I blocked the stitched work that I did last month.
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| meditation folder blocked |
Q How to you block a stitched piece?
A Wash it in the gentle cycle with cold water.
Pin it with a zillion pins to a wall made from ceiling tiles
pulling and tugging and flattening the work as you go along.
Allow to dry in position 24 hours.
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| meditation folder not blocked |
Blocking usually works to square up my work and make it hang flat. In this case I will be happy if it just takes away the lumpy parts. (the above photo of it unblocked shows those)
This work has changed from being a long narrow wall hanging into a folder that I will use to contain smaller meditation panels. This folder (and those smaller pieces) are all samples for
the workshop I'm teaching next month.
I like that by making the stitched cloth into a folder that will sit on a table and be opened up (handled), I am inviting my viewer to touch and examine and caress my hand work. Both sides of the piece are interesting and that will be made evident as the folder is used.
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| note the pins used for blocking |
I'm showing it hung on a wall in this post. In future, I will show it as a folder.
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| meditation folder reverse side |
"it is the totality of our body and its sense operations
that makes our ability to perceive and construct a world possible"
Maurice Merleau Ponty
19 comments:
thank you for sharing this journey to the moon and back again, seeing this cloth grow and change and transform and now become a teaching tool is magic
Yes, it has really gone through a metamorphosis.
Thank you Mo.
xx
It is a wonderful piece!! Hand stitching is my very favorite and your work is outstanding!
What a gorgeous piece! There are so many things to comment upon that I find myself typing and retyping. The stitching is strong and feels energetic. The shape, the elements, the colors....it's all powerful. After viewing this I am wondering where my needles and thread are....my fingers have started to itch to thread the needle and take a stitch.
Thanks for the inspiration!
Love your work and i look forward to seeing each new piece...what size is it?
Thank you Robbie, Lynda and Margaret. x
The size of the piece when it hangs out straight like it is in this post is: 18 inches wide x 41 1/2 inches tall.
(46 cm wide x 105 cm tall
I love your work on this piece. I love the idea that your viewer will be able to see both sides and touch them.
Thanks for the tips on blocking, too.
Cornelia
stunning, love the indigo and stitches- will you show it folded?
Beautiful work, the colour, the stitches...Looking forward to its future content!
a treasure itself! will you be adding more "pages" to the "folder"? it would be an installation piece on its own then!
I am enjoying how this piece is evolving and I really like the idea of the cloth becoming a vessel to hold more stitching. Something to touch, other pieces to pick up and hold. Bringing more and more meaning and life to the hand stitched cloth!
Arlee - yes! I think that all the different meditation 'pages' could be displayed as can the cover, should I need to have an exhibition / installation at some point.
Tina, yes I too am so pleased with the evolution of this particular stitched piece. I would like to give credit for this change in the piece to my daughter April who gave me a 'studio visit' during our August time together. Her questions stimulated my thinking into a more horizontal, inter-active presentation.
x
a great folder. what an honor for your students to experience the care with which you present their workshop activities to them. this sort of consideration means much and indicates to me that your prep for this class is deep and rich.
A beautiful clutch of poems.
Love the whole body quote. There r no separations as we read and write life.
Judy, I can't tell you how much I love this. I love your way with needle and fabric. <3 Hope all is well with you.
Of course, I love this piece - the color, the circles, the cross! I'm delirious, looking at it! :-)
At the more mundane level --- do you not press/iron your work? Because it will become too flat and lose it's quilted hills and valleys? What about using a steamer?
xo Morna
Hi Morna
I used to press my embroidered work, but now I don't so much since I discovered the magic of an all over gentle wash to make it damp and clean after being handled for months, and then stretching it while wet with at least 100 pins depending on the size of the work. When dry, the fabric has shrunk itself into shape...at least as much as fabric does.
A steamer might be a good idea too. Shall think about that more, thanks for that tip.
And thanks to all who have given me good feedback on the folder itself and the idea of having a folder.
x
Oh, yes, City and Guilds insisted on blocking every piece. What a great idea,Judy, to create a folder for your circle samples. Can't wait to see it!
"... at least 100 pins ..." Oh my :-)
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