Circles

 Having wanted to start the year doing a challenge of some sort I have decided on the stitched circle challenge set by Lisbet @dragenkunst a danish artist . So each week she sets a different circle with fabric or paper and simple stitch. So now we are into week 7 of the year and I am finding this a relatively straightforward task and easily achieved in the week. Lisbet is setting hers into a book but I will stitch together into a wall piece that can be folded into a book. I have seen something similar which leaves ends hanging and gaps/ slits  in the piece. Got a way to go first. 

These are the first 4. They are 6 inches square. 

Facing difficulties with technology and signing in to my account I simply let it slide.  So here now with things working or more like my determination to get going and write here. I have been writing and submitting small articles for the Queensland Quilters newsletter Material Facts. These have mostly been about my travels on textile tours or travel where I seek out textile and art related interesting images or information. 

I am also wanting to start an ongoing daily art practice that is more disciplined than simply stitching everyday, which I certainly did in the time between Christmas and the New Year. During this time I finished several pieces that will be entered into exhibitions this year.

But now its midway through January and I haven't decided on what I will do. But hey who says I have to start on January 1st. 

This tiny talisman quilt was made as I needed to do something so found four scraps and cut and sewed together the smaller pieces. No plan in mind just hand sewing seams. when I had enough I joined together, really in the zone and before I knew it asmall quilt top made. So batting , again using scraps and backing was found. I rolled the backing over to form a bound edge. Then quilted. Notice the tucking as a feature which was really to take out some of the excess and make it all lie flat.  As I like to name my work I pondered over this one. I knew it had to be something to do with roses, meaningful to do with a talisman as a reminder to create each day and kind of mystical/magical. 

I dont think I could commit to making one of these each day? Maybe weekly. 

 

Starting Again

In my arts practice I am compelled towards the process of writing. Writing about my art, what I do and how I do it. Processes and outcomes. The journey and the destination. More than I can put onto Instagram. More than just a rambling of stream of consciousness which I do in writing Morning Pages as prescribed by Julia Cameron of The Artist's Way and others.

I have written articles on my recent travels to Japan , Egypt and Jordan for Queensland Quilter's quarterly magazine 'Material Facts'. The focus is on the textiles I find on these journeys. These are more factual that my thought process on fabric, textiles, creating, inspiration, influences, stitching and resolving pieces. 

Recently having finished my studies with OCA , online through a university in England I feel ready to expand my writing and arts practice. So I return to this wee blog I started in 2016 as a place to simply record my makings. 

I was fairly consistent until 2022 and now I look back to see that 2023 was perhaps my most successful year and nothing is recorded in great depth. There have always been posts on Instagram but mostly just the finished image photographed to the best I can do yet not much information on the concept, process , failings and working through issues that arise in the development. 

I will continue on from here and perhaps occasionally put in some of the special things that occurred in my making in the missing year. 

  

Two images from a workshop with Carol Cooke making Can-Can birds. Very interesting process which is simple yet produces and individaul bird rather than using a pattern. Unfinished as yet.

Year in Review

 I haven’t been here for most of the year. I could use the cliché and say that life got in the way but it really was a choice I made . Who is reading ? Who is watching ? Who is listening ? But does it matter . I use this as a record of what I’ve done . Now coming to write my year in review I had to look back on an activity I did earlier in the year. Sending five pieces of fabric out side in to the elements to see the marks the environment could make. Well I have nearly finished stitching on that piece and need to post it here. To finalise the circle of this creation. 

The white background was as I found it amongst my stash. Joined at the back with vintage lace

Books

 I have just listened to a random Live with Austin Kleon and Sam Anderson . It popped up on Instagram and so I listened in. Fascinating hearing two writers and artists chat. One thing Austin said was , it’s a creative act to buy a book. That puts a lot into perspective. I don’t need to feel guilty about buying books. He didn’t mention anything about reading them. 

Online workshops

 I seem to get carried away with online workshops or the abundance of wonderful artists and techniques. Some finished many not. The thought is that when I retire I will have plenty to keep me busy and learning. But they keep coming and it can’t resist. So I tell myself no more until I finish some or all. But when a free workshop with Ema Shin put on by a gallery in the Dandenongs I couldn’t miss it. I love Ema’s anatomical hearts, her embroidery and the surface design in her pieces. So tonight it was on and I grabbed the material ´s needed and really jumped in. No second guessing no procrastination no self doubt. And I am loving the piece I started on

Still going

 I can’t seem to focus on anything else but getting these scrap pieces made. Finding inspiration everywhere including books and Instagram. 

