Greetings from Montevideo, from Alison Schwabe, Aussie quiltmaker

In earlier posts re this piece I mentioned the machine stiched guidelines that once used for shape placement are pulled out. But I wasn't thinking properly. I just didn't realise that although it was too early to pull out the horizontal ones since they are helpful in the quilting process too, it was past time to take out the sides, ie the two vertical ones. These had marked the limit of shape placement out to the sides/selvedges, but I had done quite a bit of quilting before I realised that the quilting needs to go right out to the very edges to give that compositional borderspace framing the shapes. Since not every thread started and ended on the sideline, this was not actually a simple matter rectify, and i knew that at the start but decided it MUST be done., and that yes, it would take me several, maybe 10, extra hours to rectify.

Labels: technical problems

So, there was a fair bit of unpicking and re-sewing going back in some places about 10" long a line to find a suitable starting point or get to the end of a thread, to bring all the quilting lines right out to the selvedge of the fabric - the strip of batting showing on the right side of this photo is about 1", and the gold fabric that needed to be filled after all was about 2" wide, and approx. 72"" long, a little more maybe. Quite fiddly - but now I am back on track and the result will be worth it.

Labels: recycling in art/craft, technical problems

On the flea market or Trash'n'treasure stalls at a recent gas and steam festival I attended with the offsprings in Maryland recently, this object caught my attention and jumped into my hands. Its smooth well balanced form, the soft metallic rustle of tin discs and crisper rattle from within the dried gourd at the other end, all spoke to me literally, saying 'pick me' and 'take me home'. So I did - I had the $10 asking price and just could not resist this unusual and somehow beautiful thing. And fortunately, although I declared it coming in, no one wanted to see it, and therefore I was spared the pain of possible confiscation.

The stallholders said they felt it is a music maker, a percussion instrument. Although it is very sturdy, I will hang it on the wall while certain little people are visiting at the end of the year. And it is made 'confidently' by which I mean it is well crafted - from the shiny very smooth wood, to the wire fastened around the prongs to support the metal discs; and where the stained dried gourd meets the wooden shaft, the join is covered by a 3/4 inch stip of deerskin, probably, neatly held in place with a couple of tacks, which are holding depspite that it feels old and well used. It has an air about it of African heritage, which would not be surprising considering where I found it .... and any reader with knowledge of any thing like this, I'd be interesting in hearing it.

The overall length is about 18inches; the three pronged section about 7 inches; and the gourd about 3 inches base to neck and about 4 inches widest diametre. The rusted metal/tin discs are about 1 and 1/2 inch diametre.

Labels: recycling in art/craft

The three pronged branch from a tree or bush as been carefully cut ( the piece will stand perfectly balanced on the three ends)

the wires bear totally rusted thin metal discs with holes punched through with a nail or similar - these tin discs were stamped out: there are gently raised bands around the edge and one chain-like band, all faint - embossed. I don't think they are flattened out lids from something else, and they are too smooth-edged to have been hand cut with tin snips. 

Labels: recycling in art/craft

this view shows how the wire is bound and fastened to the third branch leaving one 'side' open

note the lovely smooth dark shiney branch - I feel it has been stipped of bark, maybe sanded with the grain and stained with a dark or black stain - which doesn't rub off. 

Labels: recycling in art/craft

A friend here, with whom I am doing some basic beading classes just now, has this figurine in her living room - she bought it in Johannesburg, South Africa a few years ago.

On a coffee table in her living room, it stands about 2 ft high, and the inner core is dried grass or straw bound into the long cone shape. Most if not all the materials used to create the costume the doll wears are from recycled waste and discarded household things such as clothing and packaging. Beading, which would probably have been bought, cheaply, has been applied sparsely but with great effect of a pattern. More fine beads suggest the hair lying over the top of the head, then nose and eyes. Black and yellow wool have been loosely plied together, and when wrapped produce a texture that looks remarkably like a knitted or printed pattern on the shirt or sweater the figure is wearing.

What a contrast to the current 'bead the heck out of it' fad prevailing in the art quilting world just now, with the impressionable masses amongst us utterly agog at learning of the literally 100's of 1,000s of beads covering at least one large award winning quilt in a recent show. IMHO, "Less is more", every time.

In a possibly slightly over-romanticised reputation from yesteryear, today quiltmaking hold an important place among domestic crafts involving recycled materials, utilising feed sacks, the best parts of old clothes , oddments and scraps from dressmaking, and all that stuff - including the folk art quilts from various parts of the world in the manner of Australian Waggas. In the highly visible major part of the Quilting Industry in Europe, UK, USA Australia, NZ and South Africa principally, western textile manufacturers produce several collections of new fabric designs per year especially for quilters, including fabrics printed to look like the hand dyed fabrics many home dyers now produce. In first world countries the result is that it has now become the exception rather than the norm to make a new quilt from pre-used fabrics, regrettably. 

