If you’ve been reading my blog for long enough you might remember this Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt top. It’s a very long running work in progress, or WIP, which I think I last wrote of about 4 years ago.
OK- A few will need to be removed and applied somewhere else!
Though I began making it in 1980, strictly speaking it isn’t true that I’ve been working on it for 40 years. It’s languished in storage for two long spells totalling about 12 years, but even so, it has been hanging around a while. In the stressful times of this pandemic, I’ve found hand stitching very rhythmic and calming – so in addition to the online workshops I’ve been taking, and several exhibition entries I’ve produced, I’ve also been covering and adding more cream hexagons to the border of the flower garden. I keep a little stack of cut papers and fabric hexagons, needles, thread and thimble just beside the phone to work on them sometimes while chatting in long phone calls with distant family or friends. Especially in this cream-hexies-border-building phase, it’s been easy to just pick up the top and add a few on to where I think I left off ‘last time’.
A couple of days ago I thought perhaps it was time to lay it out on the floor to see how many more hexagons I still need to cover and add, and where along the edge they’re needed. I really can’t remember making a specific decision to not add a couple more flowers on that chopped off corner, but the reason must have been that I had no more of that acid green. So anyway, that corner needs to be filled out to become square, and the corner diagonally opposite needs some attention too. Is this bothering me? Not at all. Ancient textiles often have some noticeable irregularity, and of course in the Muslim world every artisan craftsman deliberately puts in a few ‘mistakes’ in his finest silk carpet or hand carved furniture – because only Allah can produce a perfect creation.
This morning I noticed on the dashboard that there’s a list of drafts I can bring up, those posts begun but never published, for reasons not always apparent. There, I found a post I began 3 years ago, which started “I saved this pic to three of my Pinterest boards, lines, sheers and presentations – because it wowed me on all fronts.”
And it still does. I’ve searched hard, following links to many other people who also saved it, googled the image, too, but all in vain. The maker’s name hasn’t come up. So I’m posting it with admiration today, hoping someone might know who this artist is. Please let me know if you do, because of course I will revise this post with proper accreditation. I wish it was my own work. UPDATE Hooray! one of my readers messaged me within 24 hours of posting this to tell me it is the work of Stephany Latham According to her website, the full lenght of the installation is 10 feet. I’d love t see it all – there is a front on view or part of it.
I presume it’s a natural fibre, probably either cotton or silk organdie or organza, sheers because of being indigo dyed. There’s some kind of fibre filling separated out into linear sections, probably sitched to maintain the lines effect, so it seems to be a quilted textile. I think it was probably constructed as one piece before being chopped into segments now displayed as impaled by large nails, a harsh, brutal presentation method in strong contrast with the delicacy of the textile. Advantage – it would be dead easy to pack up and send off with display instructions for exhibition!
As I’ve been writing about lately, small units need effective presentation in some kind of grouping for them to be seen and appreciated for the elements that bind them together while displaying their individual differences. Think of a family photo in which it is clear parents and offsprings share resemblances, but everyone has their own particular identity, too. In recent posts here I’ve shown some small landscapes from earlier times, mostly as repeat units in art quilts, although the little landscapes mounted on basketry mounts were different. I love making them and am considering how more of them could be displayed together.
A few days ago, American textile artist Kathy Loomis sent me a nice congratulatory note on reading that I’d been selected for QN21. Kathy and I have periodially exchanged letters down the years since we actually met up at QN09, and in 2015 I was honoured when she asked me to review her book “Pattern Free Quilts” (2015) Kathy’s email arrived just as I was thinking of her, anyway. I had been looking at a recent work by Margery Goodall in a Perth, Australia exhibition (which I hope to show in an upcoming post) and Kathy’s email prompted me to take another look at her 2009 award winning quilt, Memorial Day I was reminded how much it also has in common, constructionally, with some of the work of eminent Colombian artist Olga Amaral
If you check the detail pic of Memorial Day you can see that each little rectangle is a tiny postage stamp size quilt, about 1/5″ x 1″ layered and quilted, that by it’s use of colour suggests a US flag. Using several red and white striped fabrics and rectangles of navy blue, Kathy created 4085 tiny ‘flags’ to memorialise each US solder who had lost his life in Iraq up to the tme of her making it. Quilt National always opens on Memorial Day Weekend. For a fascinating account of the making and handling of that textile, go to the 18/10/2020 post of her blog, artwith aneedle.blogspot.com
The US flag, known as The Stars And Stripes, has always featured 7 red and 6 white horizontal stripes signifying the 13 original colonies that declared independence, plus white stars against a navy rectangle in the upper left corner that was originally 13, but has gradually increased since 1776 to the present 50 whenever a new state was brought into the nation.
Mike and I lived with our kids in Denver CO for 6+ years, and our kids are still in the US, and all our grandchildren are young Americans. So we are no stangers to US politics and elections, and this extraordinary year, 2020, we’re taking perhaps closer interest than we normally do. Recently I was really struck by how any arrangement of star+stripe+red+blue+white is a visual shorthand for a statement on that country.
This current affairs program (24/10/2020) is clearly about the USA as British presenter Emily Maitlis, North American BBC Editor John Sopel, and US commentator Anthony Zurcher help Brits and non-Americans like ourselves ‘understand’ the US election.
These are not depictions of the flag itself, but we all recognise ‘patriotic’ US theme designs of star+stripe+red+blue+white . If you’ve been to USA, you know it can be seen, year round, everywhere in the country. If you google ‘stars and stripes’ on Pinterest here you’ll find hundreds of examples under various categories, so I selected ‘July Crafts’ to find a huge page beginning with these decorating ideas for July 4th celebration parties: –
These are not depictions of the flag itself. They are common every-day objects with ‘patriotic’ US theme designs of star+stripe+red+blue+white that abound year round in the USA but are especially common around 4th July, Independence Day.