The last image here of a basket made by adding strips and small pieces to an upturned plastic cup. Then stitching in big visible stitching with 6 strands of embroidery thread. The thread was also not purchased new by me. From others destash or op shops.  This was inspired by Judith Scott a neuro diverse artist who wrapped items known and unknown with whatever threads she could source. She spent many years in an institution and her art may have been a response to that dreadful living environment. I relate to the wrapped and hidden . What lies within ? Is it being kept safe from others, protected so no one can get near , close ? I love hidden secret meanings and even though my basket is not hiding something it may be hiding perfection or removing the need for perfection, flaunting my need to be wonky , imperfect , and wabi sabiness of it. Removing the adherence to straight edges , neat edges. A sign of the hand of the maker.

Scraps

 At the last ATASDA meeting there were some piles of linen scraps for the taking. So I obliged to clear the piles. They are lovely soft linen fabric from a dress maker with a small business. She prefers no waste being involved in her production. So of course I took too many to use until I stopped and thought deeper into what was in the bag. I decided to do a small challenge to use up in small projects , as a daily practice. I have now done 5 days and I am really enjoying the process. By limiting myself to supplies I find I can be creative with just these scraps and some thread. 

I will continue with this process until either the scraps are used up or I get tired of the doing or can’t come up with something different . Not wanting to repeat. Not wanting to add to much other fabric

Weathered

 For a January challenge with @artfromyourheart the word weather and the letter W were to inspire creativity for the month in some way. I instantly thought of weathered as in eroded, sunfaded , wind blown. So I cut five pieces of cotton, wrapped them up with eucalyptus leaves and rusty nails around copper pipes. Then I placed each on carefully in my yard. In an old watering can, hanging in a tree to be exposed to wind, on the top grate of the water tank , in the wilds and amongst the weeds. 

I left them for about 4 weeks and when opened I was really surprised that they all look fairly similar. There is no way to really distinguish them. They were all sprayed with water to start with.

Collaboration

 This is one of two pieces I am working on for an exhibition for ATASDA Qld. It is a segment of a painting that I was given and participants have to recreate their section in any surface embellishment / techniques they choose. This is 10 x 12 inches. Each piece will be backed and combined jigsaw style into the larger piece. Collaboration. 

I have had this for awhile but was slow in getting started but once I did it was really enjoyable working out dimensions and colours to get it as near as possible to the tiny image I was given. Looking forward to seeing them all together and how my wee pieces fit in their assigned spot

Fabric Vessels

 This morning I spent a lovely few hours @artfromtheurbanwilderness with Paper Artist Sandra Pearce. Wee bowls made from paper and fabric. The paper was thin such as the tissue from paper dressmaking pattern and cotton scrim. I will stitch into them to further embellish and add to the story already forming with each. Images of moths , houses , lines and botanicals merge . 

Perfectly Imperfect

 After a week on vacation at Mooloolaba beach where time spent with head down poking amongst the rock pools. I find I am picking up broken pieces of shell and bleached coral segments. These have a perfectly imperfect beauty. A fragment of what they were , worn to a smooth other. Ripples and folds , oddly shaped now as formed from a turn of the edge of the shell. 

I made a shell necklace fire a little person. I added two pieces to to worn twined silk I made for around my wrist. They clink together with their own sound. Two pieces of shell from the ocean. I wonder where they started life and how long ago were they a protective home for a creature. How long before they would have been worn down to grains of sand

Finishing

 Last day of 2022 and I am hoping to finish this stitched piece either today or tomorrow. The texture is what I was aiming for and as usual the back is as textured and as interesting as the front. A mix of fabrics, cotton , silk , and synthetics of varying types including some sparkle. Hand stitched all over to give the ripples of fabric and will be embellished further with some embroidery stitches. The ripples are like marks in the sand after the waves have washed over. 

Look Inside

 I started this piece by stitching a round mandala. Then as it was such a slow mindful process I started thinking of the house with 5 rooms. So each point on my ‘compass’  became symbolic of one of the rooms. These being social, emotional, spiritual, physical and cognitive or intellectual. Each day each of these rooms need to be attended to. I try to do that in some way. 

