Greetings from Montevideo, from Alison Schwabe, Aussie quiltmaker

The Artist Statement

2009-01-29T12:43:00.007-02:00

The title of this work is "Flood 2"

I have always said the perfect artist statement for any work is a well chosen title. It offers some insight into the subject matter of the design, but leaves the viewer free to experience a work with unhindered by moulded expectations.

Further, I have often grumbled about having to produce yet another artist statement. And yet, its not hard. In this computer day and age its easy to have on file various lengths of statement from the ' in less that 50 words...." version of something to extensive on-file ramblings from which I pluck something to provide customised longer statements.

I have just come to the end of working with a team of web dsigners for a completely new website which now appears at http://www.alisonschwabe.com Moving the images round into a different order was interesting in that it helped me crystalise my thoughts about the groups of work I have done. That exercise prompted me to devise a general statement of the concept behind each series or group of quilts. For the moment I have not cluttered each quilt's page with a particular statement about that quilt, as I feel the general one is enough, brief as it is. Following the statement is the list of techniques I used on pieces in the series. That's for the technically curious, most often quilt makers. It's about as informative as listing a painter's works as "abstracts in oil" or "watercolour landscapes" but so often people want to know. IMHO, far too many textile artists go into long winded statements which include in almost mini tutorials on how they made each piece. That temptation is prompted by some exhibition organisers who ask for it on entry forms. I usually resist, or provide only a simple list. But one can be too brief - the photo of a quilt of mine was left out of a catalogue once, with something like " no statement provided' printed on the page beneath the name and title, dimensions and year of my quilt. I thought that was particularly snarky, but maybe it was tit for tat. I really could have said something very brief but chose not to. Now I always try to have a sentence at least about a quilt ready, along with title, dimensions, date, and price in the list I keep.

Thinking about what I am doing and why, with required objectivity and ordering of thoughts into comprensible printed or digital format can be hard, but is an ongoing process in which I've gradually learned more about myself. It has helped me to jot down notes as I work, and I don't always do this, and don't always feel I need to. I also make minimal drawings, and never make patterns or draw up anything in detail before starting a new piece, unless I am doing a commission, but that's a bit different.

Oh, and the quilt, "Flood 2" comes from my Colour Memories series, and you'll find it in a gallery by that name on http://www.alisonschwabe.com/ This blog will shortly become totally embedded in the website itself, and when that happens there will be a link to steer you, Dear Reader, straight to the right blog address. Just a little kink to be ironed out, and I'll change my signature and all that when it's done, probably tomorrow.

My Place Exhibition

2009-01-17T10:47:00.003-02:00

An international exhibition, MY PLACE, was shown in South Africa last year; will be seen this year in Australia in march, and then in New Zealand. It comprises thirty 50cm square quilts from each country, 90 in all.

I previously blogged this on 16 june last year, but only showed the detail as the selection process for My Place exhibition was not complete. for further information about this exhibiton and its schedule, go to www.myplacequilts.com

It was new work for me at that time, but I have since gone on to make other works in this vein and subject matter. Compared with previous works, the techniques including slash and burn, lots of irregularity within structure and no binding or formal edging of any kind are 'rough' , but to work this free way has been exhilarating, and you will be able to see more when my new website goes live in a short couple of weeks or so.

From the body of work commenced with this piece, comes "Timetracks 7 " which has been selected for Quilt National 09, and on the opening day for that exhibition, an image of it will appear on this blog and my website.

Architectural Oddities Department

2009-01-14T16:13:00.001-02:00

About this time of year I often publish an architectural or structural oddity, normally something I have noticed on our travels. Sometimes I have found actual follies, but that's too strong a term for this one, really. It's a new house near the town of Piriapolis, Uruguay, where we have just enjoyed some seaside and beach time with visiting family.

It reminds me of those pre-calculator day things called 'slide rules' - my DH was old enough to have had and used one, I didn't, probably because I didn't get enough involved in mathematics, and then calculators began to appear not too long after that. They are a mystery to me, but watching my father use one, I do recall how they involved sliding one part with numbers or symbols back and forth against gradations on another part - sliding the pieces apart or back together - to get some kind of answer to some kind of question .... anyway, this reminds me of them. they're actually a real collector's item right now.

So, it seems the house has been "pulled a bit apart" to reveal the first floor deck, which is clearly the chief outdoor area. So far, anyway.

This is the back, from a bit further up the hill. I don't know the people, so can't be sure, but with the absence of a chimney up on the deck it would seem the essential outdoor BBQ, aka the parilla, is not up there but somewhere lower down, maybe along near the car somewhere. It would have to have been part of the essential planning - everyone has one and everyone uses theirs, often.

Just note how dry the grass surrounding the house is. The whole country is tinderbox dry, and no sign of rain. Fires either deliberately lit or ones that escaped from campsites were fanned by strong winds late last week, resulting in a lot of property damage and some loss of life. At least one person has been imprisoned, other charges may follow. There is no open fire ban law like most parts of Australia, but considering the huge number of eucalypts, introduced, and now all over the country, this is something Uruguayans should be looking at. There are disasters waiting to happen here.

Ebb & Flow #8

2009-01-12T10:37:00.003-02:00

To enable reference while reading the post below. Ebb & Flow carried on the same design idea witha more satisfying result.

Machine pieced and machine quilted (ditch) with hand quilting in the plain squares.

Dimensions, 55" x 44" , 141cm x 113cm

This quilt will be seen in SAQA's "Transformations 09" in the UK later this year, before that exhibition goes on to Houston.
In the pieced units, I did hand quilting in the same charcoal grey as the background fabric.

Ebb & Flow 4 !

2009-01-12T09:44:00.000-02:00

I confess - I had forgotten I had this little piece until it rolled out from the back of the cupboard in a recent clear out. An early member of the series, it was shown in in my Washington DC show in 2005, but not seen since I unpacked it returning from that.

Having my website redesigned just now has set me wondering, where is # 5 ? I keep a list of quilts/availability/year made/price, but neither made it onto that list, which is bad enough, but, and unusually for me, I didn't have an images of them either, until I took one of this one, #4, the other day. but never will of #5. I think I may have subtitled a small piece Ebb &Flow #5, but since the one I am thinking of sold and has gone, I can't check for sure. My record keeping has some gaps, but then, I am not sure whether this really matters much in the long run, as I doubt any curator is ever going to be searching through and assembling a restrospective of my quilts.

Ebb & Flow #8 followed on from the idea of this layout. Of course I love repeat units, but in #8 the units are separated by blank unpieced squares across which the quilting continues, imho a more pleasing effect. And in #8 also, the quilting takes on more design importance. It is pictured on my blog xxxxx and website.

For the technically inclined:- dimensions are 36" H x 30" W, the fabrics are machine pieced (not bonded fused or appliqued) and quilting is by machine, both in the ditch where units join, and wandering horizontally across the cream, stopping wherever that comes up against print. So, lots of stopping and starting, ends darned in as I go, but not tedious, it's just the way I work.

Ancient Expressions Series

2008-12-19T11:14:00.007-02:00

Recently on one of the lists I belong to there was a discussion on series. This topic bobs up once or twice a year, usually covering the exact same ground - as people new to quiltart wonder about the business of working in a series. But this time an interesting comment came from someone who wondered out loud if she should take the 'risk' of working in one, and what was the opint anyway of 'doing the same thing over and over again'

I don't actually see any 'risk', to exploring the same thing over and over again - consider Jorge Rodrigue's Blue Dog paintings, hugely commercially successful, and quite intriguing to many, wish I had one or two.... or what about Turner's clouds, or Monet's haystacks and lily ponds. And then again, 'doing the same thing over and over again' might refer to technique, colour palette, raw materials, processes, subject matter - there are many possible unifying elements on wqhich to base a series.

Rather than pontificate about series in abstract, I thought I'd offer this selection from the first series of work I made, " Ancient Expressions" being from UL to LR, nos. I, VI, X and XII, dating from 1988 to 1992. As suggested by the title, the group/series has a general theme, which I didn't foresee as ongoing while working with what eventuallybecame "Ancient Expressions". At the time I regarded myself as an embroiderer, and was only just beginning to learn about traditional patchwork, almost on the side. Hence the paint plus hand stitch and in this case quilting through layers, I thought of as an embroidery, a wall hanging. I had used 'quilting' as a needlework technique often. However as an art quilt, AE was juried into a very prestigious exhibition and sold. That was encouraging, and this whole area being of great interest to me, I renamed it "Ancient Expressions I" and continued on with the theme of man-made marks in and on the Landscape reflecting human activity in a region, and forming a link back to ancient peoples. I don't know anyone who isn't moved by this.

As the series develops the landscape element becomes more abstract but is always still present somewhere in the quilt. The markings form patterns and are less pictorial, but are based on real shapes or linear patterns I observed either on rocks or artefacts in museums and books. The series also reflects my expanding technical skills. The last work was "Ancient Expressions XIV", and although that was 1993, I don't consider this series is 'closed'' which is another way of saying I think I sitll have something more to say or explore on this theme. Not procrastinating though, I am wondering about exactly what it is I want to say and how I want to say/analyse it.

SAQA Online Auction Continues

2008-11-25T11:54:00.003-02:00

In the SAQA 12" Squares Online Auction. Sold

Go to http://www.saqa.com/ and follow the prompts.

Aussie Comment- Ignorant, Offensive

2008-11-25T09:35:00.006-02:00

The APEC gathering of leaders from countries in and around the Pacific was held in Lima, Peru, and wrapped up, so to speak, on 24/11/08.

One of the traditions of these conferences is the presentation by the host nation of a wearable textile gift to each attending leader. There have been some memorable Malay and Indonesian batik shirts, and the Philipines presented them with those lovely peñasilk dress shirts worn everyday by men there. Of course, as every traveller knows, something typical of one culture can look a bit comic back home, and nothing shrieks louder of a returned tourist than sporting a piece of culture-to-wear, like a Union Jack waistcoat, an Akubra hat with shark tooth adorned headband, or a t-shirt adorned with native american symbols worn with turquoise and silver jewellery.

For the host nation, the trick is to choose something identifiably national and that can be worn by both male and female leaders. The previous APEC gathering was in Sydney, Australia. The government of the day would have sifted through various national clothing ideas - stubbies, thongs and t-shirt perhaps? (stubbies are very short shorts) but maybe not for the sheilas -stubbies are often revealing enough on the blokes. They might have considered white t-shirts with shark bites out of them and splashes of what looks like fresh blood? bad taste, and pun intended ... shady hats with bobbing corks around the rim? They eventually came up with the ubiquitous Akubra(brand) wide brimmed felt hat, worn year round by blokes and sheilas, in town and country - perfect. Then our people went way over the top with excessive largesse, teaming these hats with indivdually sized with choice of coloured suede trim Drizabone rain coats. These are robust waterproof coats of oiled fabric, styled with a split back to enable the wearer to be mounted on a horse OK while droving or working out in wet windy cold weather. They're legendary, and totally wonderful, but not your everyday wear for most Aussies, and in addition they aren't cheap - think several hundred dollars. It felt to me like we were wanting to totally out-do our Pacific neighbours, rather like the suburban mum planning a kiddies' birthday party wanting the take-home party favour lolly bag to be bigger and better than anyone else's. So nouveau riche.

I thought this article on the poncho gifts and photo opps windup was particularly snotty and rather embarrassing to read in our national newspaper. Shame on you, Matthew. It will find its way back to Peru, and there will be taken as an ignorant put-down: Peru's APEC ponchos resemble 'potato sacks' The Australian The photogallery on the LHS reveals that some have no idea how to wear this garment, or the need to stand up straight while doing so. However our Kev looks cool in his, and wears it with apparent enjoyment, and the respect due to this fantastic gift. OMG, any textile fan would simply love an alpaca poncho like this, as I am sure it would be of the very highest quality and slip through the hands smoothly and be light but supremely warm. The undyed natural colours suit every complexion. and a poncho suits, some would say "covers" every figure type. Perfect. If our Kev doesn't see himself wearing it back home, I have my hand up for the cast off; but I am sure Terese will snag it and wear with style in our national capital next winter - over black pants and a warm black top or cream shirt it would look great. George Bush looks as he possibly felt, a bit dorky, but lacked the plain social skills of others who were too polite to show any feeling of awkwardness in their getups.

For an interesting article on how this tradition came about, and some better pics of GWB, go to
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=743005&category=STRANGENEWS
What I didn't know until I read this article (18/1/09) is that there was a gift for spouses, too, described as shawls. I'm glad they didn't confuse the issue by using that ubiquitous term, 'pashmina' for shawl - it's now the generic term for any light shawl-like garment woven from any fibre, natural or man made. Most of us could not afford the luxury of a genuine shawl made from pashmina, the finest of fine cashmere. And anyway, they don't have pashmina goats in Peru.

Starting Point for New Work

2008-11-24T10:31:00.002-02:00

"Pick Me! Pick Me! " they seem to cry as I look
down from my sewing table for the next few choice little bits to add to the growing composition below. Some of them are indeed very small, catching my eye as little gems against the background of the less startling; but properly placed adjacent to something else, potentially every piece will become important in the overall outcome.

As I comment below, I literally do up-end the scrap bags onto the floor, and there's another heap behind the camera, too, but the light coming in onto it made that too hard to photograph without moving everything around. At times I feel as a dumpster diver must feel, searching through people's discarded stuff looking for useful or valuable things, or, let's be honest, maybe looking for food, depending on where the dumpster is.

Hauling out recyclables from the city maintained dumpsters on every block in Montevideo is still a reasonable business, generally run by one or two people with a horse and cart. With the dumpsters being emptied 3 times per week and pressure hosed once, they have to be organised to be ahead of the rubbish workers' schedule. Licences are gradually dwindling though as they come due, and this way of life is allegedly disappearing. I always do my best to put recyclables in the orange plastic bags you get, theoretically one or two with every supermarket order, and they are meant to only contain recycleable glass, plastic, paper, styrofoam and such. The list is printed on the outside. Previously, each house had a basket up on a pole outside the front gate, into which bags of rubbish went; and every monday a guy would come down our street looking for cardboard and plastic packaging, etc, and I used to put anything like that out that morning. I'm not sure how he'd be doing, never see him around now.

New Work in Progress

2008-11-23T18:39:00.003-02:00

This will be a wide piece, at least 2m wide and probably about 1m - 1.25m high. A couple of years back I did a piece I called Lightstream, thinking as I was at the time how as white light passes through a prism it is divided into the rainbow bands of colour. This is a follow up I have been meaning to do for a while, and so it may bear the same name, Lightstream #2. But it is also very much in the style of the Ebb & Flow series. Who knows, I may not name it, as I intend for it to replace a will quilt that has been hanging in my own home for several years. (that one will be retired to a labelled cloth bag.)
As each vertical strip of fabric I am inserting strips into is about 25cm wide, I have at least 4 more to go, maybe 5. I want it to look light and lively, full of motion.

As with all my pieced quilts, this is truly a scrap quilt, more accurately a scrap bag quilt, since I have emptied the bag containing small almost useless size scraps, offcuts, of fabric onto the floor beside my machine, and am diving into that peridocially, putting buts and pieces together to form strips of chunks of colour usually no more than a couple of inches wide, max. As I use them the curvy bits tend to make one edge trail off into a sliver - so that bit comes off and I add something more to make it a useful length again. sometimes I divide up a unit and intersperse another colour, or some cream, which if used occasionally gives the impression of some wandering line suddenly coming to an end part way across the vertical panel.

As with any scrap quilt, it might all look random, haphazard and unplanned ( some would use'intuitive' here) but once all the strips are pieced, they have to be placed in relation to each other, adjusting either up and down or in different relation to the right or left edge. Probably one or two will need to be pulled out and replaced with something else - a need that doesn't become clear until later. For example, the rather long sinuous bright blue close to the centre of the photo is a bother now that I step back and look through the lens. I will either break it up with some other colours or replace it totally. Alternatively I might consider long bright blue pieces elsewhere, 2 or 4 more of them (the ikebana principle) I also might even add in more cream here and there, depending on how the final 8 or 9 look done. Light and dark clear and bright, large and small spaces, and 'incomplete lines' all need to be balanced in the final assembly. That means another 20 hours or so in the piecing stage I estimate, or in other words, it's about half pieced.

While all this is going on I am considering glitter, if, which colour and where, and the quilting pattern. At the moment I favour machine quilting with a shiny cream rayon thread wandering randomly from left to right; and that too may change.

SAQA Online Auction - Happening Now!

2008-11-13T14:37:00.003-02:00

EBB & FLOW #12 sold

in the SAQA online 12"squares auction

From an ongoing series, this small quiltlet is 12" square, as are all the other pieces in the auction. It is a lead in to another work now under way, but much larger - 2m wide and I haven't yet decided how deep, but probably about 1.25m high. It's coming along- see above.

Peru - food

2008-11-13T11:16:00.002-02:00

Served in lost of places, fish seems to appear far more on the menu there than here in Uruguay. The Incas fished the seas, rivers and highland lakes. and were traders of dried fish over long distances. We were presented with lots of vegetables, too. Over 1500 varieties of potato, and over 450 of corn are produced there. We found there always seems to be potato and/or corn in there somewhere at most meals.
You might not be able to tell, but the LR pic is fish in a shallow lake of potato blended with pumkin and cilantro and, well not sure what else, but very yummy - we'll be doing a version of this at home. It also came with an upturned 1/2 hard boiled egg and a black olive which are no longer evident. Above, in UR, is another piece of fish served on a bed of potato with tomato and not sure what else blended in with it, it was fantastic.
The two pics UL and LL are two versions of ceviche, the fresh fish pickled in lemon or lime juice with cilantro and a little chilli basically, and served everywhere it seems. The upper one is covered with masses of fresh onion with slivers of moderately hot chilli peppers; and the lower one came flanked with white beans, lima probably since we were in Lima, plus oven baked corn, and the ceviche in the centre was topped by a mild chilli pepper. A meal in iteslf, although it was listed under 'entradas'.

Arpillera - details

2008-11-13T10:50:00.002-02:00

The details are wonderful relflections of what is on sale in the daily markets - notice the brooms and basketry objects, small miracles of minature construction; and the hats, jewellery and musical instruments down the left edge of the upper pic.

Lots of people are either shopping, or offering, as one Egyptian market vendor expressed it last year, to "Let me help you spend your money madam!" I have to say, though, the marketing was less directly aggressive. In Egypt I found that vendors would even gently take hold of my arm or wrist to direct my attention or try to make me head in a particular direction. In Peru there was constant verbal pressure sotto voce, and goodness, I would love to have bought up something from every stall, but everyone knows that can't be.

