I am reading a wonderful book at the moment called Quilting Lessons notes from the scrap bag of a writer and quilter by Janet Catherine Berlo. She is an academic with many publications under her belt but has had writers block for some time and turns to quilting.  She discovers that she has changed one set of circumstances for another, not dissimilar in her passions for both; quilting many hours a day; using serendipity as a process.   The quilting is helping her to understand her connections with her earlier life experiences and how quilting has been employed in many circumstances of loss throughout history.

I found this book ‘ by chance’ but is very relevant at the moment for me. I have only read 10% of it at the moment but she is a very good writer.  Another book of hers Wild by Design also looks interesting.

Struggling with my research at the moment with colleagues telling me I have ‘hit a brick wall’ and am ‘burned out’ I have taken the summer off. I have decided to make a piece of work that I love relating to nothing at all ( as recommended by a friend).
So, I have gone back to what I know and love – hand stitch – cloth and thread.
I have taken a piece of fine woollen cloth, bamboo wadding and a fine cotton and am hand stitching it with perle 8 – this I have discovered is much loved by the modern quilter.
This has linked me into the stitch itself and how it relates to the cloth and how the stitch changes the surface of the cloth. I have added colour to the piece for the first time in many years. This is one of many of pieces that I intend to join in some way together with the edges on the outside. This relates to my thinking for an exhibition I am part of next year at Nature in Art in Gloucestershire with the Brunel Broderers.

Had a lovely day today with my friends in the Quinary group. Thanks to Val for hosting the day in your beautiful home. All of the group’s new work is very exciting and will form into a fantastic exhibition.

Yesterday I went to the Matisse cut out exhibition at Tate Modern and it was a wonderful exhibition.  It struck me how much of this work is textile like; the cut marks can be seen as evidence of the ‘hand’ in the making process.  Two videos of him working showed how he held the coloured paper in his left hand in the air and cut with large tailor scissors with his right hand in a very free way. He often pinned the papers together so that he could move them around with tiny pins smaller than dressmaking pins.  All these little elements for me related to the cutting and shaping that we do so much in our own work.

Many of the larger assembled pieces had a distinct link with the way that African American Quilts are put together and I was fascinated by the way that he had put these together using juxtapositions of scale and proportion – just like a ‘quilt’

 

Sometimes its as useful to walk away from the work and reflect on the impact that other elements of our lives have on the work.  I love to read Buddhist poems and literature related – this poem is one of my favourites written by a Zen Buddhist (b.1758) Ryokan

 

To a Visitor

Listen to the cicadas in treetops near the waterfall;

See how last night’s rains have washed away all grime

Needless to say, my hut is as empty as can be,

But I can offer you a window full of the most intoxicating air !

 

It tells me that ‘ sometimes’ I have to stop and reflect on other things and look at the ‘intoxicating air’ of my life. 

 

 

Whilst I was working on the sample below I realised that the union between thread and cloth is demonstrated through the individual natures of the elements and the coming together of both.  The quite coarse linen is softened by the quality of the silky bamboo thread; difficult to work as the thread is shredded by the linen resisting the thread being pulled through the cloth. The warp and weft of the linen cloth make a large contribution to the visual outcome of the sample. The patterning forced to cross over the strength of the warp and weft.  The bamboo thread is produced for weaving so gains its strength in the warp and weft alliance when woven. None of the often experienced meditative quality of stitching is experienced in this sample as there is often a ‘tug’ going on to manipulate the cloth and thread into the devised pattern.   

A really aesthetically pleasing piece is achieved in this sample ( not always achieved) the colour of the natural linen and the whiter bamboo thread work together well.