Doing some yoga stretches or poses , going to Pilates or a walk, drinking a glass of lovely cool water, reading , researching , slow stitching , chatting with friends either face to face , in text or email , are some of the things I turn to in order that these rooms of mine are attended to. 

I continued on with this theme and actually added a roof to my house where I stitched some of the practises of body , mind and spirit which I have either read , dabbled with or practice and attend to in my life today. These are ancient eastern, Celtic, or Greek origin. Archetypes, astrology, yoga , chakras . 

This is for an exhibition in Sydney in March so I am only showing details .

Watercolour play

I have never really explored with watercolours only using a dab here and there to add to a simple sketch. So now I have decided to push it a bit more. Not to do anything realistic but abstract . To see how colours blend and play with each other , perhaps as exploratory ideas for use in stitching. I like the softness but not sure if you can use them on fabric. I imagine they wash out, so might leave that to diluted acrylics.

Three of my mixed media pieces have been included in a book. Art from your Heart which was published online by the coordinator@heathermatthew  of the Facebook group of the same name. These were from monthly online challenges that went for a week at a time. My pieces were all sketches of the story I was telling with watercolour, fabric and paper collage added. 

Gallery showing

 My piece Silky Oak Spirit is currently showing at the gallery of the Belconnen Centre in Canberra. It is in an exhibition titled Traces IV. The art works in this exhibition are all A5 size. Silky Oak Spirit is a botanical print on watercolour paper . I had then been worked further with watercolour and black pen to highlight the spirit. 

Cemetery ramblings

 I had a lovely walk in the Balmoral Cemetery for the work I am doing in Shelley Rhodes online course.  Drawing , photography , rubbings, collecting samples of leaves, pebbles and wind blown silk flowers were included in my morning of sampling. 

These small cards were prepared in advance with gesso and some collage. Then drawings made on top. The bright pinky orange flower is the flower head of a Mother of Millions. It is a toxic weed. Will kill livestock if it’s in their pasture and humans. But it was such a joyful scrap of colour amid the sombre colours of the tombs and headstones that are dull and blackened with time.

The rubbings were from headstones ART is from a man named Carter. I was very respectful when doing this . 

Micro scraps collected are colourful in a place that is grey black brown in its macro elements 

Group work

 I am sampling a piece for our Qld ATASDA exhibit in the Plant Empire exhibition in October. I have drawn in black ink some gardening implements. Then through this I have woven strips of fabric showing images of flowers , fruit and vegetables. Need some glueing or stitching and maybe an iron. I have kept it rough and organic with torn edges and big stitches to join some strips. Maybe I need to paint over in an acrylic medium to laminate it.  Not sure how the paper will hold up to stitch either hand or on the machine or glue. Maybe under the inspiration of Jay Zerbe I could staple the edges. 

Méditation scroll

 I found a long strip of vintage Japanese cotton, very soft and fine. Perfect for a scroll that I will simply fill with stitched lines of Asemic writing. I watched a demonstration by Emma Freeman and was inspired. This was on the Quilty Nook site hosted by Zak Foster,  an inspiring quilter from North Carolina .  I didn’t want to just mindlessly make for the sake of it but to really breathe into every stitch. To listen to every gentle pop of the needle coming through the fabric and the soft rasp as the thread pulled through and settled into its new resting place. Stitching for place keeping. Stitching for slowing down. Stitching for place making. The thread is one of those previously purchased and not used as ‘ I might need it one day’ , kept for  BEST. So best it is now , the moment is now. 

 

Emerging from scraps

 I have started another ORT jar (old ragged threads) and was about to add a handful of off cuts and scraps from making Harriet’s quilt. As I held them in my hand tidying other things up until I could get into my studio and add to the ORT jar , they began to wriggle and squirm. Moulding and rolling and forming into shape a head emerged. Quickly, quickly a nose and eyes , ears from more scraps picked up from the floor. 

With an over night halt on sewing activity, the next morning the need for a body became the most important creating of the day.

Things started to become vitally important to get this wee creature into the world. So a leg was rolled but turned out it was a tail not a leg at all. So back to the scraps of fabric and threads , became four legs . Oh you’re sitting upright . Not a four legged calf. 

Here she is . Safe and sound, fully emerged , deciding to become was taken out of my head and straight to Mt hands. The hands of the maker