our hands

Jody

Anne

Bonnnie

Jackie

Jane

Katherine

Laura

Michelle

Shawn

Hand stitching.
Evidence of time.
Evidence of thought.
Evidence of connection.

The workshop went very well, I enjoyed our time together in Newfoundland.

Meditative Stitching

I did one thread on this velvet sample yesterday, it calmed me and I could then sleep.

The Meditation Panel Workshop begins tomorrow.  See the outline here.

wish you were here

I AM HERE!

I am here in Gros Morne Newfoundland and the natural beauty is almost over whelming.

The artist is a receptacle for emotions.

Picasso

Old Photographs

I have been going through photos as I prepare for the workshop next week, and came across some working photos of the circle panels that might have been shown on this before, I can't remember. If so, hope you don't mind if I share them now.  The first one (above) is from 2010 -  just before the Earth Ark panel went into the frame.  I had it at home and was tidying up the inside of all the pieced triangles.

The photo above is also from 2010.  It has the Earth Ark central circle pinned up in front of some other circular work I was making at the same time - when I had that lovely studio in town with the ten foot walls and great light. The quilt in the back is Cross My Heart, my Quilt National 2011 piece before it was so drastically trimmed.  Still wish I hadn't done that.

The above photo surprised me.  I had forgotten that I had even pinned these parts to the wall.  The black pieced section is now arranged vertically and has found a place in my new dream cloth.  The white pieced sections are sections of the earth ark panel's lower half - I believe this pattern of half square triangles is called Broken Dishes.  The urn has gone through many transformations and has been over-dyed.  I'm not finished with it yet.

 These next two photos are from the summer of 2011 when i finished up the quilting of the 'heaven' area (made from women's handkerchiefs) in the quilt hoop, not the frame.  I took it to the cottage.  The curvy lines were inspired by the skies in Emily Carr's paintings.

The panels from the Manitoulin Circle Project have been exhibited in galleries and Karen Thiessen of Day In & Day Out Blog (on my sidebar) came to the opening of the Mended World exhibition when it was in Kitchener.  She has just published three insightful reviews on her blog that can be accessed from this link.  I also put the same link (and two more found photos from 2011) on my updates blog  here.  Thank you Karen.

string piece with foundation

 I'm teaching the string piece on foundation technique in Newfoundland next month.

This is the technique used in Mended World, one of the Manitoulin Circle Project panels. (detail shown above)

The 'strings' in this technique are long and narrow strips of fabric.  These yellow ones (and the ones in the Mended World panel) were cut with a rotary cutter and a ruler.  However, one could use scissors, or a cutter with no ruler.

Claire Wellesely-Smith wrote about Mended World in her new book, Slow Stitch.  She says:

"Using a sewing machine, four or five long narrow strips of a variety of textured damasks (from recycled tablecloths) were sewn together along their long edges to create a new striped fabric. This fabric is then re-cut several times and sewn back together to make a wide piece of new fabric."

This striped fabric is then cut with scissors to make new strings that have many seams.

These new strings are then stitched into a new sheet of tiny squares using the stitch and flip method on foundation.  The light weight foundation used in this yellow sample is harem cloth.  The foundation used in Mended World was cotton lawn.  

Daughter April used this string piece on foundation method for her multi coloured quilt.  A difference is that she worked from scrap and made each of her strings all by hand.  She used the flip and stitch method to attach her unique strips together, her foundation cloth is a thrift store cotton sheet.

How to sew:
Begin with two strips right sides together laid in the center of your foundation.  Sew them together along a seam through three layers.

Open the two strips out. Flatten with your hand.  Lay a third strip face down along one of the strip sand sew along that seam line through all three layers.   Open out.  Repeat.  Work your way with alternate sides towards the edges of your foundation cloth.

I wrote more about the book Slow Stitch here.
Also, may I direct your attention to Karen Thiessen's blog, Day In & Day Out where she has begun a series of reviews about the meditation panels.  The first one is here.  The second one is here.

regarding my teaching

slow stitch sampler by judy martin

Q:  Do you have a favourite fibre technique?  what is it and why do you love it?

A:  I love to stitch.  I think that if life allowed it, I would stitch all day.  The repetitive marks made by hand that I stop now and then to admire with my fingertips, carry me into my boundless self, away from the every day.

Q:  What can students learn from your classes that they can't learn anywhere else?

A:  A class situation is a very condensed period of time.  What I share in my classes is an attitude of accepting - even loving the slowness of the labour involved in hand stitch and slow design. 

It is the responsibility of the teacher to provide ways of working as an artist once the class is over.

It is the responsibility of the student to absorb as much as possible during the limited class time.  The 'real' work will be done when you are back in your own studio.

Q: Why are your classes so unique?  

A:  Key to my own approach is looking at a lot of art.  I bring samples of world textiles and a wide variety of images into the class. 

For the meditation panels workshop in Newfoundland, I am bringing the four large hand stitched meditation panels of the Manitoulin Circle Project. 

slow stitch sampler by Lucie Medwig

Q: Why do you recommend that students take your class? 

A:  Needles, thread, pencil, paper - these are the first tools - so small, practical and inexpensive. 

You can carry your hand stitching and notebook with you everywhere.  It is life changing to be able to pull out some handwork and stitch because the repetitive movement of your hands seems to allow thinking, dreaming, envisioning.  The notebook is there to capture the ideas that almost always bubble up.  Hand stitched original designs are thus very accessible and also very healing.

Q:  Why do you have such passion for teaching?

