I recently corresponded a couple of times with a fellow artist member of SAQA who was clearly frustated with things she felt were expected of her as a well known teacher of textile techniques and long term blogger about all that. Reading some of her blog posts it was obvious this almost 80 year-old is struggling to keep up to a high standard she set herself decades ago when she was younger, but which she’s clearly now finding quite a burden, as in every post I read she dwelt on the need to reduce her stash of fabric and scraps, with instructions for samples and photos of them in every post. She still has one foot firmly in the traditional quiltmaking world where the ethic of sharing and showing others how to do something is a strong characteristic of the craft. She’s thinking it might be time to think more about where she wants her creative journey to go from here, and I hope she does that.

Her options are

(a) continue writing her frequent detailed blog postings (essentially step by step tutorials) as she has for a long time: “My real desire was always to encourage people to try non-traditional techniques… (sic) In my blog, I’m trying to let it be known that figuring things out, trying different techniques, learning new techniques, indecision, even failure and angst are all part of the creative process. Not to fear it, but embrace it as growth.” Of course this is true, but as I commented previously, the creative process itself alone doesn’t render any object a piece of art.

Keeping one foot in both traditional quilting and innovative textile art fields requires a lot of effort to maintain a teacher’s profile and place on the Quilting Industry foodchain. This includes includes blogging and/or newsletters to subscribers with taster-demos for major workshops – which is time consuming to do well. Other publicity comes from writing magazine articles and perhaps publishing a successful book, with projects that appear to be based on something new in techniques, linked to your popular workshops. Plus it’s very important to have your latest quilts seen in the big international quilt exhibitions in USA, Europe and Australia; and even better to be engaged to teach even a half day workshop at, say, Houston. I’m in a similar age group to this artist and I can no longer keep up with all that and make my art, too., so it’s some years since I applied to teach anywhere that I’ve had to travel to – I miss the interaction with students, though, and that’s part of the reason I mentor with SAQA.

(b) Or this artist/teacher could concentrate on creating her own art while thinking more deeply and personally about what inspires and motivates her, which she admitted she rarely does. She wrote to me “I have done exhibits with what I consider my real artwork, and it’s a whole different world than my “anyone can do it” teaching style….(sic) In my blog, I’m trying to let it be known that figuring things out, trying different techniques, learning new techniques, indecision, even failure and angst are all part of the creative process. Not to fear it, but embrace it as growth.” 

While my motivations and inspirations are very important to me, as set out in my in my artist statement, and I will be a maker as long as I possibly can; but I’ve found as time moves on that I’ve needed to periodically review and let go some stuff that I can no longer handle, or no longer want to spend time and energy on. Obviously aging and some medical issues have been influential in that process. I’m more interested in making smaller works, including 3D tabletop installations, but even if I do find myself in a large lengthy project, all I need is an absorbing good recorded book, my favourite podcasts and regular breaks to keep me going through the long stretches that I need to reach the end I have in mind 🙂

This topic popped up a couple of times this week.

First, I had the pleasure of meeting Doreen Bayley of Colonia UY. who came for a studio visit early in the week. Hers was one of the works I most loved in the “Enmascaradas” exhibition currently showing here in Montevideo, and we both had works selected for the first two glass+textile exhibitons, but we hadn’t met at either of those openings, and both missed the Enmascaradas opening. My own entry for the III Salon ArteVidrioTextil, opening February 4th next (Maldonado) is ready, and Doreen said she’s making one but has struck a snag, however there’s bags of time to finish her 25cm x 25cm piece before entries close on December 1st.

While she viewed my recent 2D works we had an interesting discussion about how we each approach making our art. Doreen said she doesn’t draw her ideas for her basketry creations out first, but assembles her materials and they then take her on the path to producing what she has in mind – to which I’d add guided by artistic ability and experience. She told me how angry and offended she’d been when some Big Name teacher or professor who proclaimed the importance or virtue of drawing, had really berated her in a public discussion when she revealed she didn’t draw anything, period. I don’t blame her – that was either his arrogance or ignorance, because as artists it is our own decision on how we design and produce our art. As the saying goes, there’s more than one way to swing a cat!

