I can hardly believe we’re nearly half way through the SAQA 100 Days Reboot project, in which participants undertake to produce a small part of an over all project (of their own design) and post a daily pic with/without information on it. My goal is exploring textures in fabric and hand stitch, so far meaning mostly short to very long straight stitches, plus one or two samples with Y, stem, back and a few french knots.

That we are half way along is evidenced by my growing bunch of small mounted samples resembling a collection of mismatched drink coasters 🙂 Rather than having trouble coming up with ideas, I’m finding each one generates at least one more idea or variation. Also, as usual, sample making teaches the maker various things: some have showed there’s an easier way to do something than my original approach. Some will/should make interesting larger works, and others clearly have no future at all.

Stencil making done 2+ weeks back gave some reasonably blah results, partly because the paint was a bit watery and bled before drying:

I didn’t ditch them, but I did just turn my attention elsewhere. I must have been thinking about them, though, because this past week I came back to these with some interesting results:

I have no idea yet what I’ll do with the 4th stencil, but might re-use it on the same fabric with variations in colour, or something. There’s no rush.

Being a stitcher, I see stitch ideas in many places, and sometimes those inspirations are in the work of other artists working in different media to any of the ones I use. Here are a couple of my favourite examples:

If I were a weaver, I’d definitely want to do a workshop with Sara Brennan, because, as I wrote back in 2014 https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=2696 her work was focused on the meeting points of shapes, the lines and edges formed between zones of colour and texture in nature, and where these are complex they are interesting and she incorporates those into her weaving. It’s not that I want to learn to weave, it is that from what she writes I’m sure I’d find a lot to take away in how she draws and makes marks in thread.

Sara Brennan wrote in 2017 “I work from a series of drawings and paintings, often repeatedly exploring the translation of a surface or mark into tapestry….”

Another artist whose art prompts me to consider areas of colour and texture in them is the Australian watercolourist Laura Horn. Many of her water colour pieces feature patterns of lines and tiny shapes applied with a fine brush or marker pen:

Laura used this wonderful example to publicise one of her many online tutorials and classes in painting with water colours. To me they suggest fused organza with over stitched patterns OR pieces of organza marked with permanent pen which are then fused to the background.

This week Shelley Rhodes’ Stitch Club workshop project is requiring us to look at shapes in Nature and Landscape very carefully with view to incorporating such lines and shapes into our stitched homework, and I’ll be trying the potential of both possibilities in my next group of samples.

The annual SAQA Benefit online auction kicks off tomorrow at 2pm EDT (USA) This year’s 470 pieces made and donated by members can be seen here Every one of these 470 12″ sq pieces will be on sale for $1000 from 2pm on Friday 10th through the Diamond Days up until 1.00pm EDT Monday 13th. After that, at 2pm that day, the first 1/3 of the unsold quilts will go up for bids starting at $750, with the price falling each day until the end of the week. If my work, #69, is not sold in the Diamond Days, it will be up in Group 3, from Sept.27th -Oct.3rd. At any time during the 3 week auction, any quilt can be bought for $1000, you don’t need to wait for its group to come up.

To find how this all works, and see the FAQs about the process go to this link

You do not need to be a member of SAQA to bid – our collectors include many people who are not makers themselves. Anyone anywhere in the world can bid in real time once you have registered with the Handbid auction platform. Registering does not commit you to bid on anything, but it does mean that if you do see something you want, your bid can go straight in – and it’s first in best dressed on Diamond Days! But also, every day as the price comes down there’s a rush on popular pieces from people who’ve gambled on getting away with waiting until that new price takes effect …