Over on the right of the lower pic are some of the fruits and vegetables, as heaped up in every general market amongst the household items.

These are major works of the miniaturist's art, quite up there with other examples like dolls houses or ships in bottles, IMHO. I have never been bitten by the bug, but do appreciate the work of people who love doing this.

Arpillera - Peru- Enthusiasm !

2008-11-12T10:17:00.002-02:00

While we were visiting Peru just a ceek or so ago I bought this arpillera at the markets in Aguas Calientes, en route to Machu Picchu ( think I finally have the spelling of that one right - I have seen it every way you can think of)

These deslightful needlework pieces come in a range of sizes and complexity, and therefore, cost. I have seen similar works from KI think vietnam, qwhere the subject as i nthis one is depiction of some aspect of daily life or flora and fauna of the region - all were available, but I thought this one was wonderful. Up near the RH cloud in the top picture is sewn the word 'mercado' meaning market. Against a backdrop of the clear skies and bold clouds we experienced, a typical building from that part of the Andes, some of the plants, people in dress costume dancing, and the llamas you see everywhere is a crowded market scene. Fruit and veggies, meats, fabrics, shoes, clothes, sewing notions, flowers, baskets, jewellery, brooms, musical instruments and more, are al crowded onto the market area, just as in real life.

I love the dancing ficures. We went to a musical evening in Cuzco and enjoyed quite a number of of dances, most of which were al;ong formation formall movement lines, and this is exactly what the figures are doing, accompanied by a pipe player, see upper left edge of this detail shot.

Peru - Vitality in Ceramics

2008-11-10T10:30:00.001-02:00

One of the most delightful experiences in this museum in Lima, the Museo Larco, was to be able to go through the museum's storage area and see the thousands of pieces of precolumbian artifacts that were not currently on display, but just crowded together behind glass, on floor to ceiling shelves, and decorated with every imaginable pattern and texture.
UL gives a general impression, masses of embayments like this, with crowded floor to ceiling shelves, daylight coming in from above, and the freedom to wander and enjoy, with not a guard or official in sight anywhere through the museum.
UR Parrots, parrots, parrots.
LL some serious probably important figures or officials
LR showing the wonderful variety of decoration on a selection of bottles or vases - how modern does the black with beige dots look on the upper row of this group?
It was here I had a watery knee moment, as I seem to experience when the immensity of history suddenly hits me....as it did too at the Bayeux tapestry, the V&A's medieval tapestry room, and standing in front of the death mask from Tutenkhamen's tomb in the Cairo museum.

Peru - Sexuality in Ceramic

2008-11-10T10:04:00.001-02:00

From the Museo Larco in Lima, a couple of snaps of some of the pieces on display in their room of erotic Inca art.

These might go just as well in some gynaecological exhibit, I'm thinking!

Hallobloodyween Again

2008-10-22T15:40:00.001-02:00

A visit in the past couple of weeks to some of the offsprings up in Maryland US involved going out to a farm and shoosing a few pumpkins of various sizes for carving and display on the front doorstep. In this semi-rural area I don't understand why everyone pretty well doesn't have pumpkin vines trailing all over their back fences - but they don't: anyway there are lots of places you can get them, from outside your local grocery store to one of the farms between your town and the next. At this place it was big seasonal business - fascinating collections of pumpkin-looking ones and more ornamental quash, incredible variety. Just some are shown here.

Well the boys entered a frenzy of carving and really got into the spirit of a book they have of pumkin carving design ideas - with the emphasis on the less benign, no, lets say, petty nasty pumpkin visages! I joined in too, with help at some of the finer points for the younger carver, and they looked great on the front step with little lights inside....

Well of course, this has nothing to do with the culture in Uruguay, where I am sorry to say retailers are yet again revving up for this imported culturally irrelvant event. We will not be here, but will be enjoying visiting Peru for the first time ever - really looking forward to that. There'll be a couple of Uruguayans here house sitting, staving off this year's trick-or-treaters. I hope it's not all too much for them, as it's really 'bad' here in our part of the city and one or two neighbouring barrios. Our first year in this house I just answered the bell a number of times and siad "Sorry, no, we don't do halloween" and had an egg thrown at the house for our trouble. It damaged the paintwork badly enough to need repainting, making that just wanton vandalism IMHO, nothing less. Since then we have gone out for the evening, leaving a box of wrapped sweets n at the gate asking people to take one and leave the rest - but I imagine most coming along have been faced with an empty box, but too bad.

Small Change, Big Difference...

2008-09-28T14:17:00.001-03:00

This quilt, Ebb & Flow 10, was completed in 2005, and appeared in the solo exhibition I had that year at the Australian Embassy in Washington DC. It is one of a series of quilts with this title, the theme of which is how various aspects of Life change constantly, ebbing and flowing with highs and lows, as with the restless ocean tides.

Although I had been very keen on it during the making, between beginning the quilting and finishing off the binding, somehow some reservations about it developed in my mind. Ideally some of the murky green would have been a perfect binding - but there was none left - this piecing takes a lot of fabric, it can be surprising. Next possibility was a turn back facing, but I had fallen love with a hot pink with fine black pin dots on it, and put that on - I thought it looked good,at the time. But it didn't seem to attract much interest at the solo or the another public airing here late last year.

Recently an interesting exhibition opportunity for this quilt came up, and I realised I only had gallery shots, not suitable for submitting on cd for jurying. So some new pics would need to be shot - and just before my appointment with Eduardo the photographer, I determined to change the binding on this one. Rummaging in the cupboard I found a mauve fabric, bought only in the past year but one I had still not been inspired to cut into (something occasionally happens between the shop and the workroom) It's a difficult colour, perhaps, and I am not really sure why I bought it (for the challenge?) - but anyway it turned out to be perfect for this quilt's new binding.... see photo below. Only a small change, but it makes a big difference. Oh, and IMHO, does not change the quilt sufficiently to re-date it or re-title it, either!

2008-09-28T13:48:00.000-03:00

So this photo is of the newly bound quilt with the mauve binding.
The hot pink with black pin dots has been pinned to the front to give an idea of what it used
to look like - in such haste to get the old binding off I didn't think of taking a snap for the record
before I removed it.

Dumbing Down in a Crowded Field?

2008-09-15T22:18:00.008-03:00

I make very non traditional quilted textile art works, commonly called 'art quilts' , although as I and others have said before, there really isn't a totally satisfactory term to cover these endeavours.
Recently a publisher announced plans for a new periodical for 'art quilters' to consist of one part information including how-to articles and advertising, and the other part focusing on individual artists and their works. It sounds to me like a cross between a catalogue and a magazine, with the inevitable ads. This kind of venture has been tried before. Ten years or more back, there was one with huge amounts of lovely pics and original writing including interesting reviews , but it folded after a couple of years' struggle with production difficulties -the supporting advertising revenue didn't seem to be there. Another more recent publication has become a series of mass-appeal project pieces with advertising - very, very technique- and how-to oriented, and really short on the art side of it all. Safe and mainstream.

As one friend privately commented last week, among aspiring art quilters there is so much emphasis on technique and very little attention paid to learning more about art, the general perception being that for those wearying of making traditional quilts there is the art quilt field to just blithely transition into. There are heaps of classes covering how to manage the mandatory dyes and paints, printing manipulating digital images, and all the while designing intuitively ... 'intuitive' is a buzz word in the art quilt field.

And not only that, but there are associations, organisations one can join to learn all about promoting and marketing your art in a series of professional development programs, ranging from mentoring phone hookups to on-line encyclopaedic treatises on everything the aspiring art quilter could possibly need to know, from what size a mailable quilted postcard should be, to whether quilted art should be framed, mounted or hung, with or without glass, and so on. You can even pay someone to help you design your studio; and no one calls their work area a 'sewing room' or 'work room' nowadays, it seems.

The main point is usually missed totally: that in truly original work there are no rules.

'Art quilters' will flock in droves for subscription copies of this new publication, and will seize the opportunity to be featured artists by submitting images; but I predict none of it will result in wider appreciation of the genre, nor will it result in more high quality writing , or thoughtful reviews of quilted textile art. Michael James ruffled feathers and caused frenetic controversy a couple of years back by suggesting that quilters as a group are woefully ignorant of the wide world of contemporary art and design, mostly happily reproducing what they are taught by workshop teachers who present predominantly technique based classes. Among the many contemporary quiltmakers I personally know there are relatively few original designers demonstrating mastery of design and colour, who choose to use sublimely appropriate techniques (high or low tech) who really think about the content of their designs, and whose work can be identified as being of note within the contemporary art scene in their region in which they operate.

Small Works with Leather

2008-09-02T16:13:00.002-03:00

The learning curve consisted of working out how to do a fitted bed-sheet kind of arrangement with the metallicised under layer of leather. Edges were then turned back and the mighty new stapler used to tack all that in place.

The textured leather (very daggy, really)appears to drape over the under one - enhanced with judiciously placed old gold wax. Black and gold thread was used to stitch lines of large stitches, some of which are crossed over by others.

Each panel is approx 8 in/20cm size.

Another Fascinating Leather Factory

2008-08-30T12:37:00.002-03:00

Regular readers will remember my post of another leather processing plant back at the end of June this year, where huge quantities of leather are produced for export to large furniture and clothing manufacturers, seeking a consistent quality product.

A few days ago my friend V and I visited another, Curtiembre Fazakas Cible S.A., www.cueronet.com/cible just a few blocks up the same street on the northern outskirts of Montevideo, but they are a world apart in every sense. This plant has been in operation for a long time, work areas are rather cramped, lighting and ventilation leave a lot to be desired, but the exciting leather treatments experimented with and produced here are a total feast for the eyes, and hands too - many wonderful textures are being achieved here with both mechanical and chemcial processes.

UL shows chemically treated leather to produce texture patterns - the dark brown metallic has been turned back to reveal what is more easily seen on the suede side, a grid effect, and the leather is quite stretchy now - it'd be great for a vest or cushions..... Silvery grey metallic piece has been greated to give a wonderul gathered, ruched effect. Clothing? Interior decorating? UR shows a couple of different hides - one with zebra-like stripes painted on in totallyt not natural colours - and the one beneath has been treated to produce hair-free patches, along with colour variations. For several years we have had a mat in our entry hall with this texture, but in natural earthy colours. LL shows one of many gold foil patterns applied to leather there, with designs ranging from incredibly delicate almost lacey patterns to large ones that look like globs of paint after an accidental spillage of the gold paint pot. The foil patterns come on cellophane-like sheets, and are applied under heat and huge pressure. The LR pic is one of many tumblers that dry pieces of leather between processes.

A piece of leather here can go through up to 80 processes, and each piece is continually being auditioned for its appropriateness for a range of final product, much of which is exported to Spain and Italy where a lot is paid for these innovative results useful to the high end design market. There are almost 60 colours available to say nothing of combinations. I was told that Nicole Kidman (or her interior designer? ) had ordered some sent to Australia - would that have been Madonna if I had been norte americano? My friend Virginia seems very keen for me to order a group of zebra-looking skins in wild colours to take back to Australia .... Of course, I could not resist buying several small pieces, and since I did not have wads of cash in my wallet that day, I had to choose carefully - see below for what I came away with, gleaned from the exciting mounds of skins everywhere we walked , stepped or sidled through - reminding me so much of my friend W's studio ! I'll bet the guys who work here, like W, could lay their hands on any particular item in double quick time.

2008-08-30T11:59:00.001-03:00

Views of part of the processing and display areas of the plant, an Aladdin's Cave if ever there was. Masses of colours, masses of samples, various hides used, from really fine small animals to large cattle and, clearly, horse hides (Uruguay exports horsemeat to France) The place is not at all modern BUT what is coming out of there in terms of innovation and experimentation is wonderful. Refer back to my recent post on 'Studios'. This works.

Leather I Couldn't Resist !

2008-08-30T11:45:00.000-03:00

I could not walk away without any of these pieces from this leather place ! it was hard to choose, and perhaps not a bad thing I wasn't carrying a larger amount of cash that day!

UL- A fine leather with metallicised finish in a very muted geometric crazy paving look.
UR - A very rough suede 'rustico', looks rather battered but in addition to a few holes (love them) there are subtle smudges of dark gold/bronze paint randomly here and there.
LL -a really fine piece of suede, like a car washing chamois, drapes beautifully, one side dusted with old gold.
LR - another rustic looking piece, very rough in finish, shreds hanging off in some areas, holes of course, in a deep charcoal or very dull faded blackish colour.

Will I use these? I certainly plan to, including thinking about some ways to use the holey parts whey they occur. Working small... Textured stitchery? Mounted on small artist mount/frame thingies? ... I'm thinking, and with this in mind plan to acquire a serious stapler today.

Motorised Shopping Trolley?

2008-08-29T11:15:00.003-03:00

Returning home through a part of the city unfamiliar to me, but which apparently DH passes through regularly on the way to and from a government office where he gets maps and mining information, we came across this wonderful little delivery vehicle parked outside its supermarket on the corner. As luck would have it my camera was in my bag.

There are lots of these in Montevideo, very popular for supermarket deliveries especially, although a well known pool servicing firm uses them and these are a sight I do mean to capture on er, pixel, one day, with the long handled mesh strainer scooop thing plus other equipment tied to the luggage rack on the top.

Anyway I think this one is perhaps the most beautiful and certainly the wittiest I have seen. The contents of the grocery cart are all actual brand names that the supermarket would carry - I wonder is this an adversiters' sponsored paint job? the quirky appearance of the UR corner of this photo is due not to fancy photoshop editing but a white trim on the building on that side of the street - I decided not to change anything, quite liking the quirky appearance of this photo.

Eat your heart out, Mr Bean !

Book Review "Masters: Art Quilts"

2008-08-28T20:00:00.001-03:00

Masters: Art Quilts
Major Works by Leading Artists
Martha Sielman, author and curator. © 2008
ISBN-13: 978-1-60059-107-5
ISBN-10: 1-60059-107-8

Collectors of quilted textiles known as art quilts, and fellow designers and makers will all be pleased with this recently published survey of the work by 42 of the major practitioners in the art quilt field. For each artist, there are up to 12 full colour images, including some wonderful detail shots, and for some the works shown span almost twenty years. As a result, the reader is able to appreciate long term development of vision and the presence of changing influence on the life and art of each master. The second pleasing feature is the numerous quotes from artists’ personal statements, balanced by the curator’s discussion of each individual’s background, presented with just enough information to satisfy technical curiosity and allow the reader to fully focus on the makers’ visual statements.

From largely US-based beginnings in the 1970’s, innovative quilted textile art has grown internationally in the past two decades, and so it is fitting and pleasing that about 1/3 of the selected artists live outside the USA. Those chosen to appear in this volume are just some of those art quilters most recognized for long term excellence and for their influence on the modern art quilt movement. Not all choices reflect both of these criteria, I felt, with the curator occasionally straying into personal favourites, inevitable in such a project, I suppose. From within a movement with which I am long and well acquainted, I found the book includes several wonderful obvious choices, some personal favourites, a few I hadn’t known of and some notable omissions, including not one of the two or three prominent Australian art quilters who would belong in such a survey.

Through the works of the chosen quiltmakers, “Masters:Art Quilts” presents fine examples of the diversity found in the field of art quilt making today. Traditional quiltmaking techniques were mostly piecing and appliqué by hand or machine, with occasional use of stitch or pigment embellishments. In the past two decades these have been joined by various forms of applied paint and dye, plus digital image manipulation and fabric printing techniques barely thought of just a few years ago. Wide bed industrial sewing machines, computer aided design software and digital computers, air pens, air brushes have found their way into the creative hands of art quilt makers. Design inspiration has diversified tremendously, too, often presented within design formats reflecting descent from the traditions of quiltmaking. You will find here studies of line, shape, texture, pattern and colour, deeply personal spiritual and cultural issues, narratives and memory, environmental issues, and the study of nature and landscape.

It is a shame that there are only 42 artists and only one volume, but this is a fascinating survey and I recommend it to all with an interest in this field.

Available from all good book stores. RRP Au$ 34.99. Can $24.99

Wonderful Leather

2008-08-18T18:56:00.003-03:00

Upper pic One of my dearest friends, W, a fellow fiber artist, attending a sale somewhere in Perth during the past few months, noticed a decent sized scrap of black leather, about a fat 1/4 equivalent, and thinking of me, bought it for when I next turned up there, bless her. So she gave it to me while I was there in early july, and I brought it back here. It's fabulous, beautifully fine and soft with the most amazingly landscapey texture stamped or etched into it. I have pictured a little au naturel beside a small snippet over which I lightly rubbed gold wax - and, I have some metallic machine sewing thread the same colour. Even as I write, something's brewing around this.
Lower pic The leather that I blogged ( 22/6/08, Leather Factory Visit) has been calling to me to experiment. The leather as I bought it, with my cut-out, is beside another piece waxed with pewter. I just love the metallic waxes, and was fascinated that a ceramic artist friend in West Australia also uses it to highlight some of her works. The texture of the chemically treated hide lends itself to really fine handcut shaping. Sewing across it without thread in the needle, adds more texture - see gold below.

Studios

2008-08-16T08:58:00.006-03:00

I always enjoy going to other artists' work areas - and there is no way to generalise about them. Some are orderly, clean, dust free with everything in its place, others are totally chaotic, some generously sized, possibly purpose-built work areas, others nothing much more than a hole in the wall, scavenged space within a family home - either convenient or apparently hopelessly inconvenient by my standards; and yet, from every kind of environment come people who produce wonderfully creative, innovative works in a variety of media.

Recently I have seen references to classes quilters can enrol in for help with design or renovation of workspace or studio. These courses are aimed specifically at quiltmakers, but I recently read of a US magazine publisher who is launching a new publication on the topic of studios, presumably not solely aimed at quilters but other artists in all media. What strikes me as very sad is that in affluent societies people will pay good money to ?learn? how to do what they could do themselves with a bit of thought and planning, where they want what in their work area, storage of raw materials, new or second hand furniture needed, lighting, power outlets etc.

There is no 'correct' or 'perfect' approach to a workspace - it is up to the individual to do a bit of thinking around the subject from their own point of view. If someone can't think and organise their way through their own work space, can they be relied on to produce original, well designed creative work? I think there is a very strong link here.

