Barbara Rucket of Atlanta GA, and I are good friends in a small online group of stitchers who met up among the earliest members of the Textile.org’s – StitchClub begun in 2020. (Visit this link to learn about this subscription organisation that presents excellent online workshops and encouraging feedback from teachers and fellow members) Several of those teachers left indelible inspirations on my creative path. One example is Jessica Grady’s embellishments workshop which inspired experimentation that led to my art quilt “Caribbean Crush” and several more recent pieces.
Recently Barbara shared her thoughts on where her work is going, and the importance of graphing or charting her original designs to work in her preferred stitching techniques of needlepoint and beading.
As an experienced stitcher of needlepoint and beading works, for many years Barbara has been a member of the Embroiderers Guild of America, EGA – (which I belonged to in Denver) taught classes and been active in the several other textile art guilds she belongs to. These images of two of her works bear similarity to how I think in repeated units of squares, or grids on a different scale, which I see as an enduring influence in my own art, from (a) hand drawn diagrams to illustrate university geomorphology papers in the predigital 60s, and (b) the brief time in the 80s I spent making traditional American geometric patchwork.
Today most of my art is based on some kind of grid ( https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=8524 )
Right from the start, StitchClub members included experienced lovers of stitching as an art form, and others who hadn’t held a needle to embroider something for many years; and we all welcomed this new textile art online group as a huge help to our sanity during the difficult Covid-19 pandemic. After a while, StitchClub experimented with the idea of forming small groups they thought would expand and strengthen the StitchClub community – like a quilting bee or stitching circle. Those who expressed interest in this trial were selected from within close time zones; each group was labelled with a colour (we got PINK) and we were given Textile.org’s Zoom link to use at our chosen time. At the PINKS’ first Zoom call about 4 years ago, Barbara, Nancy, Ali, Bonnie, Jan, Val, Pam and Ann and I decided to meet every second tuesday, at mid afternoon Montevideo time; I’m the only one in the southern hemisphere, mid-way between Western Canada/USA and the UK.
StitchClub eventually let the trial groups project go, but we PINKS decided to continue with our group thanks to Nancy offering us her Zoom account. Last year with some mixed feelings I let my StitchClub membership go, but it’s important to me to remain in the PINKS group.
As we got to know each other by chatting about the SC workshops and textile art in general, we’ve always found so much to talk about. Of course some momentous world events have occurred during this time, and while they are touched on, our fortnightly talk still mostly stays ‘on topic’. What a joy it was to have regular facetime contact with fellow stitchers while normal in-person group activities in our communities were suspended. Since travel resumed, some of us have managed to meet in person. For the UK members this is less difficult, but on a visit to USA I was able to take a couple of days out of our family visits to go to Atlanta for a wonderful, but too brief time with Barbara and her husband.
PINKS still meet on Zoom every second tuesday, which is this afternoon, actually! and it’s nearly time to go and make a cup of tea, check my hair and put some fresh lippy on …
It is so important to have a group that shares your interests. That interaction, indeed, can keep one sane as it did for me also in the Covid time. I’ve not been in a zoom/online group and don’t know that I could keep that up. It’s those ideas bubbling between friends like this that help us keep designing and making. It also helps to have blogs that have content like this…more contemplative and not a business blog. Thanks for still sharing yours!
Thanks for commenting, Kathy. I have spent much of my life geographically distant from actual in-person groups from which, as you say, so much stimulating support comes, so in-person groups are not absolutely essential to me. Today I place higher value on in-person contact with particular fibreart individuals rather than whole groups of people, many of whom I probably have only a shallow connection. My several online chat groups bring support and stimulation, but leave me with plenty of mental space to pursue my interests and ideas in needle and thread. With some age-related physical issues these days, it’s wonderful to spend an hour or two with like-minded people so conveniently, free of weather, parking or other travel concerns. The groups I belong to are instantly acessible from the minute I turn on the computer, allowing more time for my husband of many decades, my non-fibreart friends, and our far-flung children and grandchildren.