loss and realization

I cut up another quilt yesterday.It wasn't finished, and when I spread it out, I realized that it would never really satisfy me. Large, made mostly of uncut tussah silk, I was about half way through the dense quilting. I did love the size of it, and I do love the central square. I just did not love the circular part that I imposed on it last fall. Here's a photo from October. I am feeling regret and loss today. Mostly about the scale of the piece. One of the things that attracted me to quiltmaking in the first place was the large (bed) size.
Bed sized quilts are large in a natural feminine way, not pushy like ab-expressionist paintings. The messy stuff that accompanies the bed metaphor, the powerful feelings of nurturing and protection come with the large size. Large enough to cover a family. When I reduce the size of my quilts, I have to be more careful. I can't rely on the emotions that quilts bring up in the viewer. What was I thinking? I'm home alone- maybe that was the trigger. Solitude's gift is usually a break through, sometimes it's a realization.

I realize that SCALE IS IMPORTANT for me.
I am going to continue to work large.
When I make smaller pieces, (and I will of course) I'll ask myself, Why a quilt? Should this be a painting? Is it an embroidery?

Quilt 'baggage':
1. re-purposing fabric
2. warmth and protection
3. inner voice of women maker
4. exhuberance and joy using beauty and texture
5. the bed and all that goes on there.
6. covering up, covering over
7. the great tradition handed down by our fore-mothers.

Shield

There was a Perivale Gallery envelope in the stack of mail that built up while we were away earlier this month. A Shield For My Open Heart sold in July. Shiela told me that a thin black-wearing art teacher from Mississauga purchased it. Although very glad about the sale, I feel a need to remind myself about the work. The main part was printed with small hand carved rubber blocks. the stitched part is couched metal over book pages. Two books were used. One was letters home by Mary Cassatt when she went to Paris, the other was Joseph Albers theory of colour. Lots of stuff for an art teacher to love.

dyeing with hawberry and apple bark

naturally dyed fabrics after rinsing. hawthorne on the left, apple on right apple branches
In early June I pruned wild crab apple branches and wild hawthorne branches that grow along the side of my road. hawthorne branches

I stripped the apple leaves before chopping the branches up small and covering them with water. The hawthorne branches have such fierce thorns, I left the leaves on. The pails were left to soak for the entire summer. Last week when April was home, we processed the (very stinky) liquids. Although the books said to strip the bark before processing, this time I just went ahead and used the reddish liquid that had been released naturally from the hawthorne, the golden liquid from the apple. I simmered half of the hawberry liquid as an experiment. I added alum to some of the dye baths, vinegar to others. We used a wide variety of pre-mordanted and un-mordanted fabrics. Silk rayon velvet and wool seem to accept bark dyes the best, cotton lawn the worst.

cottage again

I'm back on Manitoulin (with internet), after more time at the family cottage. The people were slightly different and included my brother and his family, as well as April's friends. The month has been devoted to family. Days are getting shorter. Niece Sarah brought candles to get us through the evening dinners.

natural dyeing with april

oxidizing indigo on the grass indigo dipping squishing frozen chokecherries to release their colour pre-mordanted fabrics in chokecherry colours.

This past week our youngest processed the chokecherries she picked at the cottage, and then did a bunch of indigo dyeing for a quilt she is making. She has so much energy, is so eager to learn and practice, it seems that she has caught the art bug and I am happy for her.

Howard and Kirsten are here.

onions and beets

Onion skins were collected during the many meals prepared last week. I packed them into a jar with alum mordanted fabric and plain water. I also collected many avocodo pits and skins. The jar is stewing on our bed room window at the cottage. We saved the stems from Loonsong beet greens, and I wrapped them in some cotton fabric after dampening them with vinegar. It feels like magic to experiment with what is considered kitchen waste.

However, the 'paying attention' of natural dyeing is making me very tired. It seems as if there is always one new thing after another to try. Even though these discoveries are not new, for me they are adventures and they seem to take all my energy.

cottage life

uncle with Everett aunty with Jack moi and Jack settlers of catan men in the kitchen napping babe the three sisters mom with Jack sunsets stride jump 4 years grandad the engineer

stitching on stitching

stitch resist with indigo dyed cotton , stitched again with white cotton


Michelle Walker has written an excellent research paper about Japanese Sashiko Textiles that accompanies the exhibit currently touring the UK. It is a free download, and didn't take long even with my dial up.


Click here, then click on Michelle Walker's document.