Gems of Texture On Show

2008-08-04T16:00:00.003-03:00

A few weeks ago it was my pleasure to visit an interesting fibre art exhibition, Tragedy, Treasure and Trade in Fremantle, Western Australia.; and if you are reading this before it closes on 19 August 2008, I recommend you try to get along to see it:
M-F10am - 4.30pm, Sat 1 - 5pm,
Sun 10.30am - 4.30pm
Community Access Gallery, West Australian Museum - Fremantle History, 1 Finnerty Street, Fremantle (in Fremantle Arts Centre complex, entrance opposite gift shop) Cost: gold coin donation Contact details: Suzanne Coleman suzannecoleman@bigpond.com

The group of experimental stitchers from the Embroiderers' Guild of Western Australia presented their interpretations and impressions in various textile techniques resulting from group and individual visits to and studies of historic collections relating to early european maritime activity on the Western Australian coast. There is particular reference to the wreck in the Abrohlos archipelago of the Dutch ship Batavia in 1629, a subsequent mutiny and dramatic rescue. Ship, cargo and personal relics plus written records of the events and people involved were studied by members of this group, inspiring interpretation through a wide variety of techniques, some of which the group also learned together. This learning was recorded in individual artist journals which most participants also put out on display. Clearly a great deal of technical virtuosity resides in this group, covering the use of paint and print, felting, dyeing, hand and machine stitch techniques, quilting, plus needleweaving and lace constructions and assemblies. In some cases, the journals were more lively than the resulting finished works.

But overall the individual interpretations are the most fascinating part of this exhibition. I was particulary taken with Linda Stokes' printed silk scarf (UR) in beautiful water and reef colours, using a motif from a salvaged fragment of lace from the Batavia wreck. Glen Hall also took the inspiration of lace and produced a lace scarf, "SOS", on tulle (LL) using paint and recycled lace in a rich combination of dirty brown colours with a little coppery metallic here and there suggesting faded glory or tarnished riches - in the C17th only very wealthy people owned lace. Jennie Abbott found inspiration in written accounts of seagulls flocking overhead ( UL) indicating land was not far away with "Sails in the Wind". This beautiful idea was well executed, but unfortunately hanging this contemporary lace piece against a cream wall reduced it's impact - how wonderful this could have been possibly larger and instead of hanging from a stick, suspended like a cloud from several corners of this small gallery -that's if it had not been possible to paint a wall blue for the duration of this show - I wonder if anyone asked? The remaining picture I have collaged is of a lovely piece of work, "Miserere Domine", (LL) by Hannah Katarski, a sensitive compilation of wool felt, silk, free machine embroidery and mixed media. Such a shame it is behind glass, in a frame that does not echo the reliquary or iconic shape of the design within the work itself.
Several forms encrusted with shells, braids and stitch suggested items recovered from the deep - seachests, rocks, old bells, bowls and other artefacts - these were interesting within the context of adding to the thematic tone of the display.

In such exhibitions I personally retreat from literal representations such as maps and stitch compilations that attempt to portray what could be and probably has been, photographed beautifully. For this reason I felt the large panel just inside the door, see below, was a low point in the show. It's presence was not needed to prove the incredible impact this project had on the individuals involved, and some of the lovely little embroideries attached and worked on it could better have been used in other stand alone works by the individuals who made them.

Oh Dear ....

2008-08-04T14:51:00.006-03:00

Judgement flew out the window with this collaborative item in the Tragedy Treasure and Trade exhibition. Such old fashioned collaborations are still popular with groups of textile artists, consuming a lot of time and effort from everyone, and someone goes to a great deal of trouble to finish the whole thing off; but the results rarely justify all this. In this particular exhibition, artworks and journals illustrating the stitchers' common experiences of researching and learning were wonderfully sufficient.

Admittedly, each of the little thingies hanging off the lower edge of this panel is exquisite in itself, although there were a few too many tassels attached. Embroiderers love tassels. I didn't make particular note, but recall something about each little thingy holds a clue as to something someone on the boat had with them, or something - see, this piece really did not engage much of my attention.....which is sad, because clearly a lot of time and effort was put in by those who contributed.

All the little oddly different sized panels along the bottom are interesting little embroideries, and the whole background is a map of the archipelago on which have been plonked other exquisitely executed little stitched things, in the design traditions of ancient maps. But many of those wonderful historic documents were not well balanced 'designs', either.

A Bird's Eye View

2008-08-02T08:00:00.002-03:00

Silhouetted against the view from the Q1 Building, Surfers' Paradise, from the 77th floor to be exact - is one of my sisters, who lives nearby at Nerang. Her transport department job gives her an intimate working knowledge of routes through the area and people-moving problems, and there's no better place from which to view the region than up this tallest building on the coast, probably Queensland. It's amazing how widespread and important waterway development is there, where to be able to say 'water frontage' adds value to any property. And looking south to Tweed Heads in the far distance is just this ongoing coastal development strip. Looking in the opposite direction it is the same - up to well past Brisbane. Despite the very mild, ie for Queensland 'cold' weather, there were people swimming and surfing, like the tiniest ants below us as we gazed down... a cluster of people with blue and yellow surfboards are way down on the sand below, indicated surfing school was 'in' that day.

For some reason the toilet facilities were further up on the 78th floor, and naturally I had to go try them out. No bathrooms with a view, though you could actually access an outside verandah area and enjoy the rather cold wind whistling by.

Our next move was lunch and then to a nearby arts centre where we realy enjoyed the movie "Children of The Silk Road" and popped in to see a Brett Whitely exhibition in the same centre - joy oh joy, my favourite, Self Portrait in Studio was there - it was the controversial 1976 Archibald Prize winner - I've always thought it very clever, really witty. And actually the self portait part of it was himself to a 'T', too. There were several other marvellous paintings and drawings, and a 50 minute doco of BW talking about his work, paintings, drawings and sculptures. What an articulate interesting person he was talking about his own work - we had to watch the whole thing, spellbound, and so left ourselves no time for the sculpture walk outside, but had to leave it for next time.

Architectural Oddities - A Tasmanian Folly

2008-07-31T00:01:00.001-03:00

On a wet windy and really cold sunday during my recent visit to Australia, I was sunday driving with an aunt from Launceston, Tasmania.... where I was born and bred. I always enjoy going back. When we were very young, back in the '50's, sunday drives after sunday lunch with our grandmother and aunts were a bit of a family tradition. In those days not too many people had family cars and each drive was quite an expedition. The routes were often repeated - but we loved them anyway. Sometimes we had an icecream or a snowball en route, quite often we stopped for a case of apples or some veggies from someone's farm or dropped in at more or less afternoon teatime to some family friend or vaguely distant relation of my grandmother's. When you consider it is not altogether joking to comment that Tasmanians are all related to each other somehow, this pretty well covers anyone third generation or longer on the island .... and most back then also had some connection to the land, just as people still do here in Uruguay.

Anyway time's moved on, and this time it was me sunday driving my aunt. We'd actually had to stop first at the airport out that way to collect a small extra bag I'd completely forgotten I'd checked in Perth WA, containing overflow items, complicated by having to collect up several quilts I hadn't started with when I left Montevideo. A bit of a worry - but, by the time I realised, on reaching my hotel about half an hour after landing, the airline's airport office had closed. A small place, Lonnie, and I didn't worry, knowing they'd be safely secured for the night; and sure enough someone was phoning me by 7am the next morning . So with that collected, we continued on. First town past the airport is Evandale, where we happily browsed some time in an antique shop with a cosy fire in the front room of a beautiful old, very old, early colonial building - very Jane Austenish in character. (some lacey little bits I bought will be subject of another post) after which we had a nice lunch at the local bakery. Continuing on just after lunch, this one really stopped me in my tracks, and despite the freezing wet windy weather I just had to get out and capture a pic for my ongoing series on follies and such. A worthy addition. QED.

In Transit Back to 'Normal' Life

2008-07-25T21:04:00.002-03:00

Since I last posted I have been on the move, busily attending to mostly business matters in Perth Western Australia. When I return to Montevideo next week I will upload some pictures, including a new 'folly' / bizarre piece of architecture I saw in one place - some pics and comments regarding a couple of textile exhibitions visited while in Perth, and several other things.

Every now and then when I am travelling I am struck by the detatched nature of being somewhere in transit and not actually connected to any thing or anyone around you just for that time. It can be some overheard snippet of conversation (eg over the back fence one night in Perth, our neighbours' young we haveing a party - barbie going, drinks flowing freely and music actually not very noisy and rather to my liking, so no complaints - just listening was fascinating: "... she is really hot, you know?.... he had hickies all up one side of his neck .... seriously, I haven't had sex for three months ... what are you two doing over there, not kissing are you? ... and so on and so on. Even these young things were also talking property and money - the whole of Perth is yabbering about these things on daily basis as they weather the effects of the giant resources boom in Western Australia right now. My, how those kids have grown up over the last few years since we spent any time in our house in Perth, but mature? ....
It can also be triggered by seeing something that seems out of place and that may be so or not. I'm sure these were out of place - the pair of nice navy women's shoes in a clear plastic bag lying where they dropped, in the middle of a crosswalk between the Brisbane Airport and the station for the Airtrain. As I paused and briefly considered picking them up and handing them in as lost propertly, I realised that even as I did so someone might be frantically back-tracking to try to find them and walk right past me: and then there was the question as to which side should I hand them in seeing as how they were about half way between rail and runway so to speak. All that seemed to indicate to me to leave them right where they were. And I found that decision to be right for me just then, but oddly unsettling as being not at all characteristic of how I would have dealt with the discovery in some other place/time. Just one of the unexpected snippets that can happen while 'in transit'

Handmade Paper

2008-07-03T08:00:00.000-03:00

From a new friend in Costa Rica, Silvia Piza-Tandlich, a fellow SDA member, came this wonderful group of sheets of her hand made paper that I just have to share with you. She uses pieces of it in her embroidery (visit http://www.galeriaoctagono.com/ which is a communal site, but some of her work is there)The piece in the rear has particularly luscious long thick fibres that end beautifully at the edge in the URcorner.

I feel they could be incorporated into something, with sheer perhaps? and will post pics if/when I do that. like all precious materials there is a hesitancy to cut into them but make a muck of it - which translates to 'think twice, cut once' an adaptation of the old carpenter's adage. Very inspiring.

Leather and, um, Lace?

2008-06-28T09:25:00.001-03:00

I learned a lot from the previous new work I posted, including that it is best to do the burning for what I have in mind when the sheer is actually attached to the underlying layers.

Also I learned that despite all care, occasionally a bit of burnt nylon is spotted onto the underlying fabric, but these lettle dots can be flicked off with the point of a needle once they harden.

In this small section of a current work I just had to do a few quilting lines and some of poking about with the wood burning tool and get a pic up, partly for my own record but also partly to try out a new camera I obtained by cashing a large number of customer reward points at our local supermarket - better even than duty free wouldn't you say? With several more megapixels than my previous one, and more bells and whistles, I think we're going to get along just fine; one thing I like is a feature that compensates for a shaking hand - I don't think this is aimed just at seniors - I think it is a great feature most of us could do with from time to time especially if taking a snap from a moving vehicle, stuff like that. My camera needs are not very sophisticated, I just need to be able to take people pics, occasional touristy 'been there' pics, pics of textures anywhere that grab my attention, and pics of interesting textiles incuding close-ups of fine detail. I do have major pieces photographed professionally, rather than cart lighting and other props around in my peripatetic life, however.

This new work brings together several things I want to tackle - like unbound or very non-traditional edges , as I feel that in a way my love of a finely bound or faced edge has in fact been limiting what I am prepared to consider inside the shape,there is no point behaving freely inside a tight, neat box. Perhaps that is a principle I could examine further out in practical parts of Life, like wearing purple etc :-) but I digress.

I had been fiddling around with making holes in sheers, feeling I wanted to work more with them - the ephemeral quality having great potential for expressing thoughts on decay, just as punched leather does. In combination I think they are very interesting.

Leather Factory Visit

2008-06-22T10:29:00.004-03:00

A couple of days ago my friend Virginia arranged for us to go and visit a leather processing factory managed by someone she knows. Over the phone the employee she liaised with there was really fairly convinced that there would be little of interest there for me, as the leather they produce is all 'very thick' and she felt I'd not be wanting any of it.

As Virginia passed this back to me, I could tell she felt that could be so, too, and I had to remind her that well as she thinks she knows me, and thinks she knows my work, she really could not interpret what I'd find 'interesting'. When browsing in a shop or a market, and asked what I am looking for, my answer is generally a polite form of "I'll know it when I see it". Sometimes there is a particular thing in my mind's eye, but so often a material sparks an idea, and so it proved this time.

One of several the company, Zenda, operates in different countries, this factory is on the northern outskirts of Montevideo. http://www.zendaleather.com/ As modern as tomorrow, it's huge. Which is hardly suprising considering the huge amount of beef that is raised here for local and export markets. As the animals graze on natural pastures and are gently moved around by men on horseback (gauchos) in a relaxed unhurried fashion, it is hardly suprising that it is oh-so-tender, and full of real flavour. Everyone who comes here remarks on the meat, and although prices are rising like everywhere else, the market price is controlled and so meat is reasonably affordable. And the very top cuts are still priced far lower than the equivalent cuts in Aus or USA markets.

The admin section was really like visiting a modern upscale mall, with a clearly architect designed interior of modern materials, soft neutral colours, sand blasted glass partitions, brushed metals and leather of course. The reception area, meeting and conference rooms featured some large paintings of one of our favourite local artists, Donner, on the walls. It is all so drop dead modern and gorgeous I could live there. I'd love to have taken snaps but didn't like to as we swept through to the lower floor of the processing plant itself.

There, racks and racks, holding thousands of hides in various stages of processing were set out through a huge area, which was well lit, with exhaust fans operating everywhere over the processing areas, and barely a speck of dust on the floor. Very organised, efficient and orderly. We went over to a spot where there were many different hides folded and stacked showing a variety of colours and finishes, including some interesting stamped textures that really looked like the reptile skins they weren't. Several there caught my imagination and so I bought these two whole hides, they don't do offcuts - the usual order from furniture or clothing manufactures is multiples of 100 hides. The company even offers a cutting and sewing service to a client's requirements, presumably as long as you're talking grand scale - airplane seats for example.

The upper leather pictured has a bronze metallic finish, and of course, is right up my street emotionally speaking. A coat out of it would be fabulous! but I will use it in my art.
The lower piece reminded me of crazed ceramic, and is clearly the result of some chemical treatment which stopped just short of one leg corner, so I have shown the edge of that to give you a bit more of an idea: the pewtery metallic finish is intriguing. This is very inspiring, and I know there will be somewhere I will even use just this edge, too, although it's only about 20cm long. I'll blog with pics when I start to use it.

A New Work

2008-06-18T21:52:00.003-03:00

The thing with sheers has taken a hold, and working fast, on monday I completed something I began on sunday afternoon.

This multilevel piece has a rough unfinished edge, show to the far right of the photo - which was taken against a cream background. There are strips of sheer black fabric and loose black and gold threads lurking behind a goldy, very sheer nylon organza. When all was sufficiently attached down, I then took my woodburning tool (it has several different tips) and burnt some of it away ... this is a very expressive, possibly even therapeutic activity... and I can totally recommend it..... but the burning needs to be done outside to avoid any fumes - and my luck is that it's freezing here just now; but I will rug up for the next one. I even have some mitts (open fingered gloves) to wear on my hands while working outside. I have been doing holes in organza sort of samply lacy things on and off for ages, but with this work the raison d'etre for what I thought was going nowhere all came together in a satisfying way. It has given me more ideas. Apart from laciness and the grid thing with leather that I have been a bit occupied with, it also suggests elements of change and decay, the defining essence of my Timetracks series although I may not name this as one of that group. May not name it anything.

I have entered this new piece to be considered for an exhibition, (and so have not published a full view) but it is also in a way a sample for a much larger work I have buzzing around in my mind, and which I will get a start on this evening before I turn in.
July 13th I am happy to anounce this piece, "Decay" has been selected into the group of 30 Australian 50cm x 50cm quilts that with 30 from new Zealand and 30 from South Africa will form a 90-quilt collection of small quilts to tour over the next 2-3 years as the "My Place" collection, and will be seen first in South Africa in September this year. Once the catalogue is out, I will put up a full view of the piece.

Thinking ... Samplising

2008-06-12T18:19:00.001-03:00

I have been thinking about glitter and sheers a bit, and these are a couple of the samples I have put together in the last week, really just to hang on to a couple of ideas while I am currently a bit short studio of time.

With this very sheer nylon organza, to my knowledge bonding is out, as previous bonding experiments with coarser nylon organza have not held more than a couple of days. The 'straight' edges are cut on the cross, and the main thing I want to be certain about is that they will be reasonably hard wearing; and so I will be testing the durability of the machine sewn edges by tossing them into the dryer with a towel for a while ......

Detail From a New Work

2008-06-06T10:00:00.001-03:00

I have called the work this detail comes from "Strata" .
I am happy to announce this quilt has been selected to appear in the first SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates) Oceania Quilt Textiles exhibition to be held in Brisbane in October, and will appear in other Australian exhibitions scheduled into next year. I will put up a full view of this quilt once it has been seen in public.

It's not the first time I have called a work 'Strata' but the other was a project article piece in a magazine a few years back so I don't think it counts, really. (QNM, Nov, 2004) Interestingly in a current magazine "Quilting Arts" there is a roughly similar article by an author who has used several 'Strata' quilts from her series of them, to illustrate the article. Wavy lines do suggest rock strata to many people I guess.

This detail shows free machine quilting with metallc thread the same colour as the metallic gold leather applied in a design over this hand dyed fabric of Janet Jo Smith's - I don't dye myself - just buy it, mostly hers and Dijanne Cevaal's.

Which brings me to several other quilting matters: A couple of weeks ago up in Longmont Colorado, I taught a workshop on "Quilting With an Attitude" to a very receptive and hard working bunch of quilters, arranged by The Front Range Contemporary Quilters of CO. They were a joy to teach, and a very stimulating group.

And also while I was up there I met with Jan and Steve Rondeau of Quilted Expressions, Johnstown CO, http://www.quiltedexpressions.net/ who are going to take care of DD and SIL's kingsize bedquilt, plus a couple more large ones I have been sitting on a while - one I fell out of love with immediately I tea died it and a few of the patches grabbed up much more colour than the other 95% !!! But now, since it has served it's two year cupboard sentence, I find I love it and feel sure the longarm pattern and thread chosen will enhance this unique quilt. The third one WAS going to be the back for the young newlyweds' quilt, but for various good reasons isn't going to be after all, and it's coming into our home instead as a quilt in its own right. It's interesting that after all these years of making quilts of various sizes including bedquilts for other people, we will soon have two of mine living here as bed coverings. Of course, there is still the hexagon quilt to finish off......as I will, one day.... no rush, since deciding the quilting pattern for that one will take some time, anyway ....