My regular readers know my own process is something similar, and that I very often arrange my design in grids. I showed my visitor a pair of 20cm pieces that are very diagrammatic, in a grid design, commenting how years as a geography student left me with the useful habit of quickly capturing ideas in brief, clear diagrams, as shown below –

I began making fibreart in the form of creative embroidery up to 1988, when having relocated to the USA I spent a year or so learning about and really enjoying making traditional American geometric patchwork and quilting. In the english speaking world particularly, modern quiltmaking is descended from both geometric patchwork and appliqued quilted bed coverings, though quilted textiles for practical purposes are found in most other cultures too. In the USA in the 70s, Art Quilts emerged as an art form using the traditional needlework techniques employed in that history. In the last fifty years the whole notion of ‘art quilt’ has been added to by new technologies that artists encountered and embraced. Some of these have become familiar to many of us, including digitally designed pattern printed on demand to fabric for the artist/designer to use in his art; the application of paints and dyes to produce surface design in the studio; machines that cut out fabrics and other materials to computer aided designs, and of course commercial fabrics have been changed with new technology, too.

Without going into detail on my opinion of how the word ‘quilt’ is really a negative factor in this artform’s struggle to be accepted as ‘art’, let me say that just like many other places, in Uruguay only painting, drawing and sculpture are regarded as ‘art’. Everything else, including all fibre related activities such as weaving, all kinds of embroidery, basketry, leatherwork, any form of knitting, knotting or crochet, and of course quilting, plus the many forms of glass work, ceramics, woodwork and the many iterations of metalwork – all lie somewhere on the busywork-handcraft scale. They’re certainly widely admired when featuring original designs and being well made, but nevertheless all that stuff is crafts, artesanías or ‘manualidades’.

My time in the traditional quiltmaking world was very brief, and I found it perfectly easy to abandon the concept of making a pattern to follow, but plenty of prominent art quilt makers do design and make their own patterns to follow, either by drawing out to scale, or projecting a line drawing to sheet of paper on the wall which they then number and label before cutting up. What is important is the final result, not how you got there.

In my next post I’ll go into the second time this subject popped up on my radar.

A call for entries has been announced for the SAQA Oceania Region (closing date January 31, 2026) It has a theme “Opposites” which I’m sure I can accomodate in some way while producing a small work (70cm x 50cm) that fits into my quilted fibreart portfolio.

A few weeks ago I began a list of ideas I could consider, but at the time nothing grabbed my enthusiasm, so I consulted chatgpt.com to see what AI could suggest.  I’ve written before about my earliest ‘chat’ with AI If you still haven’t explored this new technology, what is really interesting is that once you start making comments and evaluating what the algorithm suggests, it’s easy to forget that this is just an algorithm you’re interacting with, not an actual person.  I found myself using carefully polite language, just as I would if I were discussing an issue with a real person, because, well you just never know…

‘We’ went back and forth about various concepts – shapes, textures, lines, colours and more, and thinking about shapes, I then asked it to suggest some ideas based on this diptych of mine: “Sweat of The Sun; Tears of The Moon”   125x60cm.  2018.

These next pics are what ChatGPT put in front of me:

I was intrigued by these and loved each of them; but then I read the prospectus again, and found the wording of the section dealing with copyright, originality, kits, etc., isn’t entirely clear.  “Quilts made from patterns, kits, or completed in workshops with the collaboration or design of an instructor, or copies or clearly derivative work based on source material not made by the artist (including but not limited to artwork, photos, and AI-generated images) are not eligible.” I then felt a bit uneasy about saying I’d used AI as a design tool, because although the algorithm was basing its suggestions on my own original work, this usage could be or possibly even should be, interpreted as a collaboration between myself and the algorithm. 

So, to avoid this grey area, I opted to explore totally different design ideas, and pulled together a collection of my own actual samples and details from other original works, including but not limited to these ones –

I’m focused on embellishing stuffed puffs just now, but will want to get this done soon, so that I have the photography ready to sbmit with my entry in January – the month that my solo exhibition will be showing in here in Uruguay.