Labels: recycling in art/craft

...... white thread is used all over this piece, regardless of colour change, and the beautifully even stitching in the back seam was what really caught my eye only today for some reason - I mean, I have seen this object many times and love it's almost- alive presence whenever I go to our friends' house. 

Labels: recycling in art/craft

Fluffy kitties and equivalents do not have any place on this blog, but this IS textile related.

Many people down at the mercado del puerto for yesterday's saturday lunch were charmed and amused by this pampered little poodle, "Poopi" according to how his owner pronounced his name, which I later realised could mean either young dog or could refer to his bowel habits...
What unfortunately you can't see, since my only pic of him in motion was spoiled by someone stepping front of the camera, is that there is a nicely shaped knitted coat over his back and sides, too. Funnily enough it was a fresh but not very cold day - maybe she was taking the freshly completed outfit with dog fitted, for a test drive kind of outing. Those little red sox haven't seen too much walking.

Labels: kitsch, knitting

In this section of approx 4" x 6", some of the quilting progress can be seen. I am very happy with this fine polyester thread which looks like rayon but is stronger, and a joy to sew with.
I do not normally mark out quilting lines in advance - then of course I can't go 'wrong' , but it also gives me freedom to wander with my needle, which is how I like to quilt.

I start with a general directional line that I decide is an overlay to the whole. As I go run the blunt end of a needle along the fabric to either lay a foundation line or connect one part of a quilting section to another, and here an example is the line that comes down from the upper left side to join the edge of the applied waxed silver leather piece. It will follow the edge of that shape until it heads out into plain open free fabric again, where its shape will again be influenced bythe next shape. Upper right segment is how the infill quilting looks, and in time all the infill will re-state the shapes and lines of the whole design.

The two straight grey machine stitched lines intersecting over near the right hand side are guidelines only, for the placement of shapes and some of the quilting development, and will eventually be pulled out. The thread I use for this is Gutermann's Skala, a multi polyester filament( many in the free machine quilting world refer to this and several similar threads as bobbinfill or bobbinfiller ) which I find wonderfully useful BECAUSE it is so easily removed, and because when piecing it gives a very fine, strong line of stitching.

Labels: leather, recycling in art/craft

A little diversion from the hackwork of the current work was a bit of snipping and punching this small piece of leather today - the cutout piece is about 1" square and the larger piece barely 3" a side.

I can envisage a whole.....

But back to what I am working on, with reference to the previous photo the application of shapes is going well and should be finished today.
What is really helping to keep the mind interested while the repetitive work is proceeding is the recorded book "Collapse" by Jared Diamond. DH is currently reading th this fascinating book, we are both enthralled. He draws from current examples and on archeological records of disappeared civilisations in various parts of the world, examining the known or suspected reasons, (generally multiple) for their collapses. These provide us all with real food for thought when pondering the current dreadful state of the world; current fighting, the environmental degradation, soil erosion, air pollution, the uneven allocation and distribution of food, fuel and other resources among people and nations, and so on. Wealthy (greedy and unthinking) nations have most to fear as pressure builds behind the aspirations of consumers in rapidly developing nations, such as China. And yet, there is ground for much hope if only everyone understood what is going on, and if our leaders just led wisely. That seems too much to hope for, but I sitll have 2 more discs to listen to....

Labels: recycling in art/craft

A portion of the initial process - attaching leather shapes to the dull mustard background fabric. Somewhere this past week I referred to these colours as a 'commonwealth bank of aus' or 'lufthansa' colour scheme. These colours have been on my mind since I saw the leather in a Perth leather place way back in feb/march - and simply had to buy it.... jumped off the shelf into my hands.

This textured leather, shows as I bought it, in the lower right corner. It is medium grey with darker recessed but glossy blobs. Towards the upper left that piece is the same leather but has been waxed over with silver treasure wax - I am so happy I have discovered this stuff. Other pieces I am using include other different leathers silvered over, some heavily others not so, some silver-pewter leather I found here and some black left black.
I'm planning a lot of large hand-stitched quilting in greys, since I gathered up plenty of suitable thread when I was in Perth, so sure I was going to do this. It's taken a while to get round to it, but since ths week I sent off my quilt to the SAQA Creative Force show organisers (Houston, IQF, October) and my entries for Fiberarts International and Quilt National 07 are also on their way, too, in effect that is all out of the way, (most likely all I have to do now is wait for the slides and polite but encouraging rejection letters) and I can focus on the next things which include several family bed and picnic quilts I have promised for some time. Grandson #2 now sleeps in his own bed all night so he needs one, his mum has lately decided she would like one after all, and I think we all need picnic quilts - and I have heaps of fabric I have collected for those! They will all be machine pieced, production line fashion, probably all much alike, and I plan to have them going at the same time as this next work, and the one to follow .

Labels: leather, recycling in art/craft