A Second 12" Square for the SAQA Online Auction, Going Live 10th November 2008

2008-06-03T16:12:00.006-03:00

On march 24th last, I blogged on the 12" square I had just made for this year's SAQA reverse on-line auction, under the heading of Ebb and Flow of a series. So this is a pic of a second one I did and submitted recently. It reflects the leather on fabric works I have done these past couple of years, and is a variation of the one in last year's auction. The punched leather is a gold, not a yellowy gold but more a fools gold colour, which of course carries absolutely no other relevance than a colour reference! A khaki-gold metallic, in other words. I still have some gold leather and can feel a larger work coming on to ease me into quilting mode after our arrival back in Montevideo this morning from the USA/family visits.

And no, I did not dye this beautiful piece of fabric - and I have had the remnant so long that I honestly cannot fremember the dyer's name. However I adored it at the time and had been saving the 20" x 17" odd piece for something special sometime. I still have some tiny bits .... but they are now not distinctive enough in small pieces to be precious about.

At the Next Table

2008-05-11T08:44:00.000-03:00

The minute we were shown to our table at the mercado del puerto last saturday, this little number caught my eye. For me it had so much going for it - fur trim, metallicised looking quilted fabric, and a different clearly fake fur panel down each side. What you can't see is the jungle print hood lining! I didn't want to disturb the sizeable table of Brazilian tourists as I don't even muddle through in Portuguese, so I opted to turn off the flash and set my camera on our table pointing her way.

The five pointed star is one shape I have always loved - and include it in some of the material I am teaching in my workshop "Quilting With An Attitude" in Longmont, N.Colorado, on sat. 24th of this month. (for further information contact me direct, or Front Range Contemporary Quilters) Nice to see this one used in an all-over pattern.

The Glitter of Gold with Sheer

2008-05-08T15:51:00.000-03:00

I said a little while back I would like to do something more with sheer fabrics, and here are two samples I have done this week to trap some ideas before they fade from the first flash of inspiration....

The first, top, you can see I am thinking waving edges and wandering lines between solid areas of fabric. I did think of finishing off 12" square of it for SAQA, but it didn't develop enough zing for me to be inspired to continue.

The second, below, is all glitter and sheer - handling is not easy even in a little sample size piece like this, and so the BIG ideas I have probably won't be quilte like this, either.
But - a scattering of things like this onto a black background ... or v.v, gold in black sheer onto a cream background which I am about to try - well that could be something.

I brought a big cone of gold thread back from Aus on my last visit last year, so I have plenty to play with, even to also do the 1000 invitations to an exhibition which Petra and I hope will be soon (see the posts for late november, 2007 for one of those invites)

If we are accepted at the fabulous place we saw yesterday and are today submitting for, I will launch into something new and large along these lines, and Petra hopes to launch herself over to Peru to study something she has always wanted to learn more about with goldsmiths there who have mastered ancient Inca techniques.

So back to the drawing board to follow a couple of ideas that have come to mind as I wrote this.

Looking Back

2008-05-03T12:25:00.002-03:00

Planning my next work, I am keen to re-visit sheer fabric but of course don't want to copy what anyone else is doing. While I am mulling over ideas and their relevance to what I am doing, it can be helpful to look to back to be reminded about something that was on my mind a while back.

UL and LR are works I did in 2004. They followed a workshop late in 2003 with Chungie Lee who taught a class on Korean Pojagi I attended at fibersWest in W.Australia. She of course showed us how fabrics are pieced in the several traditional ways, and these works were done with folded over seaming, the name of which I forget, but it is rather like double lap felled seams. On reflection I now understand one of the reasons I did not continue with this development, which is that this is too much pojagi and not enough Alison. I am now sure I don't want to continue with the rigid seaming, but I am very interested in 'sheers' per se, and am thinking of ways to incorporate them into my current themes. For one thing, sheers can be used to give the illusion of something misty, the passage of time, or perhaps a sense of distance. If I am clever enough to do that.

UR is a close up of one of the squares in the work below it, and LL has actually no sheer fabric at all, it's a detail of Ebb & Flow 2, and part of where my thinking is just now. I love the basic geometric shapes, squares and triangles which predominate in traditional quilt designs, and well, I can feel some triangles coming on. And some sheers. And some glitter.

Beaded Tree Ornament, late C20

2008-05-03T11:21:00.002-03:00

This is another work from way way back, last century in fact. In 1994 about 3,500 artisans and craftsmen around the USA, (we were living there at the time) - were invited to submit an original and totally hand made Christmas tree ornament to go on the trees in the White House to celebrate the year of American Craft which also happened to be the Clintons' first Christmas in residence.

I have been meaning to put this pic up for some time, as beading is so popular in textile crafts at the moment - several friends of mine are making bead jewellery and doing quite well selling it. Beading is everywhere on all kinds of womens' clothing; beads and other 'embellishments' have been appearing on quilts in the past few years, although for perhaps the past 15 years at least several prominent contemporary quilters such as Jane Birch Cochoran and Terri Mangat among others have applied beads as an integral part of their artistic voice in their quilted works.

I guess my invitation to submit an ornament came as having been a Quilt National exhibitor in 1993 and at the time being resident in Denver CO. The specifications were few, as I recall to be no larger than 15" across and weigh no more than 12oz, any technique or material could be used. Coming as I did from a long embroidery background and adoring sparkle and glitter, I envisaged something that would catch the undoubted downlights and glow and glitter over there in the White House. So, it didn't take me too long to settle on a silk poinsettia with beaded petals and other flower parts. Those who know me know that I jump in boots and all and then find I really have a challenge on my hands once I get down to basics - so of course, with no pattern around for anything like this I had to work it out for myself. The leaves are double sided, and on the underlayer I sewed in a couple of lines of covered florist wire so that I could shape the leaves once they were sewn. The stamen thingies up the middle were challenging - rolls of green silk with beaded ends turned out reasonably well I thought. Then all the leaves and stamen bits were gathered in a bundle and sewn together by hand and finished off tidily. I don't recall whether I had not resolved the hanging mode at the time of this pic or whether the photographer and I agreed not to show it - anyway it was a lovely gold cord loop long enough to go over any reasonable size branch. The final dimensions were about 10" across, and about 4" depth taking into account the splayed leaves and including approx. 1" deep bundle of stems unit. When I began the project I thought I'd make one for them and one for us - but by the completion of this one, I can assure you I had decided it was to be unique.

The blurbs that came with the paperwork included the information that after the christmas period the ornaments would go to the Smithsonian . I suppose they did....and wonder if they are still there. A couple of years back I tried to enquire but my phone calls, letters and emails went unanswered. I lost interest. If any reader either saw the christmas decorations in the White House that year or has since heard or knows of their 'fate' I'd be interested in hearing from you. I also contributed the Colorado panel to a tree skirt under the tree in the Blue room. That was used, at least once - going by the full colour large photo I and other contributors received. That one tree was positively bristling with ornaments, with barely a spruce needle showing. I did read somewhere of 7,500 odd ornaments turning up !!.. and it was probably almost too much for the 15 large trees traditionally placed in the house. it just occurred to me - I could email Hillary's campaign to see if they can find me the information ....

Sunrise Surprise - Advertising or Pollution?

2008-04-04T15:33:00.000-03:00

Opening the front gate to take the dog for her walk the other morning, I stepped on this piece of cardboard and my and first thought was "the little devil she's been out and dragged someone's mat back from ..." (we have lost a couple ourselves) But then I realised, this is cardboard, right, and it's printed with doormat print, foot print and some advertising spiel - for one of those youghurt products that are supposed to put the right bacteria into your alimentary system.

Every front gate we passed on our walk that morning had one neatly placed just inside the gate - someone had been very busy overnight in the neighbourhood.

So is this effective advertising? It is a bit witty, telling us to put our right fooot forward every day with this stuff. But even well before 7am, next door's dog had already half destroyed theirs ... labour costs here permit this kind of 'leaflet drop' and advertisers are very keen on personally delivered advertising stuff. Another favourite is handing out leaflets at traffic lights, or little catalogues or passing you specials and discount coupons at the toll plazas on the highways; and you either love or loathe the stickers that are routinely plastered over your car window as it is parked in a carpark somewhere along the resort coast between here and Punta del Este. They don't always come off easily and some times the whole back window seems almost obscured ... but the practice persists. I think it's more pollution than good advertising, and with that frame of mind, on principle I wouldn't try this product - and anyway I'm happy with my own preferred brand, regardless of whether I am getting the 'right bactieria' into my system, or not.

Dots and Circles as Symbols

2008-03-27T09:30:00.003-03:00

Lines, dots, circles - the fabric and leather samples to the left are some of the various ways I have used them or plan to use them. Why I use them and how they symbolise what I want to say in my art are partially covered in the following sentences:
Holes and ragged edges symbolise denudation, wearing down, decay, age, falling apart, a sense of the passage of time. As time passes marks are left showing traces of what was there before. These ideas apply as much to a landscape as to a human life, a body, a mind, a relationship, any living thing, indeed anything that exists, from universe down to atomic particle level. Is lace, or cheese for that matter, a series of holes connected by medium, or is it the other way round? Leather is symbollic to me. On a very simple level I will just say that as a material I can work with it embodies many personal aspects of being an expatriate Australian living temporarily in another country.

A hot topic of discussion on one of the lists I belong to has raised the issue, again, of cultural misappropriation of specific imagery by artists who have no known connection with that culture. Of course, the viewer has no way of knowing these days who is connected with what, and how, and assumptions can be totally wrong. A list member (an Aussie) commented on what appeared to be an Australian Aboriginal design in publicity for an exhibition by a north American artist. If I'd seen it before she raised the question, I too probably would have assumed the artist to be indigienous Australian or someone using Australian Aboriginal imagery, which to us Aussies is a no-no, see the next paragraph. But in the wider context of this particular artist's work and reputation, I feel quite sure it is just an arrangement of dots lines and circles in a personal statement that just happens to look Aboriginal to anyone familiar with Australian Aboriginal art. In different colours I doubt any connection would have crossed any viewer's mind at all. Symbol plus colour is a powerful combination, but every viewer brings all his own background with him, and therein lies ground that can cause difficulty.

There is now a strong legal framework around the use Aboriginal imagery in all art and design, with a recent history of successful legal action against people using such imagery inappropriately or without right to it. There is a similar sensitivity in New Zealand to Maori symbols, and probably this is so in many other countries now. It has long been the case in the US that only Native Americans may label their work as being Indian made or designed, although I think these days people there tend to use their tribal name more than the term ' Indian' which besides being inaccurate is so open to abuse by anyone to claim it for commercial advantage. Who is and who is not indigenous, is contentious everywhere in this context.

In my inexperienced and ignorant youth, some of my first quilts did indeed use images gathered from the petroglyphs in the US Southwest. ( to see some examples, go to gallery pages on http://www.alisonschwabe.com/ and click on the early series of Ancient Expressions series of quilts some of which are shown there) Many of the symbols in that rock art appear on cave and canyon walls, ceramic, painted, carved and other similar surfaces all around the world. Dots, lines, circles, squares, triangles, crosses, arcs and concentric versions of them, spirals, wiggly lines and so on - these are all universal symbols, primal is the word I use - they are etched in the human brain wherever it is. So too are human figures - we all recognise them - except that representing these and various animals, weapons and the local environment (eg weather elements) inevitably gives rise to distinct regional styles. I now feel strongly that an artist wanting to use such elements needs to think carefully about his use of them, and the appropriateness to what he wants to say.

Decades ago at university I majored in ancient civilisations and geography. The marks left by Man's activity in and on the earth's surface have fascinated me, and influenced more than one series of textile pieces.

A major and early series of art quilts considering these concepts was my "Ancient Expressions" series, numbering I - XIV, but still 'open' I feel. Maybe there won't be more - those ideas are taking me down other paths - and time is passing by. At the time I made those works, 1988-93, I was living in Denver and I felt that since I had been to some of those sites, and had actually seen them, therefore it would be OK to use them. I also knew that some of the people who made them originally have disappeared and it is said by experts that some of the meanings in those petroglyphs are not fully known to people living in that area today.

Actually, on looking over the series, the only specific image I think I could be accused of as misappropriating from that region in particular is a stencilled human figure with very wide shoulders, and if I were adding to that series, any human figure would appear much more generic, less southwestern. The rest are the primal symbols I referred to, and mostly used in quilting patterns I devised. The use of universal symbols was really a seminal concept behind the whole series.

The Ebb and Flow of a series

2008-03-24T21:57:00.000-03:00

Continuing in a series of this name, this little 12" piece, ironically enough "Ebb & Flow 12", made one day last week, is for the SAQA fundraiser later this year. Pretty well a potholder size, I consider it really more of a sample. there seems to be a trend to smaller qworks that are more easily travelled as a collection, and more affordable. I am in two minds about the development. Recently a gallery here sold two small pieces of my work, so it is time I produced a few more and thought seriously about their presentation; there's been a lot of discussion on the SAQA list recently about possibilities, and I have been mulling them over. The two sold were mounted on what looked like sand blasted glass - actually finely hand sanded perspex - fairly labour intesnsive to get looking good, but I will also do some mounted on canvas stretcher frames for comparison.

The quilting in this little work is machined metallic pewter along the edge where print meets plain - and by doing that I learned something I won't do in the next one I make, #13, which will be larger. The surface will look very much the same but the metallic embroidery will be done before the final piecing, and I am not sure yet about the quilting, - it may be the subject of another 12" square yet.

It has been almost 2 years since I have done some of this work, and I now have some things I hadn't thought of before. This coming sunday I will be teaching a workshop for a few quilters who will be here from Buenos Aires for the weekend for a Rio Plate quilters meeting - no, I am not getting caught up in meetings retreats and projects with a group that is strongly focused on traditional north american styles of quiltmaking. I have talked with the Uruguayan quilters hoping to set them considering something that is more strongly related to their home country of Uruguay; but I don't think the seeds have taken root yet, it will be a while, if ever they do. The Argentines want to know how to do the freehand rotary cutting and piecing aka improvisational piecing. Preparing some samples for that has me thinking about this stuff again. Among other things, its very relaxing and therapeutic if nothing else .....

A Gem Noticed While on a Wild Goose Chase

2008-03-17T13:15:00.000-03:00

Yes, if I hadn't been on a wild goose chase to get a replacement drivers licence, I may never have seen this beautiful building now functioning as a cultural institute. Some of the architectural details brought parts of the movie "Lord Of The Rings" to mind. I'd love to see inside sometime, and might go back when I am in less of a hurry.

Way back last year sometime I misplaced my Uruguayand driver's licence. I think actually it was stolen when we had an intruder in the house last July; but since I don't drive a lot here I hadn't been too fussed. However, now the police are really tightening up (for which read, coming into line with other jurisdictions in other parts of the world, possibly) so last week I decided it was time to go through the bureaucratic maze and get a replacement. I asked one of my close Uruguayan friends to call the Intendencia (town hall or city council) which issues these things and find exactly what I needed to do, and particularly confirm what documentation I needed to take. Just the identity card now, she was told, no need to have made a police report of theft or loss - just go with the identity card. She re-checked, and checked the office hours, and so I arrived there about 9-30am - which I now realise for an office that opens at 8-30 is almost too late to be dealt with that day, The place was crowded. When I made it to the front of the first line, Information, I was told to go straight to sector 2. At sector 2, a fairly scary lady simply told me they had run out of numbers, (run out of numbers?) so I would have to come back the next day - but, of course, I also needed the police report I didn't yet have, anyway... so I should go back to Information. The information lady had another opportunity to practice english on me - she was very kind if a little stupid - and confirmed that yes, I certainly needed a police document - and at this stage with steam beginning to appear from my ears the person who seemed in charge of the whole chaotic department rushed over with the Duplicados form and said I could at least fill that out and pay the fee upstairs today, once I got my police document anyway, so that when I came back the next day I could indeed go straight to sector 2. By now rather stunned at how all this was not going, I thought it would make sense to get the necesssary police document from the nearest police sectional office, as there was bound to be one very close by, and with a bit of luck I'd have time to take all that upstairs and pay the fee before the office closed at 12-30. A uniformed police officer outside the intendencia said yes, the nearest was 'two blocks along and then left and you're right there', but the door man at the intendencia argued 'no, it's three blocks along and half a block down' . They tossed this back and forth and someone else intervened and said 'three blocks and a half'. I thanked them all in great confusion and struck out in the general direction they all agreed on, resolving to ask someone a bit closer - such as one of the people who run kiosks and little cafes who really know their neighbourhood ! A fairly longish walk three blocks along and three and a half blocks to the left took me past this building, and eventually brought me to Policial Seccional No. 2. I found myself in a clean bright, airy waiting room/office with shiny white and blue tiles half way up the walls that suggested it was hosed out occasionally, like a diary, somehow. (But, it was meticulously clean, and even sported a few live potted plants here and there) After a while a very nice policeman came in and said yes he could fix that - but, then the printer for the form seemed to be out of paper or not functioning for some other reason - so he picked up a piece of what I would describe as 1/4 page of hand-torn scratch paper, stamped it with a date stamp and the official Policia Seccional no.2 stamp, and proceded to write out in longhand that this was my application for a document to take to the Intendencia Municipal de Montevideo (IMM ) for the purpose of obtaining a replacement licence to drive a motor vehicle, stating my full name, ID number and address, and then signing it with his number and rank. I also signed it, thanked him and left, making it back to the treasury in time to pay the fee that day, and resolved to come back early the next morning for the licence itself.

The next day, arriving just on 9am, I was clearly late again - the line of maybe 150 people stretched back up the stairs from the licencing office, through the IMM lobby and almost out to the street. No wonder the Information lady said come back early, very early ... but I was grateful I had thought to bring a book. Thankfully the queue moved fairly steadily, and there at the top of the stairs was another scary lady directing people down to licensing or upstairs to pay first, according to how she assessed the paper work in their hands. She instructed me to go straight to sector 2 and obtain a number. The numbers were being hand allocated by the same scary lady as yesterday - I got #65, with #27 currently being served. I watched progress a while and estimated it would take a couple of hours, till 11am at least, probably - and retired to a bench with my book - looking up occasionally to see the numbers dawdle along. At 10-40, with still 6 numbers to go, I took myself to the loo, and hurried back to see that precisely one number had fallen in that time. It was 11-15 when #64 came up, but because there were people who had "11am appointments" waiting, I was kept standing aside, and it was actually 11-30 by the time I was seated at a desk in sector 2. It took 2-3 minutes to type in and have printed out the necessary information onto a card, which I then took to sector 3, photography, handed it straight in, and without any waiting had my photo taken. It took 10 minutes for my name to be called, and at last, 11-40am, I was walking out of there, still reeling from the impact of the whole experience, laminated replacement licence in hand. From where we live to this office is half an hour's travel time, so over the two days, add 2 hours' travel time, and 5 hours of various activities undertaken in pursuit of this licence (walking, liningup, waiting gazing, waiting reading, side conversations, and one bathroom stop) to give a total of at least 7 hours - SEVEN - to to get it. On the other hand, if I hadn't lost the original I may have never found myself walking to Policial Seccional No.2, and may not have looked up to see the beautiful building of which I took a photo - it was the brightest spot in that dreary time. My close friend V was most impressed, expressing admiration for how I managed to accomplish the whole manoeuvre! Montevideoans would rather do almost anything than have to go into the IMM maze overstaffed by scary, underworked bureaucrats who do very little, and do it very slowly. Quite a depressing, totally draining experience. They have the computers, the modern photographic equipment, but still maintain the same antiquated bureacratic systems which have not yet streamlined and modernised in any way, except that now there is no smoking in any of the crammed slow moving office and bank lines anywhere in the country. Talk about the dead hand of bureaucracy -I promise I will never, ever, complain about any Australian government office again.

