My formal folding  using  pieced cloth

A friend sent these old piece of stitching to me in the post to add to my ‘pieced’ work for Nature in Art.  It has given me thoughts for a new piece of work that might contain pieces of stitching from friends.  These pieces would then have another narrative than the one that they began with which is always of interest to me; as in African American quilts. In a discussion with Liz Harding she suggested the new narrative idea and its now mulling around in my brain, but I have to put it on one side for a while, whilst I get on with my research work. Although I am piecing some surfaces for my folds now and more ideas are coming from that.

I have been thinking a lot lately about where I stitch and the impact of a particular environment.  Yesterday a friend and I were stitching in a coffee shop in Bath – we discussed as we stitched – our environment – the quality of the table surface – our thread – needles and scissors – a great experience and the customers or staff didn’t seem to mind.  I think we added to their experience as they clearly wondered what we were doing.

I love piecing| and I am teasing out ideas of why do I love piecing?

My research investigates what happens when cloth, fold and stitch come together to create something new. A new dialogue, new conversations and synergies,  This coming together is held with stitch and this makes a significant contribution to the discourse.

When I think back to my work done for my BA that’s exactly what it talked about – the coming together – the junctions – the significance of the newness or nascent ideas that come alongside the work and move into another area.

This is exactly what piecing is – it brings together fabrics, old and new that have had other previous forms, Reforming – remaking -reinventing – rethinking and asking new questions.. The stitching together of  challenging combinations of fabrics; old blanket and lace, soft jersey and linen canvas causes these new questions or revisits old paradigms.