In my previous post I mentioned I was planning to make one of two table top installation 3D works for the solo exhibition of my recent fibreart in January ’26. In the last few days I’ve started, they’re easy and fun to do, and mine will eventually be embellished with stitch, possibly glass beads and other materials, perhaps even pearlescent sequins, depending on how those auditions go !

There are plenty of demos and ideas on these things – just google – here’s a really cute one – and another with a very clear simple description – giving all you need to know about making yo-yo’s, which in my view are not really “puffs” until they’ve actually been stuffed with something.

Someone recently asked me where I buy my fabrics. I’m sure she expected me to say I bring them in from Australia or the USA… but import duties are very high, and of three orders I made several years back, only one shipment actually arrived…. so apart from when I’m travelling ‘outside’ as they say here, I’ve found the best, most reliable sources for me are right here in Uruguay. My fabric rules are:

• I don’t keep a large stash.
• I buy something I love when I see it.
• more and more I work with basic colours (which never date)
• to create my art I will sew anything I can get a needle into.
• and sew with any thread I can get into that needle.
• I usually buy new, but also grab recycled fabrics from worn garments or household linens.

Beads – about 15 years ago in Egypt I visited a glassblower’s studio, and in addition to buying some small interesting vessels for some reason I felt it absolutely necessary to purchase about half a supermarket bag of glass beads 🙂 OMG, it must have been the heat. Mike and I needed to buy two additional large suitcases to pack in all the stuff we bought in Egypt (which in fairness did include two 2m x 2m tentmaker wall hangings– large and heavy) However, not one bead do I regret. Years ago I made a bead necklace and wore it once, but it was way too heavy to wear for more than a couple of hours and I think I must have given it to someone. Anyway – I have plenty to use as weights within most of these forms to give them some heft that feels appropriate to the size. I’ll also stabilise it with some velcro while it’s on its plinth.

Thread – Even if you always use cotton thread to sew with, in this case I recommend the strongest polyester machine sewing thread you can find – or an upholsterer’s thread, so it can be firmly pulled and fastened off without breaking. Unless you plan to show the gathered area on the front (2D) or top side (3D), the colour of that thread is irrelevant.

Stuffing – this is a great recycling or repurposing activity, too, as I’ve always saved offcuts of both fabric and batting/guata, and more than once have found just what I needed to add to a piece when I was just a little short. At this rate the “batting bits” storage box will soon be empty! However, I also have 3 large bags of small fabric scraps from my many pieced works.

As in the pic illustrating my previous post, I mentioned that embellishments would be easier before stitching all the units together – so I’ll be working on that next.

Courtesy of the Intendencia of Maldonado which runs the Casa de le Cultura, (cultural centre) I’ve been offered one of the gallery exhibition spaces for next January, with the opening on Jan 2nd. I knew it ‘had been a while’, but when I checked I was a bit shocked that this will be my first solo in Uruguay since May 2009 – way too long.

I’d been to the centre once before, on the opening night of the first exhibition of Glass+Textile art, in which I had a piece. The organisers have made it an annual event, and the third exhibition of glass+textile art will be held at the Casa de la Culture in February of next year. (the conditions of the call have been published, the size is a little larger, 2D, max.25cm, and I’m already working on an entry) Last week I went to Maldonado to meet Ana, the gallery director, and was shown two spaces, both the same. On the day I went there, both rooms were occupied with classes so I couldn’t enter to take linear measurements, but I took a couple of photos through the glass panelled door, which was enough to give me a good idea of how to approach shortening my list of possible works and bring a better focus to the collection.

I initially thought I wouldn’t need to make any new work at all, and while that is true for my 2D wall hanging works – tapices, wall hangings, art quilts – I’m currently enamoured with 3D, too, and now know that the centre supplies the plinths I’d need for some soft sculptures; so I plan to make at least one and probably two table-top pieces featuring embellished stuffed suffolk puffs – (try repeating that phrase fast!)

They grow quite quickly, and learning from the one I’ve been making these past couple of weeks, I’ve realised construction will be faster and easier if I make them larger, and embellish them before I assemble them!