With the piecing all done, and layers in place, this afternoon I began the quilting treatment. Double lines of gold stitching have begun to appear on the piece, and I’m not sure where that will lead, and some of it might be black, but there is a fair bit more quilting required. This is an area about 4″ x 5″.
The dots I used on the fist piece are really too big for the shapes on this one, and so the bits of glitter provided by gold stitching seem to fit better with the smaller scale shapes.
This afternoon I have been piecing – that is, cutting out different shaped pieces of fabric and sewing them together, which I know puzzles many bystanders around those of us who make ‘patchwork’ things including quilts. Fabric is just a raw material to some textile artists, and thus no different from a skein of wool, a tube of oil paint, a block of wood or stone, all to be worked by people with appropriate skills. I’ve always loved sewing, and love piecing as a technique for surface design, which produces contemporary patchwork that despite appearances does in fact have connection with the traditional geometric patterned designs that most people think of as ‘patchwork’. Patchwork, traditional and contemporary, is often backed with a layer or two of fabric and quilted by hand or machine to hold it all together in a completed object, usually bedding or clothing for warmth.
This pictured segment continues some piecing I began a couple of weeks ago, before undergoing surgery for a shoulder prosthesis. My doc did say use the hand as much as possible, and this activity is well within the restrictions – of holding nothing heavier than a cup of tea, and not to try to raise the arm above shoulder level – well just now I can’t get it anywhere near the shoulder so there’s no danger there. All the newly constructed left arm has to do is some gentle holding of small pieces of fabric as the machine slowly sews, and my other (good) arm whips out the pins, flying back and forth from the pin cushion as the machine gradually sews around the curved edge. It’s all rather like setting in a sleeve. Even as I was doing this today, a brainwave came for another piece in this theme, inspired by what I read recently about the structure of the sandstone karst formations in the The Bungle Bungles. So as soon as I finish putting all these pieces together, I’ll start another to incorporate my new idea. However, right now its time for a change of activity to include arm swinging and shoulder shrugging followed by a cup of tea.
With arrows, stars, words and comments, this is a typical sketchbook page. They’re always in pencil, but I re-did this one for you in pen to get a clearer scan. I understand my own handwriting and abbreviations in this aide memoire, and even if it doesn’t mean much to you I’m happy to share these marks as part of my process. You’re welcome to anything else you glean of the ideas they encapsulate 🙂 There is much reference to several previous works or things I’ve been working with in sample form.
I regret that my hand writing has deteriorated, partly age-related 🙂 but even more a sign of the times. It is the nearest I ever come to journal keeping, but of course it is definitely not that. I really don’t know how the beautiful artist journal keepers keep it up 🙂 This morning I was casually googling around holes, sheers, grids and marks, when a couple of ideas struck. Not wanting to lose a second, and with the sketchbook upstairs as usual, I took a sheet of waste paper from the printer and jotted them down. I’m a diagram person, and when epiphany strikes like that a simple diagram+words, stars and arrows captures it. One just might solve a nagging problem to do with using sheers that has long bothered me, and I must let Rosemary Claus-Gray know ….
On the Quiltart list this morning a member described a group project which in truth is better termed a collaboration. Whatever you call it though – this project required identification of common goals and comittment to achieving them through a group-made art quilt. What was missing from the post is any analysis of how the idea came up, how the group came to decide to carry it out, and why – what the expectations of the group were to start with. Clearly some dropped out because of technical challenges faced, and others didn’t drop out because of loyalties they felt to the group. Deeper examination before hand, though, might have meant the project didn’t happen at all and at least some of the group may not have learned what they did in the process.
Some of the real problems such projects can present are described in April’s words: “We all learned quite a bit along the way as this piece was way outside the comfort zone of all of us. I think that the piece will be quite amazing when it is completed, but it has been quite a struggle seeing it to fruition. Some people dropped out as soon as things became difficult and challenging; and others stuck with it even though they had no real interest in the project, but they were reluctant to abandon the group. It has been an interesting example of group dynamics to say the least. But it doesn’t really matter, as we are all still close friends.” You can visit the April Sproule post to find out more about their project, and see pics of how it developed technically.
In my early art quilt making days I belonged to a small SE Denver group we called “Quilt Explorations”, which we formed to explore non-traditional quiltmaking, and we focused on design in particular. We often set ‘themes’ for monthly individual exploration, and participation was optional, so the results were truly individual, and varied depending on each person’s interest and drive, time available, etc. The most successful theme, where everyone was enthused to produce something, was based on the b/w picture of the front end of a gorgeous vintage car given to each of us by the member who suggested the exercise.. We each took some element from that photo on which to at least design a small quilt, even if time was too short to actually make it. Everyone came back a month later with at least the design, most had started and some had completed a small quilt. After 2 months we had a collection of about 10 finished quilts. At the next group exhibition these were all hung together to show the diversity of results when people work from exactly the same initial image. I don’t still have that photo, but found this image of the kind of pic we all received:
In about 1991-2 I was in love with inserted straight strips, having not yet heard of life-transforming freehand or improvisational piecing which prompted the technical experiments to achieve the curvy inset strips characteristic of my 1992+ Colour Memories quilts. With strips on my mind ,the headlights of the car caught my attention. I produced this small wall quilt about 50cm sq. I called ‘Strip Lighting’
We never did a group collaboration – I doubt anyone would have suggested it as were were all clearly set along our own paths when the group came together, and such a project would have felt a diversion of dubious value from our individual goals. I have never been drawn to a collaborative project to produce a work / works of art, and maybe will explore this in a later post…. and perhaps I need to do some self examination on the matter first!
Since shoulder joint surgery 4 weeks ago, I haven’t been able to do any quilting or sewing, but rehab’s going well, and it won’t be long before I am making some new work. First up will be finishing off one of the pieces for the Golden Textures exhibition in Wangaratta next February. I posted about this piece here . It’s about 3/4 done, and I hope my ‘hand’ doesn’t show up in stitch differences – my handwriting is far from recognizable at this stage! But every day brings new improvements so we’ll see.
The detail from a piece I did some years back includes many of the elements that I’m looking at combining – holes of course, glitter, needle woven stitchery and grid – one of the most enduring elements in my quilts. During this week I have looked at several artists whose works paintings, installations and sculptures are in linear or grid formats, and I have found my work has something in common with each of them: Alan Shields, Chuck Close, Carl Andre, Guillermo Kuitka, James Sienna, Julie S Graham, Sol LeWitt, Sean Scully and Agnes Martin, whose work I had known of for many years. Looking at images of their work and reading about each has given me some inspiration and urged me to think about my next moves. Roll on the day I can draw diagrams, use my cutter and scissors, sew at my machine, wield my iron, and make up some of my ideas.
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