on the very tightly woven poplin I’m using I could do lines of dots with the machine to indicate the grid for the layout of the pieces on this design, and then use the holes either to actually quilt through by hand or cover easily enough by machine quilting over them. I ruled pencil lines on the back and sewed along them, which produced a tiny raised edge around the hole where the blunt needle bursts through the fabric.
I decided to hand quilt this with a linen viscose thread exactly matching the fabric, which doesn’t shine, but has wonderful texture. You can see the horizontal stitches in the middle of this pic, running in and out of the holes, and a vertical line of holes just to the left of centre. Even as I have written this I have thought of other ways this might be useful – so I’d love you to let me know if it leads you to another idea….

So, today I put up a few of the blocks I have done so far, just to see how the whole thing is coming along, and given that among the approx 250 or so I reckon I’ll need, I am satisfied that the colours so far are going to be lovely – DD wants a lot of jungle prints included and so they shall be, some appear already in this selection.

Once I get more prints I might do something with lights and darks in groups of 4 but that remains to be seen. And, I might not settle on this block arrangement -tomorrow I will arranged them with the arcs all readiating out in the same direction and see how that looks. After all, there is time to fiddle a bit.

In colour schemes there should always be a value of yellow, not necessarily much, and lots of colours can do the job of yellow – in this case there is a beautiful citrus colour which will be scattered throughout the quilt – plenty of it showing hanging and in the blocks on the wall – there’s also a much more subdued mustard colour, and several other golds and mustards will appear at times, I just haven’t got round to them yet. ‘Yellow’ is relative, and it can be a colour from greeny yellows to orangey and browny yellows and greyed values of those colours, too. If you are auditioning colours for a quilt, take out anything with yellow in the print or any fabric that reads as yellow, and you will see the difference.

These blocks have been trimmed to 6 1/2 inch squares.

Structurally there’s nothing interesting about this box of apartments, but I have always loved the whimsical surface decoration. Not only does someone have a sense of humour, but the dedication and will power, or the money to pay for them, to be painted so precisely on the bricks and maintained over quite a number of years now.

This piece stopped me in my tracks as I entered the Encounter design gallery at the Museum in Auckland.
Entitled “Little Barrier” by Malcolm Harrison , a large figure stands on a canoe in front of a sail. The whole thing stands about 6ft tall in the glass case, which unfortunately caught a little of my flash no matter which way I approached it.

My first thought was ” that looks like a quilt….great” but then it seemed to be a sail and then it had characteristics of a map. On it are appliqued shapes suggesting wind and wave, and schools of fish up to the right of and above the figure’s head. Some of the appliques could read as suggesting fluttering seabirds…..anyway, the sail in muted greys blues and creamy whites on the sandy coloured canvas offset the warmer coastal sandy earthy tones of the figure itself: is it a man? or a woman? It is godlike in pose, anyway.

Found objects include wood, presumably driftwood pieces, stones and some tiny shells formed into hair or is that a diadem? The clothing on the figure is of a natural silk, embroidered in toning and near-toning threads to provide interesting textures and patterns; it is also marked by quilted lines and hand written figures – making no sense but suggesting recorded information of some kind – the passage of time? sailing data? cultural information? or weather records perhaps? … it really doesn’t matter that we don’t know this, it’s powerful anyway. Other techniques around and on the figure include wrapping, applique, fabric manipulation and hand painting. There may be more. The head is a simple stone marked in such a way to suggest an ancient mariner searching the distant horizon ahead. A wonderful tribute to the ancient people who arrived by sea from distant Polynesia, over 1000 years ago.

Oh , and in case you hadn’t picked up on this, I loved this work.

The three sets of glasses in this case had retired for the night -as had their wearer – in repose they struck me as rather comical, appearing conked out after participating in an all-day hectic juggling act at conferences and quilt exhibitions; taking turns in and out of the case, on and off the nose. W – it’s really time to trade them in for the 3 in 1 number!