A time of change being a time of opportunity,\u00a0I am now starting some new work based on my continuing\u00a0fascination with\u00a0sand patterns.\u00a0I have more fabric and more patterns, so there will be more in this series.\u00a0 Since this particular\u00a0work is site specific and I plan to keep it in my own collection,\u00a0 so I am\u00a0 going to post its progress over the next week or so, so that you can see how my ideas come together within an actual work<\/span>.\u00a0 I don’t normally chart progress of my work publicly, but this one is not intended for any jury process that requires any kind of pre-exhibiton secrecy.\u00a0\u00a0 (An\u00a0odd comment\u00a0possibly, unless\u00a0you are familiar with this\u00a0issue that swirls round the Art Quilt world regularly,\u00a0usually before a new Quilt National event, \u00a0but apparently\u00a0is not common in other sectors of the\u00a0art world …)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Background:<\/em><\/span>\u00a0<\/span> last year\u00a0 in the fabric quarter in BA, I\u00a0found some interesting old cream coloured fabric of unusual width,\u00a0 a little stained and of strong character.\u00a0 It was cheap, so\u00a0I bought it,\u00a0and has been sitting about in my workroom since.\u00a0 It’s\u00a0rather tightly woven,\u00a0(so that some of the threads I wanted to use embroidering it just shredded, which put me off for a while)\u00a0 and\u00a0the selvedges are wobbly.\u00a0 But recently, perhaps\u00a0as a flash of reburgeoning creativity since my rehab, \u00a0I realised I wanted to use\u00a0those characteristics,\u00a0not hide or eliminate them,<\/em><\/span> as I envisaged\u00a0 a textile work\u00a0being non-flat, non-straight – ‘rustico’ as they might say here.\u00a0 After all, a beach undulates and there’s nothing really tidy about the edges.\u00a0\u00a0 If beaches have edges.<\/p>\n With a working title 'Beachwork' this view shows how the work will hang, on the wall which is a warm grey-neutral of medium-light colour - too hard to change its colour without making the rest look terrible.<\/p><\/div>\n Painting the bathroom totally changed it’s character – from white, the walls are now a warm hard-to-describe-greyish neutral colour that complements some of the little mosaic tiles.\u00a0\u00a0 So,\u00a0a quilt of mine that hung there several years now looked terrible, and the picture that was on another wall looked out of place now, too.\u00a0 But, I had a print of coastal\u00a0far\u00a0N. Qld, given us by one of my sisters, which since framing had been sitting around for a couple of years waiting to be assigned\u00a0the ‘right’\u00a0wall spot- perfect.<\/p>\n Next follow a couple of detail shots, showing the rough finish of the textile, some of the initial stitching by hand and machine, and one of\u00a0the machined button holes which will simply go over the\u00a0screws already in the wall.\u00a0\u00a0 If I begin to feel\u00a0that is too ‘tidy’\u00a0I may go even further and just cut the buttonholes out.\u00a0 I\u00a0 make hanging and display decisions right at the start,\u00a0as some construction mid course may be required. (irregular shaped works) \u00a0 This one certainly didn’t need a fabric-bound, tailored\u00a0button hole\u00a0or a metal grommet:\u00a0 it’s really tough fabric and I\u00a0won’t be\u00a0moving it about.\u00a0 So, I’m using the\u00a0screws\u00a0left in the wall, since who knows,\u00a0one day there may be another quilt on a rod there, maybe not.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Beachwork.wip_.11.jpg?resize=400%2C225&ssl=1\")
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Beachwork.wip_.2.jpg?resize=400%2C225&ssl=1\" "\\"Beachwork.wip.2\\"")
<\/a>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.alisonschwabe.com\/weblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/Beachwork.wip_.31.jpg?resize=400%2C225&ssl=1\" "\\"Beachwork.wip.3\\"")
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