A:  I feel that my blog, Judy's Journal, is a place where I constantly teach by example.  I like it because I can reach a lot of people who choose when they are ready to receive my mentoring.  

Actually, I find preparing to teach a defined workshop quite difficult and I either procrastinate or over-prep.  Partly it's because every time I begin to prepare I get so carried away myself by a new idea. 

One good thing that comes out of preparing to teach is that I slow myself down because I am forced to organize my thoughts.  That burst of intense workshop time is so short.  It sounds selfish, but I think I teach others so that I better understand my own way of working, but whoops, now I want to go make another sample.  

slow stitch sampler by judy martin

Q: Talk about your favourite memory from teaching?

A:  I've taught a long time.  I began when I was 16 by teaching classical piano to children.  I taught primary school for two years and then more piano when my children were in school.  I also taught art classes in my studio and through the local community college.  I've taught workshops at conferences and to quilt guilds.

However, my favourite memory of teaching is from when I showed my daughters and nieces the basic hand stitches, and then listened to them chat to each other as they manipulated their needles. Quiet satisfaction came over them as they improved.  The knowledge that my girls have these skills pleases me because stitching is a way to happiness. 

Q: Can you share a direct experience related to fibre?

A:  When I reflect upon the Manitoulin Circle Project I realize that it was an act of social change.  People told me that the gathering together every week of women from the community to make the four large contemporary quilts (meditation panels) was a magical thing, but I didn't really take in the importance of the project until I had time to look back on it.  

There are so many concerns in our lives today, just listen to the news.  The meditation panels do not dismiss the fearfulness but they can give us hope and Jack Layton told us that hope is better than fear.  These panels were made by real people as gifts for the future and are a tangible way to show belief in that future. 

They are made from reclaimed tablecloths, wool blankets, and lace doilies, textiles that contemporary families have no use for and keep in bottom drawers or give away to thrift shops.  Wool blankets, useful during the cold Canadian winters, and linen tablecloths, which in previous times were laid out on Sundays so that families could sit face to face and discuss, announce, plot, or celebrate are now transformed into touch filled celebration panels.  They are permanently installed in a church sanctuary where people come to sit and be quiet.  When the church goer returns the following week and gazes upon a favourite panel, he/she can re-visit worries from the previous week, or the plots, or the dreams.  Meditations are kept safely.  In this way the panels are like a private place one might have in nature, a thinking place.  

Layers of time are embedded in them not only from the old materials, but also the four years of time that we the makers put into them, and the time that each thoughtful congregant returns with week after week.  All this time is held by those panels for the future.  

The process of community coming together to slowly hand stitch these panels from beautiful but used domestic textiles is something to celebrate.  Those panels represent a gentle, slow revolution.  A change of attitude, a social change.  Where the doing itself is more important than the object.  When people work together, more is more. 

The opportunity for my students to see the hand work and touch the panels is probably the best thing about the workshop I will be teaching at the Newfoundland conference. 

slow stitch sampler by margot bickell

Q:  What is your favourite tool, accessory or yarn in your studio right now - the go to product that you frequently turn to? 

A:   I would not be able to create the work I do without my design walls.  At home I have 3 walls covered with 12 inch square ceiling tiles. Other important tools are my journal, my digital camera and my kitchen timer.  I set the timer for one hour...and magically it seems as if I have all the time in the world.  

Q:  In addition to your craft what else should we know about you?

A:  I've never lived in a city.  I visit cities, but I have lived all my life in rural isolated areas.  I think that this absence from the urban has given me a deep understanding of the hand made and of our human inherent connection to nature.  I'm not confronted with cement, high tension wires and consumer goods every single day and never have been. My husband and I made a conscious effort to give our four children a rural childhood with easy access to lakes and open spaces.  I think it is a gift they will cherish more and more as they get older.

slow stitch samplers by Lucie Medwig

Q:  What about Fibre Art Newfoundland excites you the most?   

A:  The location!!  Gros Morne is astounding. 

It will be unforgettable for those who have not been to Newfoundland. and I encourage people to visit this beautiful area.  I live on the largest island in a fresh water lake in the world, Manitoulin Island, and it is beautiful too - but Newfoundland is more.  I'm also excited to meet some of the remarkable teachers coming in for this conference.   Also, I have a piece in Wild Pure Aesthetic Wonder, the main exhibition, and am looking forward to seeing it installed in the Discovery Centre in Woody Point.

Images in this post are from my last visit to Newfoundland in April and of the Slow Stitch samplers I have been making along side of others this past winter on Manitoulin.  

This interview is also on the Fibrearts Newfoundland website where one can register for the three day workshop this October.  I've put an updated supply list for the Newfoundland workshop here for those interested. 

beyond the horizon

we stayed in efficiency units during our week in newfoundland (kitchen included)

 we learned to shop for easy dinner and breakfast makings in convenience stores

 the last week of April is still early for tourists

 there was fog

 no horizon

 then we saw them, the gannets at cape St. Mary's Newfoundland

and it was elating

the white out
the sense of vast space with no reference point

it's like flight

time is a material

 re-constructed ninety year old wool blanket

Petty Harbour Newfoundland

 that this cloth holds time and memory is evident

 in the several threadbare areas

Cape Broyle, Newfioundland

 these worn places evoke the man,

 woman, or child who lay with the blanket

Ferryland, Newfoundland

 and repeatedly pulled it up as a covering

 I have darned some of the more worn areas

Renews, Newfoundland

 strengthened the edges with blanket stitch

to add another layer of human touch.

details of a wool blanket piece from last year
photos of our drive today, avalon penninsula, newfoundland