I have several things on my mind at the moment, all of them to do with the lines and shapes formed by Nature and Human Activity on the Earth’s surface.
First, my latest stitched Suffolk puff soft sculpture is almost completely assembled – it’s part of the Growth series in this website and I love how these puffs provide a really nice surface on which to stitch. Moving on further, it might make some sense to embroider first before cutting out the circles. I’ve filed each photo I’ve taken of this group of forms “Grey and gold puffs” and this one has added “Grey and gold puffs with basting blog” because it has been resized to fit on this page. That however will probably not be the title of the finished work, in which case I’ll need to rename the several pics for consistency.
Second, sheer fabrics I pinned an image on Pinterest the other day because that pic reminded me of the love affair I’ve always had with the design potential of sheer fabrics (I also follwed the link to the wonderful work of Beate Hien which I’ll explore in depth sometime soon) I used nylon organza in several of the Timetracks series, and one I made after our trip to Egypt titled“Gift of The Nile” scroll down because there are pics of others in that post, too.
Third, grids. My regular readers know that grids are my default design layout 🙂 That pinterest image reminded me of the potential of double needle stitching a line. About fifty years ago, when the Princess line with A-line skirt was in vogue, I made myself a lovely special occasion dress (the races? a wedding? I forget…) The bodice featured silver metallic lines of double needle stitching I did on the fabric before cutting out the pattern piece, and there a fine ridge formed between the two lines visible on the surface. How could I forget this – it is a perfect technique for my next Out of Order piece…. I want to produce much more distortion in the grids as the deteriotation of the state of the world seems to have accelerated markedly over the past year, and this will be the perfect technique to lay down the grid for #4, coming up soon.
So appreciate seeing the material you used for Time Tracks 7. I got to your website via an image in a book shared at the meeting of Peninsula Fiber Artists in Port Townsend WA yesterday. I too LOVE grids, not that any of my successful work has included them.
Thanks for commenting, Linda. Was that the QN09 catalogue, perhaps? Anyway I wrote a little about it here https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=485 ut by now it could have gone anywhere. I still own it and currently have it up on the wall within about 2m! I so often use grids because of influences in my past. As a geography and geomorphology major in precomputer days (I’m 79) I needed to illustrate papers with hand drafted maps and diagrams – so that’s really how I think – each grid unit is in reality a diagram that is just part of the whole. The other main influence is my 1987 arrival to live in Denver CO for a while (husband’s job relocation) and it was there that a new neighbour took me along to a meeting of the then very new Arapaho County Quilters guild because she knew I was involved in textile art as an embroiderer. I took some classes including one on how to draft your own pattern to any size, another on seminole patchwork, and a one day class by Blanche Young, who wrote a top selling book on the Flying Geese pattern. I loved all that stuff but soon was designing my own non-traditional quilts, which have so often included a grid layout. I checked your blog and hope to see more posts soon, but I also found your website and about the research you did your book on company towns up there- they were quite a thing 100+ years abgo, right?