Gorgeous Gussie

2008-02-28T02:18:00.001-02:00

We noticed this extavagantly elegant caterpillar, all dressed up for some gala event in the garden perhaps? We'd never seen anything like it before!

What's the bet it turns into the plainest dullest butterfly around ..... surely no creature can have EVERYTHING.

French Binding Tutorial

2008-02-28T01:22:00.006-02:00

I learned this many years ago from a book "Happy Endings" by Mimi Deitrich - and it has become a favourite method for finishing off a quilt. Any kind of quilt -bed quilts, wall quilts, anything. It is durable and good looking.

It is suitable for all rectangular works, and very slightly irregular works without any extreme edge shapes - only gentle inward or outward curves. The binding is joined to form one long piece before applying.

These instructions plus tips from my experience are for a fine binding (about 1cm or less) on a quilt using a medium or low loft batting. You apply it when the quilting is finished, and I use a walking foot for best results, no matter though if you don't have one - just handle carefully.

Cut and join sufficient 2 and 1/4" strips to equal the quilt's circumference plus at least 10". Press joining seams open, then fold the strip in half and press the fold tip I like to make sure one edge can just be seen peeping out from under the other - this ever-so-slightly wider half is the one that goes against the front of the quilt, and by doing this you make sure both edges are totally sewn in, because I use a narrow seam allowance to sew down the strip onto the front of the quilt - approx 3/8", that is, not quite the widest needle setting to the right of centre on my machine.

Lay the quilt out absolutely flat on a table, and leaving a few inches of binding strip hanging free, and beginning about 10" from a corner, put in one pin, then tip just check to make sure that as you go round the quilt no join in the strip will fall at a corner - and reposition if one does. Now pin the rest of the first edge in place, (with pins across the seam line) right up to the point where the seam allowance intersects the seam line for the next side, and stop, turn 45 degrees and stitch out to the corner, UL.

Remove the work and fold the strip sort of envelope style as in the pic UR Pin this next side up to the interesection of the seam line with that of the next side, and stitch, changing direction 45 degrees right at the end again. LL

The pic at LR shows what the back will look like as you hand stitch the folded edge down - see the rest of the directions accompanying the next photo:

2008-02-28T00:40:00.006-02:00

The top picture shows how the finished binding looks - in this case about 1cm wide, and lying totally flat on the table. This pic was added in the edit phase to avoid having to totally re-do the post - collages are great but I didn't notice how bloggger or picasa in effect added an extra crop in the collage process. It was late - I was tired. Note how the corner folds into a mitred fold - this has not even yet been pressed as I usually do to give the crispest possible appearance, and never needs any stitching to hold it in place. As you turn over the binding to the back to hand stitch down the corner again folds into a mitred fold; and I only secure it with a couple of stitches at the base of the fold, right in the corner, before continuing hand sewing towards the next corner (see final pic in the first collage, above)

Using the walking foot and a 3/8" seam allowance as I did here, sew on, repeating all steps at each corner until you come to within about 6" of where you began, and here let's hope you were right in your estimate and have a few inches of strip left. Trim to leave a generous 1cm or about 5/8 " seam allowance on each end UL - pin and sew. Flatten out seam allowance, refold, and check to see it lies flat against the front of the quilt; if necessary adjust the seam allowance to take up any slack or ease a little out. Refold and pin, sew along the seam allowance UR

LL Wherever there is a join in the binding it will be a bit thicker - so carefully cut a little of the seam allowance away in the zone of the join as shown (say about 1/16") - to accomodate the extra thickness of the binding here as it is sewn down. Hand stitch down all round the edge on the back of the quilt. The corners need only a stitch or two at the base of the fold before starting on the next side.

The width of the binding can be varied - so, as it is double, if you want it to look 1/4" wider you need to cut 1/2" wider strip - and might need to adjust the seam allowance so that the edge of the quilt including batting is neither squashed nor too narrow leaving empty areas to go limp - experiment is all I can advise, although if you get Mimi's book, from recollection there might be some tables of widths in there... but I can't check that - my own copy is on a bookshelf on the other side of the world. I can't emphasise too much the value of a sample or two before tackling the binding of your Family Heirloom or Award Winning quilt. This also looks wonderful done in silk or nylon organza using a very fine seam allowance...

Man-made Surfaces

2008-02-08T13:12:00.001-02:00

Just looking through and sorting some of the pics I took in Egypt last year I found some of these man-made surfaces. They intrigued me just as much as the massive temples and monuments with carved and painted pictorial records and stories that we experienced in our classic tour of Upper Egypt. The tomb and temple carvings were magnificent and along with the massive scale of these buildings, totally awe-inspiring. I'd like to go back and see more, at a cooler time of year, but the problem then is the place is totally packed with tourists like me ...

In and around the architecture, all over the place I noticed lots of interesting patterning. Examples such as these were very inspiring, but rarely noticed by visitors focused on all the grand scale stuff around them. I feel they may influence something I do in the future especially once I get my laser cutter. We're still making customs inquiries, so my order is not firmly placed yet. Uruguay being basically on holiday for another few weeks, we are not expecting answers any time soon.

The main area where I see these surface patterns inspiring something is quilting treatment, machine or hand. For example I can envisage hand made knots, or a knot plus bead, something lumpy set out in the kind of grid pattern of this ancient door in a gate in the wall of the old city of Cairo, UL: the UR panel is a ceiling covered with the 5-point stars that appear in so many temples and tombs 0f the pharaohs; and I have already used this once as a machine quilted motif for the quilt "Gift of the Nile" shown in part on the blog for october 7, 2007. LR is some of the highest part of the gateway to a temple at Luxor (I think) and who knows - I just like it; and finally LR a texture I love, the mane of a lion carved from granite ,standing outside a temple. Granite is really hard but these lines are so beautifully fluid and hair-like. I see it as a machine quilting pattern probably but possibly in combination with hand stitch.

On one of the lists to which I subscribe, in the past week one writer commented that she had to quilt something and was procrastinating since she didn't like doing quilting. Well, you don't have to quilt anything. You can tie with wool other threads and string, buttons, staples, safety pins, sewing pins - I have seen all these used to function as the quilt stitch does - ie hold layers together. And, one can always farm it out to someone who does love to quilt. Personally, I find the old under/over/under/over thing beautiful in the right place, ie a carefully constructed and quilted traditional geometric or applique quilt, especially the baltimore album quilts. But so many people are working to produce non-traditional quilt designs these days that it seems amazing to me that they feel bound to quilt them as they always have - using the traditional under/over/under/over, painstakingly doing x stitches to the inch, in fine pure cotton thread. Or if they are machining, the now rather unimaginative meandering and stippling seems to be the limit of some repertoires. If you paint, print, applique, collage, dye and and piece non-traditionally to produce non-traditional quilt designs, to me that begs exploration of intereasting, unusual quilting potential. You can quilt with anything from microfilament to heavy string, ribbon, and everything in between whether the label says 'quilting thread' or not.

Satin Covered, But Apparently Hazardous!

2008-01-28T22:54:00.000-02:00

It never occurred to me this would be turned back - the security officials in the departures area at the Montevideo airport last week insisted that because it was metal, I would not be able to take this item through in my hand luggage! I had feared they might question how long it was since the genuine horsehoe inside had been on a farm or at a rececourse. I was blown away, gobsmacked. I pleaded that this accessory is a symbol for luck to give to our DD at her wedding on friday night - but no go.
It's not large - max 5", but it is a genuine metal (iron?) one, quite heavy, and covered with palest almond satin ribbons and fake flowers. It would have gone just fine with the ivory dress. Well, I wasn't going to hand over this frothy creation of mine for someone to just toss into a bin - and fortunately I was early enough to call someone to the airport and take it home for me. When DH and I go up again in a few months' time for the fiesta/reception we'll take it in our checked luggage. When the officials saw my dismay they were very kind, but most insistent; and my linguistic skills didn't run to the finer points of whether or not this was weapons grade metal - and so I didn't crack any jokes. These guys have guns on their hips. I suppose there was a danger I could have tossed it and knocked someone out - quite ridiculous. Actually I have always thought how easy it would be to do someone a serious injury with the one thing that every traveller carries - a ball point pen. But at least American Airlines entrust their passengers with actual metal knives - unlike our own aussie Qantas , who, last time I travelled with them were still issuing eaters with grey, metallic-looking, but pathetically weak plastic knives.

Influences Are Everywhere

2008-01-19T09:03:00.001-02:00

This is not a new work. I have shown a part of this pic before, in a blog recounting some of the work covered in a Dorothy Caldwell workshop, "The Expressive Stitch". This is the worksheet, the experimental page, on which I explored ideas she presented. (see October 2005 archive) That very stimulating workshop reminded us all that anyone regardless of skill or experience can sew a simple straight stitch, in and out, again and again, without any fancy turns or knots along the way, and grouping them in lines, crosses or randomly, create expressive and possibly powerful patterns of marks on cloth .

I am an admirer of UK textile artist Clyde Olliver, whose thread marks are not on cloth but on stone. ("slate or other suitable material" ) This week I visited his blog, http://clydeolliver.wordpress.com and was fascinated by a recent post on current influences in his work. After reading his analysis, I was prompted to consider my own work in terms of 'influences'. Everything we admire for qualities of design and craftmanship has influence, and I think degrees of admiration and influence are in direct proportion to each other. I think of fav. artists from several countries, all of which I realise have added something to my individual sense of colour, design concepts and love of line and texture.

Serious influences in particular come from textile artists and teachers I have encountered. I became interested in 'creative embroidery' in 1975 in a class of that name; Laurel Fraser Allen really opened my eyes to the enormous variety of embroidery/stitchery as a craft practised in all cultures. My mother and grandmothers stitched counted thread work, smocking, needlepoint and 'fancy work' - remember the cloths, doilies and duchesse sets on pre-printed fabric? Often sold pre-edged, but Mum and Gran x2 bought ones you needed to crochet your own edges. Then between 1977 and 1980 followed Cynthia Sparks (own design, consider any thread, any stitch) Constance Howard I was privileged to have as a teacher for 4 days in Aus '79 (emphasis: really looking at colour ) and Meg Douglas ( paint plus stitch, free machined embroidery) The next major textile influence was the world of traditional patchwork and quilting as experienced living in the USA '87-'94. A first flying geese wall hanging preceeded my own designs, all of which owe something to the grids and repeat units of traditional patchwork. Nancy Crow's multi-faceted influences on approach and attitude have been far greater than the mere technique of template-free rotary cutting and piecing construction techniques she teaches and which I and many other contemporarty quiltmakes now use exclusively. In recent work I am influenced significantly but possibly less obviously by temporarily living out of my own country in another with different cultural background and values; and finding an interest in lace and leather reflected in some ways, too.

My website, http://www.alisonschwabe.com/ is currently being updated - the most recent artist statement/bio addresses this, too.

Tatts !

2008-01-10T18:30:00.000-02:00

Living in the relatively quiet backwaters of Uruguay, I had not seen this stuff, but probably all north americans have. Our DD has not had her arms covered in a full set of zany tattoos - the printed flesh-coloured stretchy mesh sleeves attach inside the t-shirt she's wearing and, being form hugging they give the appearance of tattooed arms.

She says she gets a lot of looks, some of them horrified, some admiring, whenever she gets out in this number. I was rather taken with this witty idea, and pleased she isn't planning to actually 'do' the whole arm bit. However she and fiance G are planning to have wedding rings tattooed before the big day... bizarre imho but, it's their business. What will 'they' think of next to part people from their money....

OMG - Laser cutting Machine

2008-01-10T16:20:00.000-02:00

My regular readers and all who know me personally will know that I am by inclination very low tech, my love of fabric and stitch having been expressed through hand and sewing machine techniques, with the occasional aid of paint by various techniques, and the use of adhesives and bonding materials. Wherever possible I use a rotary cutter, of course, and scissors for the tricky bits. In recent work using leather, I have resorted to hand cutting with scissors and using a leather punch to achieve lacey effects. However, last year, after attending the SDA conference in Kansas City and seen many interesting developments in work on show there resulting from some of the new technologies being explored in the textile field, I then spent some time with my computer and graphics design savvy son, who opened my eyes to the potential of a laser cutting device.... and so, I have been thinking and dreaming about this for the past 6 months. Finally, last week DH, DS and I all went to visit the distributor of one of these machines for an actual demo. It took me very little time to realise that this is an answer to my love of repeated units, the tricky non-traditional materials that I love, and slightly arthritic hands which really feel the impact of hours of cutting and punching through something like leather. And, the time saved putting my ideas together will be enormous.

It was no mean feat to get from Easton MD over to Fredericksburg VA, at 3 hours each way - but once there we spent several hours with Paul who ran one of these machines through its paces. I took along a selection of fabrics and other materials I was interested in seeing perform under the laser cutting beam. Although he had other stuff like granite, wood, laminated plastic and lots of other 'hard' materials, it was leather and fabrics including synthetics I was especially interested in, and sure enough, he did not have most of those things around. By either scanning the lines of a hand drawn or photographed design, and setting the level of the laser's focal point to the surface of the material being cut, the same shapes can be cut, enlarged and reduced, with the aid of the dedicated computer, onto which of course the settings for each material and the different designs you are working with can be saved. The cutting takes mere seconds, no matter how complicated the shape. And, the scope of endless exact repeats is infinite. DH's eyes were really opened, and I totally fell in love with a machine that day. My son says it was like watching a kid in a candy store....it was all I had hoped it would be.

One great thing about cutting/burning with a laser is that especially on synthetics, the heat seals the edge each side of the cut - meaning handling of the shapes does not lead to instant fraying, something that is hard to combat and which has been rather offputting re cetain materials - nylon organza, synthetic metallics and silk especially. See detailed view above left.

The full view, right, shows : UL cutouts of an artificial silk-like fabric with embossed glittery Christmas shapes; some gold lame UR; at LL some batting; and LR some stretchy red metallic knit fabric - all cut with exactly the same pattern at different sizes.

Odd layout - sorry - in deleting some text I accidentally got rid of one pic- which did not go back in where I wanted it - sigh - it's just one of those days Blogger wins. I am just not re-doing this - it's too hot and humid.

The samples are of Paul's designs - he is an engineer and as I told him, it shows. I'd have gone for more organic shapes, but we didn't have all day to fiddle around, and it is clear to me that between now and when the machine lands in Uruguay I need to make myself familiar with Adobe Photoshop, and get ready to start tapping the potential of this machine. The cost? IMHO quite hefty - but, really the smallest desktop model I am getting is just a bit more than one of the fanciest top line sewing machines available - and a bit less than setting up with one of the popular long-arm quilting machines. And so I have chosen to take a higher tech direction that I feel is in tune with where I am going with what I am doing.

A White Christmas, Colorado, USA

2007-12-27T16:33:00.000-02:00

Greetings from Greeley CO, where we have been spending a white Christmas with DD and her fiance, G. The prospective in-laws invited us down to Denver for Christmas Day with their family, so late in the morning, after breakfasting on christmas pudding with sauce so that little grandson #2 wouldn't miss out while spending the rest of the day with his dad, we set off in light snow which got heavier as we headed further south. It was great to meet members of their family and their offsprings, and what with plenty of bonhomie, good food and fun company the day passed quickly, snowing the whole time. As the snow continued into the night, we were easily persuaded to stay over and head home the next day - which was fine and clear. Now, thursday, it's snowing again, but may clear in time for tomorrow's departure east to visit the other family.

Traditionally in north america, many houses are decorated with Christmas-themed collections of objects, dishes, tableware and linen that come out of storage for the month or so. G's parents' place was no exception, several lovely collections of Old Nick and Santa figures, tree decorations, and those little electified traditional houses and buildings from yesteryear set up in dioramas, all collected over many years, one advantage of living in the one place for a long time. This towel caught my eye each time I visited the bathroom - and although of course it is machine embroidered, I just loved it, and decided this should be my textile note for the season - and wish all readers the best for the coming year.

Muestra Fusion, Part A

2007-12-14T19:36:00.000-02:00

Regular readers will have seen the invitation I posted to the joint exhibition of my work with gold jeweller Petra Eberl. this first photo shows her her work is displayed and the organic finish she achieves in her designs. As it was taken with the glass cover in place, DH caught the two reflections, but look past those to wsee the gold. I'll try to replace it some time without the glass.

Beginning our rental period at 8 am and opening to the public all set up at 2pm, we did very well considering the wedding from the night before went until 5 am and the cleaning up had barely been started when we arrived... but we all pitched in to help despite the staff 's protests - we wanted them and their mops out of the way pronto so we could really get moving on our transformation of the space.

UL shows how the 2.8m cream fabric we bought was hung from existing battens on the ceiling (nails ) and two helpers using the steam vaporiser thing to de-wrinkle the fabric. Compare these pics with the ones below which show the completed installation - Caco and his assistant put up the fabric and all the lights in a masterly well coordinated operation between, effectively 9am and 2pm. It was amazing, all well planned out, I saw his working diagrams - he had been there the week before, thought about things, bought electrical cable and the light fittings, measured and assembled them according to his plan as he went. LL shows Petra filling her containers with paper on which she put fine white gravel - see picture above -and on that surface she then put slices of travertine marble with pieces of jewellery on each - several pieces to each of these large shallow bowls - they are assembled in LR - and each with a round sheet of glass over the top and a small light suspended over each. UR is showing the last quilt to go up, at which time Mike and I left, rushed back to our house, changed into some better clothes and got back just before our first visitors arrived - and giving me time to add a few stitches, LR, to the quilt I had finished only the night before leaving an unquilted area 2" x 2" bang smack in the middle at the classical eye height!!!

Our first visitors arrived shortly after we opened, figuratively speaking, for in fact the doors were open all day and all night - we were blessed with warm dry weather, which was kind - at this time of year it is often hot and very humid, and and therefore rather difficult to endure in a non-airconditioned venue like this, with many of the windows cut off by the false walls!