Every country produces souvenir and decorator items including fabric and clothing, coffee mugs, tea towels, biros, playing cards and clothing patches and more, decorated with our own national flags. And Australia has always been a bit conflicted about our colonial origins so enshrined in our national flag, but here I’ll step around that minefield. Many of our flora and fauna symbolise “Australia” internationally, but if you mix the elements of our flag – The Union Jack, navy blue and The Southern Cross constellation, it can be confusing because the flags of many other coutries contain some or all of these elements, too.
I am certain that no other country on earth can make such a consistent statement, “USA”, while at the same time moving so far from the formal graphic arrangement of it’s star+stripe+red+blue+white national flag. Which brings me to my final point – Kathy’s October 21st blogpost outlines her plan to explore how far she can go in design while still retaining the “USA” message – she has taken 2 steps and estimates there might be a series of 6 quilts coming out of this – it will be interesting to watch!
On FB recently I saw an announcement about a colour challenge with the Aeteoroa Quilters of NZ, and it is open to non members anywhere around the world. Although challenges are in effect themed exhibitions, and I don’t normally work to other people’s themes, unless they tie in with my own work, but green is my favourite colour, plus I happen to have some fabrics that I think qualify as ‘lime green’, so I think I’ll have a go. Yesterday I did a sample to see whether I need to work on a light or dark, the jury’s still out on that.
This first sample is very yellowy, so I tried out a green thread that isn’t lime BUT sewn over yellowy colours and that makes the whole unit sort of ‘read’ as lime. Further stitching showed that greens oversewed with this flouro green/yellow look more ‘lime’ too. So food for thought, but if I go further, this will not be the pattern.
I’m procrastinating a bit – the water and the land textures of the tiny landscapes piece need attention; I’m thinking about making a very large new piece to go on our dining room wall – which would need to be 1.25m wide and at least 1.25 long…. and not sure how to manage something so big with the hand stitch I’m so focused on at the moment 🙂 🙂
Other procrastination activity this week included tidying up my work table, and putting pens and markers, scissors, bobbins, thimbles, needles and similar collections of important sewing notions into those clear plastic containers that our cereal, nuts and some salads come in. The wonderful thing is they’re stackable and totally see through.
Work space can easily be expanded behind and left of the machine.
I am now at the point where I have attached the 24 landscapes to their background background. The next stages are some embroidered details in the ocean spaces and in parts of the landscapes. On the landscapes I’ll be doing at least vegetation textures a little and hope to have some recognisable Aussie animals if I can successfully do them very very small. If not I’ll leave them out and just made surface texture marks.
As I said previously, I rarely use blue in my art, and so didn’t have any embroidery threads in blues, either, meaning I had to include it on the list for a rare shopping trip last friday morning. with this pandemic, it’s months since I went shopping, but a list was building and the threqds sealed it, I had to go. My favourite specs needed straightening after I sat on them. I needed certain sewing needles and the blue threads. From the stationary shop I wanted blue acrylic paint and printer inks. I wanted a few non-medicinal things from a large pharmacy chain that stocks different lines from the smaller one we have barely 100 steps from home. I hadn’t been into a mall for several months, and really felt the need to browse a bit while hunting for some new joggers. Mike offered to ferry me around – parking in Carrasco’s a total nightmare these days and I have difficulty driving our vehicle, anyway.
The first stop was the merceria, haberdashery store. It’s probably been there for ever, as on an early visit to Uruguay in about 1990, I shopped there for safety pins and hand sewing needles. That was an interesting experience, knowing as I did perhaps 30 words of spanish at the time. Someone probably helped me with the basic words, I guess, and then summoning up my courage, I ventured into the shop to buy what I needed. That day the shopkeeper took out a packet, opened it and asked how many I wanted, and I thought she was asking how many packets I needed. I was hand quilting a big project at the time, and as needles do wear out and get lost, I thought two packs would be a good idea, JIC, just in case, and responded with “Dos, gracias.” (two, please) To my utter amazement she selected two needles, placed them on a small piece of blue butcher paper, folded it up and looked up signalling she was ready for my next item, safety pins. No surprises there – the group of about 10 were all locked onto one pin. So last friday, as we neared the shop, I reminded Mike of that story, and hopped out.
In all the years I’ve been living in Uruguay, every time I’ve returned from Australia or the USA I’ve always brought back some of my preferred brand of thread in the basic colours I use most of, plus packets of machine and hand sewing needles. I have a good stock, JIC, and honestly doubt I’ve bought needles here in all that time. The woman who served me was possibly the daughter of the woman who served me 30 years ago, but I have to tell you that in that merceria, anyway, the system remains unchanged, and again I was blown away !
As you can see, I bought 7 skeins of embroidery thread, 2 needle threaders, 1m of pearlescent sequins and 3 needles. The total came to $U580(pesos) or US$13.60, meaning the needles were about US 23c each.
According to the docket, the needles cost $U 10 (pesos) about US 25c each. There were several drawers and boxes of packets of needles, but they weren’t out on display, and I’d loved to have had a rummage to see what she really had in that tiny shop. However, this time I could at least ask why she sells needles individually and not in packets – and her answer was because they’re imported and therefore expensive. I should have realised way back then even; I always take care of needles but haven’t ever really thought about what they cost. When you think of it, though, US 23c or Aus 30c each is really quite a bit for such a tiny little thing.