One party of early visitors, some rels of one of my closest friends here, sailed through the show en masse, and, as if swooping in on a department store sale, picked up the hem of every quilt pulled it up and looked behind at the each of my quilts. If they had been paintings I wonder if they would have done that? (well maybe they might have ...) I was a bit gobsmacked - but didn't say anything, out of deference to my friend - and once satisfied they settled to some wine and nibblies. I couldn't think of anything witty or clever to say, but, I'll be ready for these particular people next time we do this kind of thing....interestingly, they were the only ones I think, who did that. And, although I had alerted everyone in case we were blessed with children sucking sticky lollies or icecreams and sporting itchy little fingers, there were almost no children to be on the alert for.

Muestra Fusion, Part B

2007-12-14T12:32:00.000-02:00

So, here is the show, Muestra Fusion, all set up finally at a few minutes past 2pm, and with some people shots taken at various times from when we opened to the public UR and UL, to early (LL) and late (LR) evening shots close to midnight.

My goodness Petra has vision; she came up with the scheme to make technical alterations, the hanging of a false wall which hid some of the windows and much of the less than desirable nipple pink walls of the room. And she knew just the right person to do it. It was fascinating to see Caco and his assistant, whose name escapes me just for the moment, working efficiently, measuring everything carefully but fast, they knew exactly what they were doing and in what order - a well planned out series of manoeuvres.

The little downlights were poised over each of Petra's stands holding pieces of gold jewellery, and the larger lights on the beams at ceiling height were directed onto my quilts. They were great. And so was everyone else who helped us, from the friend who came up right at the last minute with the clothes steamer we needed, to the women we hired to serve drinks and sandwiches, empanadas and cheese balls and crackers; the husbands who did various fetching and carrying things particularly Petra's husband Eduardo, my DH was safely out in the campo working until the day or so before.

In the aftermath, we decided we'd do it again together, but never again for one day only, and preferably putting ourselves in the hands of an agent. There is at least one keen on being 'it' and placing both our works during the season at Punta - so who knows where that will all lead, por suerte. It was interesting who came and who didn't. Several people who have said to me many times "I'd love to see your quilts some time, Alison..." didn't take this opportunity; and others, who I really didn't think would be so interested as to come 20 km out, came bringing friends and rels. You just can't tell. We staggered home with the quilts, some leftover sandwiches, part cheese ball and wine, and flopped into bed at 2am, but were on deck again out there to clear out the rest of the stuff at 8-30 am. I was bone weary all day monday, but since then there have been several interesting phone calls as people begin following up on some of our conversations, opportunity is beginning to knock in several different directions. And the additional expense I have recently gone to having designed and printed off some brochures or follettas about my work, in spanish and english with statement "Influences and Inspirations/Influencias e Inspiraciones" some pictures and a selected cv, has clearly been a good move and well received by all who have seen and taken one.

Egypt - Tentmaker Works Installed

2007-12-05T08:35:00.000-02:00

At last, the two magnificent large tentmaker pieces we bought in Egypt are in place, and here are the pics to show these wonderful textiles in their new home. The one on the bed is in our guest room. This elegant colour combination would grace any interior anywhere in the world, and compatible to a whole range of decor styles. I would describe our home here as basically Uruguay conservative modern, with many eclectic touches by owner. So it fits in perfectly, right? The carpet is the same neutral plain light milk-coffee colour you can see in the photo of the other room, our own bedroom. These are hand applique works, the pieces sewn piece by piece directly on to the canvas base which is a bit heavier than artist canvas, possibly a light sail weight, just to give you some idea. Of course, this means they are pretty heavy, and the cover will need to be rolled back when the bed is in use. There is no further backing, so quite a bit of the stitching is visible here and there. Ref: Tentmakers blog entry for sept 9th 2007

Exhibition Invitation

2007-12-02T08:58:00.000-02:00

You're all invited ! but I don't expect to see too many of you here next sunday when Petra Eberl and I are showing our latest works in an all day exhibition. It will be open from 2pm to midnight - a marathon - and it's sure to be hot. The theory is that as our rental begins from 8-30am, we will be there on the dot to get my 8-10 quilts hung, lighting positioned, her domed plinths in place and everything else set up in 4-4/12 hours, before going home to change and appear all fresh and breezy to greet our first visitors ! Petra's wonderful handmade 18ct jewellery can be seen on her website, www.petraeberl.com The invitation design was a joint effort; I am not sure who came up with the notion of sewing gold stitching across (the ends are left hanging free, but don't show in this pic) but it seemed like the perfect 'fusion' of our very different works of art. We had 1000 printed, and it took about 12 hours and about 500m (half onew of those big Aus$18 cones of gold thread to sew the wavy lines across each one. The wastage, less than 5%, was smaller than I feared. Of course, if you make a mistake on paper the needle holes are there, period. But many of the false starts were worth re-doing, and I got pretty skilled and quick at retracing my steps and going over each hole again. The most common reason for needing to do this was the occasional thread problem, either snapping or suddenly bunching up underneath. A few however were not retrievable, but it was a better result than I feared even though I had practised and done samples for different effects on other cards before I received the printed ones. I took a few invites to friends in Aus - the common reaction was 'wow'.

Frankfurt

2007-12-02T08:27:00.000-02:00

Dear reader, I am just back from a 2-week trip to Australia, aware that I have not posted in a while -but my internet time was short and infrequent. En route I had to lay over in Frankfurt Germany for about 36 hours. I went prepared for it to be cold - and my goodness was it cold !, Much of the time it was on the verge of snowing and did so just a few minutes after an obliging fellow tourist took this snap of me on one of the bridges over the river Main (LL) All of a sudden we were almost in whiteout, well, blurred-out, anyway, and the hard little balls made soft crisp sounds as they landed on my jacket and the leaves (LR)

Despite the freezing cold I took my hands out of my gloves to snap these stele (UL & UR) in the grounds of the ethnological museum which was my destination. These fabulous. fascoinating objects are from, um, I think it was Ethiopia. I couldn't read the German well enough to give you a clear accurate description, but to me they say something spiritual with some watching or guardian function. Although you may think otherwise, I really took the photo because of their incised markings: the same primal patterns of groups of lines and other small marks that appear in lots of other places and objects from around the world.

I enjoyed my full day there as the flight to Singapore didn't leave until almost midnight, so I had a lot of walking around time, which was good in between long haul flights. An art museum in central Frankfurt was showing Moreau, Turner and Hugo and the rise of abstract impressionism, a very interesting exhibition which I thoroughly enjoyed. I visited several other museums and galleries, learned a bit about the ancient history of the city from the earliest times to the present, and found time to do a little unscheduled shopping there, but found nothing of note specifically textile related despite asking around.

Obsessing About Cups and Saucers

2007-11-07T14:56:00.000-02:00

In a current family grapevine discussion I began wondering about the obsession an aging relative seems to have about her fine bone china gold rimmed cups and saucers. Our own mother was also rather obsessive about who would take care of her considerable stock of them. She grew up in a time when afternoon tea was served daily in Australian homes with home baked goodies and some degree of ritual. On week days this was around the kitchen table, saturday afternoon possibly outside in the garden, in each case using kitchen cups and saucers and accessories. On sundays it was served with ceremony in the lounge room - generally with close rellies in attendance, mulling over the week just passed and what they knew or presumed of the week to come. The household stock of delicate porcelain china cups, saucers, silver teaspoons and cake forks, matching milk jug and sugar bowl and other accessories, including pretty cake plates, had regular and frequent workouts. Many years back, knowing she was approaching the end of her life, she had a fixation about someone taking the tea cups and saucers. Someone did take a few, I didn't, but I did take a very old coffee set for my daughter who's marrying soon, and I'm about to hand it on to her.

Right now an elderly aunt is in some state about her cups and saucers. A couple of years ago, she moved into an assisted living hostel, and although some cups and saucers went with her (I am sure they have never been used to serve tea in her room) - it was partly to ease her from independent living, where she did indeed serve tea, regularly, with precisely followed decades-old rituals. Today's discussion by email on the family grapevine set me thinking - some time in the future will we too get obsessive and fret for loving homes for our coffee mugs? whenever? Heck, DH and I have quite a few in the cupboard I rather dislike. There are heaps of better designed, more interesting ones around; but, well you don't just pitch stuff that still works, was how we grew up, and DH bought them, so they stay and are used daily. Unfortunately they are tough and their natural attrition is very slow! Back to the obsession with cups and saucers - where does this obsession come from - is it just a function of age? Or does it have to do with having lived all your adult life in the one place, as Mum and Aunt did? We have lived in many places, with and without our household gear, the houshold stuff has had spells in storage, and in effect is in storage again, in Australia; and we are living surrounded by other cups and saucers here in Uruguay. I don't feel any approaching obsession yet .....

Oh, and this little antique coffee cup and saucer is Royal Worcester, Regency, from the late C19. Very fine bone china and so delicate to drink from. Until this morning I had sort of forgotten it was at the back of the cupboard....and it is so totally not my style, either. Any family takers? R? I have no idea from whose life this is a souvenir, and there was only one on sale.

Fabric - a Powerful Souvenir

2007-11-01T09:56:00.000-02:00

Recently one of my sisters sent me two offcut pieces from a length of batik she'd bought in Cirebon on the northern side of Java, Indonesia, back in around 1977 during a time she was working there. Like many of us who buy fabric, at the time she didn't know what she was going to do with it, only that she loved the colours and the pattern in this totally outstanding piece.

She says not only is the pattern a very special one - but the colours are unusual, too: a little black, some dark chocolate brown, then there's green, turquoise, creamy yellow and white. The sense of depth is incredible. As with all traditional textile crafts anywhere in the world, today's patterns reflect a history of cultural influences responding to new political conditions. So for those who can read this batik, it displays C13 chinese cultural influences from the time of Kublai Kan. The Dutch colonial period and mid C20 movement to independence were factors in the rise of Yogyakarta and the concurrent decline of this region's importance in batik production. No, I don't claim to be able to read it, I am just passing on what my sister told me about this piece, but I have put Cirebon on my list of places I need to visit.

A few months ago, looking for something to cover a panel or screen in her home, she found this forgotten piece in her box. I haven't seen the screen yet, but I also wonder what else is in that box ...

Partly for scale but also to add to the perspective of this beautiful, elegant fabric, I snapped it with a pair of enormous sunglasses from the same era, 1975. I still occasionally wear these, they have always been favs, and they do make some kind of statement, - always did. They live in a bag I whipped up from scraps of fabric I used in the 1981 to make a bedspread. The pondy/murky khaki and turquoise print is a batiked cotton twill I bought in Malaysia, around 1973.

Following the theme of a recent post on Souvenirs with Meaning (Oct 1 2007) this one also evokes a lot of memories. (coincidentally that too, was prompted by batik) My sister now has in her home a daily reminder of several years' living and working in Jakarta. This same fabric prompted memories from my own, totally different, life experiences at around the same time .... what a powerful souvenir a piece of fabric can be.

Garlic !

2007-10-22T12:29:00.000-02:00

Ah - spring - and nothing like a fresh garland of garlic. I just bought this one from a vendor who came to the gate a few minutes ago. Why would anyone here in Montevideo buy powdered garlic or crushed in a jar (with preservatives) when the wonderful fresh stuff can be had, so beautifully presented, and in such quantity for about US $8-50 ?

We always have one hanging on the back of the kitchen door. I will give at least half of this one away - we can't get through all this, even though we eat a lot of it, there's still a bit of the previous one, seriously drying out now, from the same guy 6 months ago. Of course in addition to imparting wonderful flavour, fresh garlic wards off colds and the dreaded grippe, they say. We know it wards off anyone else too, if you have been eating a lot of it!

So -this is today's textile note - click on the image to get closer to the wonderfully plaited leaves that hold the whole thing together.

A Totally Memorable Exhibition

2007-10-21T20:55:00.000-02:00

To the right is the catalogue for a wonderful exhibition I was fortunate to see in the new Musee
du Quai Branley in Paris, just a short walk from the Eiffel Tower.

The exhibition was of African artefacts, all of which showed some repair having been made. I had never thought before of how repairing something indicates it's value to the owner or to the community to which it belongs, but it does. And in addition, the aesthetic sense if altered, too, so that the mend may compete with the originally intended value. A lot to think about there. The pieces came mostly from the vast collection of the Branley itself, some from the Louvre and other sources. The curators remind us that museums usually select intact works from their collections to show, although at any time most museums hold plenty of other damaged or repaired material

There were fabulous items incluiding some some wooden, some precious metal, textile and some ceramic- and a huge variety of techniques were used in the mending processes. The cover illustration is a detail of a beautifully incised gourd vessel, standing about 12" high. It had broken for some reason - so holes were drilled and leather strips applied over the break and leather thonging 'sewn' or threaded through the holes to hold it all together. Naturally, when I saw this and a number of other examples of 'sewing' I was reminded of work I am interested in doing such as this example, above left, which I first blogged on July 4th last.

This exhibition was a real inspiration to me to continue to explore in this vein, and I am currently samplising. I have some leather thonging and some string, and can see something 'rustico' with either tan leather or suede and have some of each very nicely stained and splattered...

I apologise for the layout - something to do with the positioning of the photos on the right this a time although it has been sucessful before .... and when I deleted a word or two it got rid of the image..... which I have replaced with one upl;oaded in the editing phase - I find such occasional quirks and whims of Blogger's unpredictable design ideas quite irritating at times, but since this is the third time I've tried to correct the layout! and dinner awaits, as they say in the Toyota ads - bugrit.

Beneath the Surface Level

2007-10-16T10:55:00.001-02:00

On a members-only SAQA critique blog the other day, Kristin LaFlamme posted a work in progress, continuing with a theme she is following, of those of us who have nomadic lifestyles and the issue of putting down roots, or feeling the need to, or indeed feeling the absence of roots. She showed a pic of lots of little houses along the top with a huge void beneath, and talked of how she plans to go on, options, etc. I commented that her image reminded me of this work of mine, executed in 1985 or 1986, and said I'd try to find it and post it on this blog. so it's the subject today, as it has prompted me in several ways.

We were living in a town we had lived some years earlier, the gold mining town of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. In our first stint there we had been living in a house up on a company mining lease. The lovely park-like setting for these houses was actually atop a slime dump (underground waste material) beneath which were large caverns remaining after ore had been mined decades previously. It always bothered me to think of what was below, and I was never so glad as when we drove off those leases for the last time. We went back, to live again, another company, years later - and then saw that what is now called the Super Pit, had already been started to mine the area beneath those housing areas. And they have long since gone. It's now a vast pit, kilometeres long and who knows how deep. (I'm sure there's masses of stuff to google on Kalgoorlie, the Super Pit, and related links - I haven't looked though)

How I felt about that time and situation was expressed in this stitchery, entitled "On The Golden Mile" and included in a solo exhibition of embroidery I had in 1987. The background was lightly spray painted, the minute stitchery done in either danish flower thread or single or double strands of stranded embroidery thread/floss. There's lots of running stitch, standard and and long stemmed french knots, and fly stitch used in various ways in the vegetation. From memory, the overall dimensions are about 16" x 14", and so the houses and trees are pretty small ! and very small by comparison with the vastness of the open cut pit that has already been commenced below.

It is one thing to look back over work done back in the past, not only from the point of being struck by amazement at doing this kind of thing (my eyes were so much younger then) but further thoughts develop, principal among them ideas on where I was and what I was then preoccupied with, and how these things tie in with where I am now. Interesting.

"A Thing of Beauty is a Joy For Ever"

2007-10-10T15:16:00.000-02:00

That holds true for textiles as long as they have been properly cared for, of course.
In France I could not resist this antique handkerchief/mouchoir, of hand embroidered linen batiste, from the late C19th I bought in the town of Bayeux, Normandy, where the antique dealer says she deals only in items purchased from north western France, mostly textiles and her stock cinluded some lovely lace edged things. Modern bobbin lace is made in that town, too, but I thought this piece was far more interesting and beautiful than even some of the most stunning and wonderful stuff the ladies down the road were making as we watched. It's thin and soft, I like to think that it has been well used and carefully washed and stored between airings down the years.
About 14" square, it is a soft cream colour, photographed against black background. It is in very good condition with just a couple of teeny holes that could be moth holes. The opaque band is another layer of fabric appliqued to the front using minute stitching, and the decoration of that band is rows of satin stitched dots. The hand embroidery of the whole piece is so exquisite that you are hard pressed to tell the right from the wrong side in any part of it.

Quilting Motifs -Inspiration Is Everywhere

2007-10-07T09:57:00.000-02:00

Top photo: one of many ceilings we saw in ancient temples and tombs in Upper Egypt, decorated with a pattern of long-armed, five-pointed stars. The stars appear on on ceilings to ensure they will be present in the Afterlife of the pharoah for whom the tomb or temple was built.

Lower photo: a free machine quilted motif of that star pattern on a recent quilt made of sheer fabrics, which I hope to have selected into SAQA Icons and Imagery Transformations '08.

For several years I have occasionally taught a quilting class, "Quilting With Attitude" , for hand and machine quilters, the core point of the class being that inspiration for the quilting on a quilt can come from many sources. Quilting of course is the functional constructional element that holds the layers together in a quilt designed principally to warm a body on the bed. Traditionally the quilting pattern is dominated by the shapes on the top which it tends to echo or follow, and large open shapes are then filled with decorative motifs, feathers, flowers and other linear shapes. The rise of free machine quilting in the 1980's was popularised by several teachers and writers including Harriet Hargreaves, perhaps best known of these. Using the machine in with a traditional quilt design, the aim is often to try to replicate the traditional quilting patterns. Despite the claim by some that this saves a lot of time, it has never appeared to me that the equation is equal - if the time is saved technical excellence has always appeared to have been compromised. If the impeccable technical standards that characterise most traditional quilts is achieved, it really does take about the same amount of time to include in the process properly fastened off and hidden quilting threads, anchored so that they will not unravel or pop as the quilt is used. This does not apply to decorative wall quilts of course. This need to rush quilting ('saving time' by machine quilting, or make a quilt in a is a day classes) is sadly a product of the fast-paced lives many Westerners lead today.

There's a lot more to think about too, as many 'art quilt makers' or quilted textile artists, (myself included) produce smaller sized works for wall decoration. Despite using modern materials, dyes, printing inks and digital printing processes, and this smaller decorative format, they aren't necessarily 'Art'.

IMHO, a well chosen quilting motif or pattern adds another design element to a quilt and can enhance the value of the overall design; and just as easily a meaningless pattern with no connection to the quilt or one that looks merely routine, easy, a no brainer, can reduce the impact of the whole piece. One of the most popular no brainer quilting patterns around these days is the meandering or stippling, where the quilted line wanders like a little maze, or like electronic circuitry over the surface of the quilt. Now, this could also be totally appropriate to the underlying design, but as generally used, isn't. Dijanne Cevaal recently published a book of all-over machine quilting patterns she has come up with, "Seventy Two Ways Not to Meander or Stipple - Ideas for Free Machine Quilting", now available in english and french, in book form and cd: for ordering information follow the link on this page to her blog (Musings of a Textile Itinerant) posted October 6, 2006. A great starting point for opening the mind to the potential for machine quilting. Well, you could also do some of them by hand, too.... let's be open minded about all this.

The Fabled Bayeux Tapestry

2007-10-04T11:39:00.000-03:00

Decades ago when I became interested in the art of the stitch, embroidery, I learned of and became intrigued by the medieval stitchery known as the Bayeux Tapestry. Of course it isn't a weaving, it is a stitched wall hanging in today's terms, telling the story of the Norman duke William's conquest over the English king, Harold at Hastings in 1066. As it is a textile, and from what we know of its peripatetic history, it is a miracle it has survived so long, but the exact details of who commissioned it and exactly where it was made are no longer clear. It was probably commissioned by a bishop half brother of William,and was completed by about 15 years after the event. Stitched in wool on a narrow band of linen fabric, the figures of men and animals in a cartoon-like sequence tell how the battle came about and graphically portray the preparations and aftermath. One of my favourite scenes records the presence in the skies of Halley's Comet during April, 1066 - isti mirant - latin, presumably they are looking, stella, star. It has just occurred to me I could get an on-line translation of that and will re-write that bit if I am way out. Anyway I love the comet image, upper right hand corner.

So, on our last day in France we hopped on a train out to Bayeux and spent the greater portion of the day viewing the Tapestry and enjoying the rest of the small city of 15,000. The exhibiton gallery for the tapestry is in an old seminary building near the cathedral, and in a dimly lit almost dark gallery, the piece of work is displayed at something between hip and shoulder height, lit from behind. We used the recorded commentary devices and were just entralled. The stitches are simple, there are only 5 colours I think, and all the background is left plain. It is amazing the details that have been achieved with simple stem or outline stitch and the couching technique styled in what has become known as Bauyeux stitch. In just this scene alone, wonderful little details are included: the rays of the comet, the cobblestones underfoot, the different tiles on roofs of buildings, the upturned admiring or anxious faces -( is this a portent?) and hands pointing to the comet, there are some hair details and some of the men even sport horizontally striped stockings. It's beautiful, it's lively and it's over 950 years old. Just the enormous age of this fragile thing gave me an attack of going weak at the knees. I was quite overcome with the the awsome way this textile speaks to us down the ages since it was made. I didn't vote and I don't know if it was on the recent list of what people voted for as a Wonder of The Modern World - but it should be up there. DH, who knew almost nothing about it before I started campaigning for going to Normandy to see it , was visibly very impressed once he understood its history and importance as a historic textile and as a record of an event that changed the then known world and its subsequent history.

I have already seen the Overlord Embroidery, a 1970's applique work commemorating the Allies' D-Day Landing on the beaches of Normandy in 1944. It's now on show in a purpose built museum gallery in Portsmouth UK. The idea of course came from the Bayeux Tapestry - and it is utterly magnificent - textile enthusiasts continue to visit from all over the world, and rightly so, the whole work is charged with the emotion and memory laden images of that epic battle.

In the gift shop at Bayeux Tapestry Museum you can buy a scaled down kit of the tapestry, presumably the images are printed onto fabric and you can stitch your own - I must confess I din't examine that too closely. Since our visit I have heard though, that a well known textile artist has the Bayeux Tapestry in her sights as her next project, I believe to scale. Leaving aside any discussion of whether this is to be 'a copy' or 'a reproduction' , and whether the many mends and patches now on the genuine article are to form part of this contemporary work - my only question is 'What on earth is she going to do with it, and how will it be displayed without the benefit of a purpose built museum or gallery?' I guess I am actually wondering why someone would sew a replica, even to a smaller scale the dimensions are impressive - if all it can do is sit in a cupboard and be unrolled every now and then on show? And yet, this is the exact purpose of the actual Bayeux Tapestry nearly 1000 years ago: most people were totally illiterate, and this work was to tell the story of this hugely important historic event in images that all could 'read' and understand, and for the first half of its life it was displayed for a couple of weeks each year in the Cathedral Notre Dame de Bayeux, and the rest of the time was rolled and stored there.

Dr. David M Wilson, writing in his book "The Bayeux Tapestry" 1985 (p.13) says in this introduction:

"During the French Revolution the tapestry had many adventures: on one occasion it was taken from the Cathedral and used as a wagon cover; it was saved in dramatic fashion by a lawyer, Lambert Leonard -Leforestier. Later it was nearly cut up to make a float (for the goddess of Reason) for a carnival. It survived, however, and in 1803 was transferred to Paris at the request of Napoleon, where it was exhibited in the museum which bore his name. This exhibition was mounted as propoganda in relation to the prepartions for the invasion of England, and as such was an enormous success, politically and artistically, but with the striking of Napoleon's Boulogne camp and the abandonment of the invasion plans the Tapestry was returned to Bayeux." It was stored in Bayeux and another rural town during WWII and in 1944 went into the basement at the Louvre, and after one or two temporary exhibition sites since the end of that war, it is now permanently housed in a converted seminary near the town's Cathedral, back pretty well to where it started its journey.

Souvenirs With Meaning

2007-10-01T11:46:00.000-03:00

What a nice french word 'souvenir' is - and in spanish 'recuerdo' or memory.
Most of us associate souvenirs with tacky little doodads with "Made in (place being visited)" stamped or carved somewhere prominent on some object associated with the country being visited. So, for Australia than measns pretty well anything boomerang shaped, with or without a dotted surface, anything with the Sydney Opera House, Uluru, kangaroos, koalas playpuses, Vegemite... these and more are images or icons of Oz. In Egypt you have the choice of little leather camels, masses of little models of pharoahs sphinxs and prominent gods, pyramids of every size, technique and material you can imagine, metal cartouches to put on a chain around your neck and you can have your own made in about 20 minutes... all of these things say 'Egypt' . In Uruguay there are some wonderful souvenir thingies, including some really very nice hand made objects. Unfortunately here many are routinely spoiled by having "Made in Uruguay" or "Souvenir of Uruguay" painted or carved across them. There are little model candombe drummers, models of typical rural houses, some nice leather coin purses, sets of leather and wooden coasters with criollo designs, small table items like butter knives with bone handles - but many of them are 'branded' - it's something that always bothers me. I think, that like me, people buy something to act as an aide memoire of the time spent and experiences enjoyed while visiting somewhere. I don't think they are meant to present as proof that they were there. I am sure people would buy these things if they are not emblazoned with the name of the country/city. I have a thing about it.

As a maker of quilted textiles I always have my eye out in any direction where fabric lurks - here or abroad - you never know. In one nice little French town on our recent trip I spotted a table of bright, wildly printed fabrics, which turned out to be batik from the Congo. Most European countries had colonial involvement there and I imagine there is still trade, if these fabrics were anything to go by. In the pile I found this wonderful piece, featuring eggs chickens hens and roosters. Since the cockerel is the fauna emblem of France, an icon so to speak, although less in your face than the Eiffel Tower, and since they eat an incredible number of eggs judging by the menus we were faced with, I thought this wonderful 3 and 1/2m length of high quality batiked cotton fabric would be a good souvenir. What I will do with it is not really the point - but I will probably use it some time.

Bathroom Award

2007-09-19T10:11:00.000-03:00

The prettiest bathroom I encountered on our travels was certainly this one at the temple of Ramses II at Abu Simbel, Upper Egypt, We arrived after several hours on the road, early in the morning, just as other buses in the convoy were pulling in. It was peak traffice time at all the loos. The building is a lovely modern facitility but with the usual design problem of the architect not addressing the different time needs of male and female loo users - there was chaos in the narrow corridor from which both loos opened off. There seemed to be a male and female attandant adding to this general clogup, or backup. Our guide, noting the lineup at the ladies' managed to arrange for myself and some other waiting women to go into the near empty men's. We politely ignored the backs of urinating males as we hurriedly washed hands and headed out, but not before I noticed that it was clean, functional and did not pong. At the end of our time there before our return journey of several hours, so like the good traveller I am, I went again, this time into the now less chaotic ladies'. Clean, fully functinonal, and even a couple of containers of room deodoriser to hand, this one showed the touch of someone dedicated to her work. Being a loo attendant is probably mostly thankless and often unpleasant I imagine. This lady shares with an attendant in the Mercado del Puerto a cheerful dispositon and pride in a well maintained facility.

During our journey we came across the full spectrum of toilets, ranging from clean, shiny, modern, spacious and ventilated to cramped, dirty, smelly, seatless, doorless, ancient, and all possible combinations of the above. On our camping trip of course, we went perched behind a rock with breathtaking views all round, but requiring balancing and digging skills. There were plenty of stones around to make a little cairn above my copralite.

We in first world countries have been spoiled by ablution arrangements, and when we encounter what we feel are appalling bathroom standards we don't understand that the differences are more than just about cost or unavailability of toilet cleaners and brushes. From the train between Luxor and Cairo, as the dawn rose we saw several people squatting within metres of the canal and defaecating in plain public view. It's a matter-of-factness about bodily functions which we have been raised to hide and cover up with spray-pak deodorisers. If travel doesn't actually broaden the mind, it certainly reminds us of how unequal Life is.

The Tentmakers

2007-09-18T10:21:00.000-03:00

A highlight of our trip to Egypt was going to the area of the khan where these traditional craftsmen work and sell what they and others behind the scenes sew, traditionally tents and the colourful hangings that line them. I refer you right now to the blog by Jenny Bowker, http://jennybowker.blogspot.com posting August 2nd 2007 for some fabulous examples of the work by this dwindling group of people. The largest pieces are over 2m dimensions, and they are quite used to producing works much larger too - we saw one piece being commissioned as part of a large set of hangings(99) and it was about 1.5m x 3? 4? m length.

My pictures show: UL Ashraf seated cross-legged in front of samples of what he has designed and made or had some others make - he is a caligrpaher also, a passionate one, and this shows in some of his designs he explained to us, outlining the koranic content of the design. The protection of individual or special and innovative designs is important, a number of times we were shown pieces by people holding them up with their plain backs to the street and the curious eyes of nearby compeitors. UR is a closeup of the piece in Ashraf's quick and nimble hands. What a wonderful person to meet and talk with, as were all the people we met in this expedition which took us around just some of the stands where Jenny is clearly a popular friend. We were made very welcome and felt very priveleged. LL is a shop set up as a tent, with a young boy sewing the traditional trimmings with tent lining designs on printed fabric, and many of which will be used to decorate homes and surroundings in the current season of Ramadan. LR shows one way the hangings were/are used -as windbreaks in the desert. I took this photo on our expedition to the Western Desert, organised by Jenny and i naddition to my DH there were a couple of other Australian quilters, Gloria Loughman and Sharon Hall plus DHs, and Esterita Austin from the USA. Our Bedouin guides are setting up the resting/sitting/optional sleeping area in a U-shape formed by the vehicles, lined up against the prevailing wind. The posts on which the fabrics are mounted are unrolled, the ends put in the sand, and the lower edges have sand shovelled up over them, then the huge colourful rag rugs laid down. All done in about 10 minutes. Most of us opted to sleep out under the stars on mattresses on the sand - one or two crept back into the sheltered area during the night as the wind rose a little. I slept out all night and awoke a couple of times in the moonlight after 2-30 am - and then again to see the early dawn and watch the sun appear. At this time, too, a little desert fox, fenneq, was busily scouting our camping area to make sure nothing by way of scraps from the previous night had escaped his notice. DH took a great photo which I might post some time.

The impossible competition from printed fabrics is causing the tentmakers' number to fall dramatically. Tourism which has not yet recognised the value of this traditional craft, clearly offers hope. Readers of Jenny's blog know that the exhibition she took to Australia earlier this year was a smash hit, and everything sold. Their art was greated with great admiration. She is currently doing a similar trip to France (read the frustrations of obtaining customs clearance etc in her most recent post) and no doubt when she returns home later this week will get to her blog and report another huge success. Through these exhibitions and the production of the book she has in the pipeline about their work, Jenny aims to raise the level of recognition so that one day arriving visitors will ask their guides and their hotels "Where do we find the Tentmakers?" and, that hotels and guides will know where to take or to direct them, of course.

Silk Trims

2007-09-15T09:18:00.000-03:00

As I said in the previous post, the cords then go on to the clothing manufacturers, but they can be obtained out in the open market, too - this glorious riot of colour caught my eye as we were headed towards the tentmakers. Heaps of the hanks we had seen being spun were stacked on the shelf in this little shop.

The shopkeeper here is reaching for garlands of what look like beads, but they are the silk covered forms that act as buttons on the gebalayas, matching the trim around the neck usually and they must wear pretty well, although I note one or two in the pic below are fraying. Since the stranded silk the spinners twist together is imported now from Japan, I imagine these little bobbles are, too. The shopkeeper was rather amazed that I wanted to buy some, but how could I resist? I have no idea what I will do with them but no matter - they are beautiful. Jenny said she'd not seen them before except actually in use on garments.

After our visit to one of the bead shops I did think of interspersing them into a bead necklace or something, they'd look great, but as Jenny pointed out they just might fray fast between glass beads especially. I might risk it sometime though.

Spinners - City of the Dead, Cairo

2007-09-15T08:39:00.000-03:00

The City of the Dead - sounds awful but isn't - bodies are laid to rest in underground tombs and the caretakers of these tombs live on site, and since they like all people have married and produced families down the years, a whole city, town, has built up of people living here. Some of the tombs display faded grandeur from centuries back and are in a state of decay and are overgrown.... We went into one courtyard behind one of these walls -and although it looked like anyone else's courtyard anywhere else in the world - paved with tiles of granito, several plants in pots arranged around, and one or two plastic chairs, there was one freshly cemented area of tiles that Jenny pointed out. These would have been lifted, the underlying panel taken out and the steps going dosn into the tombs were then ready to admit an incoming body, which is laid there on the earth, wrapped in it shroud and left to decompose. It is a quiet place with very little traffic, a sound refuge from the greater city of Cairo itself, let me tell you!

By the time of our visit, mid morning, anyone who could do so was seeking shade, and I suspect this spinner packed it in for a few hours after we left, too -he would have resumed in the evening to work several hours after sundown. People who live there or go into that part of the city know of the work which requires lengths of the silk thread to be run out back and forth between the spinner's stand ULpic, and a T-shaped stand you can't see under the distant tree in the LR pic; and they know to be on the lookout for these strands crossing through an intersection or two - they duck under - and for vehicles the whole array is lifted up to allow them to pass under without breaking the strands of the cord in progress - see the control wires in LR pic. I have often made small lengths of customised cord to trim a project, looping threads over something stable and unyeilding like a door handle or my sewing machine, and this is exactly the same principle but on a much larger scale.

What a marvel of recycling the spinners' stands are. We saw lots of them around the streets here, each a little different but all the same principle and all cleverly constructed from discarded timber and metal.

When the strands are all laid out, they are then twisted together by the spinner turning the bicycle wheel. As the cord twists it becomes tighter and shorter, and the spinner deftly 'walks' his 3-legged stand forward along the sandy street until it reaches the predermined point where he stops - the twist will be correct at this point. It looks easy as he does it, LL, but as you might sense from my pic UR, I found it wasn't. The end product is firmly twisted cord, probably about 250m, perhaps 300m length, and these cords are deftly wound off using the X-shaped wooden structure in UL, and tied into the hanks you see hanging off the equipment in LL. The hanks then go on to clothing manufacturers to be couched onto and decorate clothing and household items, sometimes simply other times quite elaborately.

Cairo !

2007-08-31T08:17:00.000-03:00

Heat, dust, an incredible sense of length of history, phases of building and destruction, renewal and decay, these cliches don't come anywhere close to giving you an idea of my first and ongoing impressions of this country. I suspect it will be quite a while before it gets into some kind of perspective. Jenny Bowker and her husband Bob are doing their best to ensure we come away with a lot of varied experiences to help that perspective crystallise. Just outside our hotel is this ivy encrusted building... I wonder what is holding which up ....

At the museum in front of the fabuous gold jewellery and other artefacts from Tutenkhamon's tomb I had another watery knee, emotional experience in the vicinity of the magnificent outermost death mask, the one everyone has seen and which has become a an icon for the fabulous wealth of Egypt's past - in itself it is 11kg of gold inlaid with finely crafted lapis.... the craftmanship on this ancient stuff is breathtaking, literally. We have had our first wander down a small part of the khan or market, but will be going back in the company of some other textile people, quilters, yet to arrive, and then we'll focus on the tentmakers district. ( see Jenny Bowker's blog for fabulous pictures and information on these textile workers) Last evening we had a lovely sunset felucca ride on the Nile observing the many faceted city from the water. We visited a glassblowing business where Jenny is clearly a frequent visitor and found ourselves at a project among the Zebelin, the garbage sorters, where the innate sorting skills of the young girls in that part of the community alongside the City of the Dead are being chanelled and educated into literacy at the same time they learn/hone weaving, papermaking and other productive skills to improve earning capacity in ways that are comfortable and acceptable to husbands and families. It has been clearly illustrated how well-meaning aid or assistance from outsiders can be anything but helpful without these factors being taken into full account: and this project is totally locally generated and run. We were so impressed - and happened along just as a local TV crew were doing a segment there - and Jenny found herself unexpectedly being pressed into being filmed as part of this doco. What a trouper - in a small crowded room with the outside temperature somewhere way over 100F, and one ineffective fan bravely churning on, wiping her sweaty brow and gathering a few well chosen words together, Jenny gave an excellent impromptu endorsement of the value of the work being done in this project, one in which she herself has given teaching time, sharing and passing on some of her textile skills to be absorbed and used by the organisers and participants as the range of skills and products grows and widen. Among other things I bought some wonderful little stitched note cards, and have ordered a wallhanging in a tufted weave using offcuts from textile manufacturing processes; it will be ready before we leave, taking only a couple of days.

While en route to several very interesting mosques we visited the City of the Dead and found it to be a fascinating, very positive place; not at all macabre. There we spent some time with several other of Jenny's extensive network of friends around the city, the spinners, a little appreciated group of men who spin together single loosely plied threads of silk that comes to them on cones, producing fine silk cords. These are then passed on to garment makers and couched in lively swirling patterns onto blouses shirts and the long loose kaftans called gebalayahs that many wear. Early in the day and in the evening they spread out the threads in long arrays between the houses in the dusty streets of this city within a city, and using marvellous recycling of cycle wheels, pieces of timber, wire and all manner of other simple equipment, spin the cords together. Photos and descriptions of this craft will form the subject of another post when I can get some blog time together in this crowded amazing trip, or maybe not until after it.

Paris sunday morning

2007-08-31T07:18:00.000-03:00

We strolled along the Seine to visit Notre Dame and passed numerous shops opening up and in one particular zone they seemed to be all either pet shops or plant shops. We wandered in and out of some of them; some specialised in fish and aquariums, others with pretty standard but generally pure-bred 4-legged pets, and some offered exotic birds like parrots bizarre fancy pigeons and a myriad of finches; and budgies were everywhere. We saw lots of wonderful plants, many of which we knew, and other different ones like this one, a Tacca, caught our imaginiation and attention. The aubergine-like colour was real - nothing plastic about this beauty. If it can be grown in Paris we are sure it can be in Uruguay and will try to get something like it there.

Clamecy

2007-08-31T07:09:00.000-03:00

This textile noted on a rather smart looking canal boat owned by a couple from UK who come and go from France in their semi retired lifestyle. There was a similar one at the back, too. On the deck at the stern there was a little matching dark green car, which is lifted off the deck with a mobile crane, giving the flexibility that complements one's own travelling accomodation of this kind. As the lady I spoke to said, the deck is a little crowded, their immediate outdoor living area reduced when they are on the move, but we agreed there is nothing perfect in this life, something always has to be compromised - way to go, Poms - a nice set-up.

From The Louvre

2007-08-23T05:12:00.000-03:00

Unexpectedly the pic now posts OK - the Winged Victory of Samothrace in the Louvre - we found oursleves hopelessly lost in there but think we will go back for another sortie in the few days we have there beginning saturday. Poeople constrantly throng around this anciemt work, and we found it quite impossible to get within spitting distance of the Mona Lisa - in one way it's probably better to find a good pic in a book, than push forward to the front of the crowd. And even if you get to the front of the crowd it's roped off over 1m back, and you still aren't close.

En Vacances - France

2007-08-23T04:54:00.000-03:00

What with internet difficulties - should I say absences more than anything - I have found it difficult to get anything posted - and even the pic I wanted to put up just now won't go for some reasson - so suffice to say we are having a most interesting time. Not very textile oriented so far - but I did buy a very nice piece of batik printed cotton from the congo - here in the small town of clamecy about 120m S of Paris - where our canal boat has been tied up the past 36 hours due to unfortunately heavy rain. Black, with rooosters and chickens and eggs all over it, it is beautiful it seemed to symbolise France. A textile shop here stocked mostly with notions ribbons napery and the wonderful narrow curtainings they put up at windows neverthless had a table of these Congo pieces, probably to coincide with an African themed exhibition at the local museum just now. I will put the pic up when conditions normalise.

I have been really struck by how manicured the landscape is, I realise essentially due to the long and many layered history here: and so many lovely flowery window boxes, the locks are all beautifully decked out with flower gardens, the woods and forests can bee seen through with trimmed trunks revealing further landscape vistas beyond... quite different to anything we have been used to. We have found difficulty adapting to things being closed at unexpected times, services not being offered where one might expect them in other parts of the world, and in our humble opinions so many opportunities wasted to show off this part of the world to visitors. But, that's their way. We have totally enjoyed to fresh foods and cheeses, many of the wines and the wonderful goodies ofered in charcuteries and boulangeries.

So, briefly that's it from me now, sorry I haven't been able to post a pic or two but will do later.

They Say Travel Broadens The Mind

2007-08-06T15:55:00.000-03:00

So we are getting ready for a little mind broadening, starting with heading to Paris later this week, some canal boating with friends in Burgundy and then on to Cairo: good friend and fellow Aussie Jenny Bowker there has promised to make sure we see good stuff - from all I have heard and pics seen of the tentmakers' work, that should be a delight, a highlight. And I know to expect so much more. We are fortunate to be able to go into Upper Egypt, too.
So, over the next few weeks while our minds are being broadened, alhough we will have computer access along the way, I have no idea how often I will be able to post, but I do plan to from time to time.

I saw this gem was on board one of the ferries plying between Auckland and Waiheke Is, NZ a few months ago. Now Kiwis, don't jump up and down - it's a great sign, nothing wrong with it, and plenty of them were posted about near the life vest storage lockers. Clear diagrams and good text make it clear how to put these things on - that is, how to "don" them. I think english speakers everywhere know what this term means, and some of us outside NZ and perhaps UK? use it very occasionally, but I have never seen 'donning' instructions. I guess for the commuters on the ferries this is an everyday term, otherwise the heading would have been " Putting on a Life Vest", " In Case of Emergency", or "Wearing a Life Vest".
To quote Kath Day, to me Donning is different, fresh and unusual !

Lots of Little Holes, Fast and Easy

2007-07-26T11:17:00.000-03:00

Working with fabric on leather, I came up with the core of this idea some time ago: I realised I could very quickly and evenly make lines of tiny holes on leather, or single very small holes in one spot, by using my machine and sewing with a large, very blunt needle but no thread top or bottom. (To make an old needle reeeeally blunt, scrape the point on a metal file, a brick or cement) Even normal sewing machine marks on some fabrics are almost impossible to remove, but on leather and plastic they're permanent. Then the other day it occurred to me that on the very tightly woven poplin I'm using I could do lines of dots with the machine to indicate the grid for the layout of the pieces on this design, and then use the holes either to actually quilt through by hand or cover easily enough by machine quilting over them. I ruled pencil lines on the back and sewed along them, which produced a tiny raised edge around the hole where the blunt needle bursts through the fabric.
I decided to hand quilt this with a linen viscose thread exactly matching the fabric, which doesn't shine, but has wonderful texture. You can see the horizontal stitches in the middle of this pic, running in and out of the holes, and a vertical line of holes just to the left of centre. Even as I have written this I have thought of other ways this might be useful - so I'd love you to let me know if it leads you to another idea....

Freehand Piecing - Arcs continued

2007-07-21T22:27:00.000-03:00

So, today I put up a few of the blocks I have done so far, just to see how the whole thing is coming along, and given that among the approx 250 or so I reckon I'll need, I am satisfied that the colours so far are going to be lovely - DD wants a lot of jungle prints included and so they shall be, some appear already in this selection.

Once I get more prints I might do something with lights and darks in groups of 4 but that remains to be seen. And, I might not settle on this block arrangement -tomorrow I will arranged them with the arcs all readiating out in the same direction and see how that looks. After all, there is time to fiddle a bit.

In colour schemes there should always be a value of yellow, not necessarily much, and lots of colours can do the job of yellow - in this case there is a beautiful citrus colour which will be scattered throughout the quilt - plenty of it showing hanging and in the blocks on the wall - there's also a much more subdued mustard colour, and several other golds and mustards will appear at times, I just haven't got round to them yet. 'Yellow' is relative, and it can be a colour from greeny yellows to orangey and browny yellows and greyed values of those colours, too. If you are auditioning colours for a quilt, take out anything with yellow in the print or any fabric that reads as yellow, and you will see the difference.

These blocks have been trimmed to 6 1/2 inch squares.

Freehand Demo at Uruguay Quilters 7/7/07 - arcs.

2007-07-17T10:50:00.000-03:00

Oh well, I suppose this is a nice casual photo arrangement that blogger has decided is 'it' for today since I really wanted to upload all these pics in close proximity.

On the right is a detail of fabric I have shown once before (post for 19th may) I show it because it is an entirely easy, sensible and indeed obvious way to divide a square/block with non-intersecting arcs, the underlying unit in the many I have seen of Susan Leslie Lumsden's quilts, one of which is depicted on a postcard lying on the luminous quilter's ruler up towards the top righthand corner of the central photo.

On the table are the segments I cut from 4 layers of fabric to be the first 4 blocks in a quilt for my DD, and which I used as a demo of freehand rotary cutting and piecing for two quilters who hadn't seen it before. The arcs were then shuffled so that there was one of each colour in each block, and these have now long since been sewn together, and joined by many more. How will I arrange the huge number of blocks I need for a large kingsize bed? Well , there are several options, and I'll decide what looks best a bit further down that road. They could be randomly oriented as in the printed silk above right, or in blocks of 4 with circle-like formations as per Susan's, or any of the variations of Rob Peter to Pay Paul -all just arcs cut from squares. This way of working has lots of potential, and the particular bedspread I've just started is golds, blacks and dark browns, jungle prints, deep blues, and dashes of purples, oranges, tans, lime and citrus. They consist of commercial prints and several commercial hand dyeds, and as I go I will dig into the scrap bag for an occasional 'zinger' fabric to highlight the other fairly numerous fabrics I have gathered for this project.

Gathering of Quilters in Uruguay

2007-07-16T18:50:00.000-03:00

On saturday last I went to what was billed as the first national gathering of quilters in Uruguay. Now there aren't a lot of us/them and two, Graciela and Soledad, have been in contact with everyone most of us know of; several came in from places several hours away from Montevideo but we still numbered only about 10 with several apologies - there's a lot of 'grippe' ie coughs and colds, around in this freezing weather. I am the only non traditional quilter among them, no surprise there. But from discussions during the day it is clear that several of the quilters would like to learn some of what experimental quilters everywhere else are learning.

I went along wanting to initiate discussion about something I have noticed about all the work I have seen so far in Uruguay, from all the quilters I have met over the past few years - it's more properly described as an actual lack of quilting. Apart from traditional geometric patterns, and they do tend to be the less complex ones at that, the one thing that has always struck me is that here the quilting is structural, minimal, period. None of that quilting-as-an-additional-surface-design-element so evident in some of the quilting done in many other countries. And in many art quilters' works just now there is a huge range of minimal up to quilted-to-death, but overall traditional quilters generally add at least a moderate amount of quilting, but not here, and I've been wondering why. So, I took along Dijanne Cevaal's machine quilting book, the latest QN catalogue, several recent quilt magazines from various countries, and one of my own quilts with a lot of close free machine quilting, and raised the question. Even the arrival of Polly whom I'd not met before, bringing several large bed quilts with lots of quilting, didn't really defuse my questions. Polly lived in Canada for a few years and got totally hooked on P&Q there. And she was well taught.

We had a long discussion on this, with one comment being that Uruguay has no cultural background of quilting and even further, that there is very little societal value placed on technical excellence, key word excellence, in hand made things, which is interesting, and on reflection is at least partly true. A lot of beautiful things are hand made here, but often lack the highest levels of technical excellence reached elsewhere by many artisans in most media, and although this has been addressed by organisations such as Manos del Uruguay and the Hecho Aca's shops and annual expositions, it is still evident.

Those present marvelled at free machine quilting as per Dijanne's examples, and since I myself have done quilte a bit of fmq and non-tradiitonal hand quilting, I can see some demos and learning sessions coming up. Another general comment was agreed, that it's only because no one knows how to do that nor been able to show them.

One girl, Susana blew me away with the very fine and very even quilting she was doing through much of the day - I kid you not, the needle was barely one inch long with an eye there is no way I could get a thread through, and she had the rocking-the needle-motion thing going, would get a few stitches on the needle, and then use a little non-slip grabber thingy to pull the needle through, rather slow and quite painstaking with amazingly long fingernails. Athough I could never work that way, and I'm quite jealous of those fingernails, she says that's the way she likes to work and there's no way I would try to persuade her otherwise: people quilt the way they do for all kinds of reasons, and I respect that. It will be interesting if she or some of the others ever become interested in experimenting.

Suitable cotton fabrics are difficult to find here in uruguay, even and perhaps especially plain colours. But it seems there is a great store over in Buenos Aires, and there was clearly quite a bit of fabric coming in from travels and some mail order. One quilter, Ines, is really interested in dyeing about which I know little or nothing - and she's considering getting dyes down from the US, and buying a bolt of two of fabric from BA, and possibly sharing it with some others. she still needs some good quality tuition, though. I know I heard of someone doing shibori dyeing here, and will ask around to find that person and see if she can help - Uruguay is an amazing place, there is always someone working quietly in some corner that you rarely hear about.

After a lot of show and tell, I did another demo of freehand rotary cutting and piecing for those who hadn't seen it and experimented at last year's workshop... see next post.

Soledad revealed that Mosca, the large stationers in several places around the city including a branch out near us, told her they are no longer stocking rotary cutters and blades - she bought the rest of their stock, probably enough to last a lifetime - about 15 cutters and God knows how many 5-packs of blades, priced at about $1 and 50c respectively - no those are not typos. I'm off down to Mosca in the morning myself....but it might only be the store in her area, of course.

So, in many ways it was rather like a gathering of quilters anywhere else I've been to - so small it was more like a bee. Towards the end of the afternoon it was suggested that a group project would be fun - which I will do my best to avoid being caught up in! But it all depends, time will tell whether it ever gets off the ground, or indeed, what kind of idea is proposed. Although I don't want the group to become a set of classes with me being the teacher and expected to come along each time with something new to teach, I am prepared to demo and show stuff that I know in small and relevant doses. I noticed for example that good quality neat, flat, square bindings were not much in evidence. That can easily be refined, and so I will do up a set of samples of my favourite french binding that I learned years ago from the Mimi Deitrich book, "Happy Endings" and take them along next time.

Work in Progress

2007-07-04T09:40:00.000-03:00

I blogged the first stage of this work last week, and this is how it is proceeding.
Already, other ideas are coming into my mind and I think I will need to put a few of them on paper. Back around 1992 opffspring #1 gave me a blank paged journal which I have used intermittently to sketch ideas into - not really an organised journal , more just pencil sketches of ideas, diagrams really. The other thing that goes on some of those the pages is lists - sometimes titles that I think of as I'm going alongwith the quilting, or different tchnical possibilities to tackle the same idea. Also, now that these pencil diagram/ideas go back so far, I sometimes look back and see something with a fresh eye. Sometimes ideas have led to particular works and I have gone in and written the name of the quilt and the date on it in that case.

Despite a good burst of progress this afternoon, I was not able to finish the stitchery but could do so tomorrow.

What is helping it move right along is listening to "Emma" by Jane Austen, read by Prunella Scales with her wonderful voice and sense of appropriate expression. It is many years since I read the book or saw a movie version, and I have found this recorded book totally absorbing, and rather reminiscent of the style of my two maiden aunts' lives. Emma's father's obsessions about health issues, the weather and in fact any activity that might have any bearing at all on on his state of health (always precarious/delicate, at that ) is a male version of my late aunt, J. Her sister, M, who remains alive, is not likely to read that comment, and if she does, not being a lover of good literature, she won't understand the allusion anyway.

Architectural Oddities

2007-07-01T09:41:00.000-03:00

Structurally there's nothing interesting about this box of apartments, but I have always loved the whimsical surface decoration. Not only does someone have a sense of humour, but the dedication and will power, or the money to pay for them, to be painted so precisely on the bricks and maintained over quite a number of years now.

Copyright Issues - what's in a name?

2007-06-29T12:23:00.000-03:00

Plenty - and on this theme a couple of things bother me at the moment, seeming to be on the very edge of being copyright issues.

Firstly, today I went onto another quilter's blog and found the writer had posted a pic of a non traditional quilt top she had just made for her group's "Gees Bend Challenge" For those who are in tune with the quilt world just now it is well known that a group of quilters from the very poor, isolated, southern Alabama township of Gees Bend are currently in the news. Their utilitarian quilts were 'discovered' a few years ago by an agent who introduced them to the art world which has gone crazy about them - books have been published, exhibitions are touring, coffee mugs, other souvenirs and nick nacks produced for sale; several law suits are now out there based over alleged agreements, or lack of them and other misunderstandings behind the current situation in which most of the quilters in that town claim they have had almost no financial/material benefit from all this attention. All the while big bucks are being paid for some of their works to intermedaries belonging to a certain family claiming to be acting as their agents, and also claiming to be working to bring about improvements in the lives of these quilters in this community. sounding rather paternalistic, too - but like most people, I really don't know the facts behind it all, and the tangle will take quite a while to unravel in the US courts. What really bothered me that is that the name of this town/group has been used by a quiltgroup (on the other side of the world, no less) for a challenge that could just as easily and much more properly been called something like an" Improvisational Piecing Challenge".

And the other thing that has always bugged me is how some people use the names of other (usually deceased) artists in the titles of their own works. Quilters especially seem to freely do this, with particular favs being Klimt, Klee and Huntderwasser (sorry H - not sure of the spelling of your name - forgive me) If you are claiming to be producing original work not copying anyone else's designs, you may neverthless recognise that a particular artist or school of artists had some degree of influence in that work - and, let's face it, we are all influenced by what is around us, and that includes all we experience in Life. If an influence is significant we should acknowledge it in statements or interviews; but to use someone's actual name in the title of your (own?)work IMHO is just sleezy, and further, bone lazy. It has always been my contention that the best artist's statement is a carefully chosen, apt title, which then leads the viewer into the work and encourages that viewer to engage with the work on personal terms that will vary from viewer to viewer. Yep, I'm picky.

Traditional and contemporary quiltmakers and textile artists still have a long way to go to get the hang of what copyright really means.

July 29th: below follows a series of exchanges between myself and two readers in which I feel the whole point of my post was missed, and remind anyone reading this that my first sentence refers to what IMHO are a couple of issues "on the very edge of copyright issues" - not that they are copyright violations. My intention was only to pose food for thought, and although IMHO the exchanges became a bit silly, and I became over pedantic perhaps - can't resist it - nevertheless I have not removed or barred any comments, theirs or mine, being strongly pro free speech and anti most censorship. And the phrase "sleazy and just bone lazy" may have come across too strongly - water that down as you like, I still think it is a regrettable practice no matter how widespread.

Meandering With Leather and Stitch ...

2007-06-26T17:56:00.000-03:00

Using the barge cement I brought back from the USA with me I have found the hold of the leather onto the fabric is just so much better - I still may do a few holding stitches in some places but the hold is good - thanks Katy K for that tip. Checking one of the other glues I already have here I discovered I had not been applying it properly - like rubber cement you need to apply it to each surface, wait a little, and press the surfaces together. Katy then recommended laying into it with a rubber mallet, and so that's what I have been doing - it works. Barge cement at least is supposed to strengthen with a little more time, and I am assured it will remain supple, so rolling it or further working it should not be difficult because of the glue hardening.
OK - so now, here are the beginnings of a new piece I am now working on, and the first of several more things I have in mind to be inspired by some work I did about 20 years ago - see "Sleepless in Perth WA" blogged in april this year, see archive for that month. I am still in love with this metallic gold leather, of which the leather man had a bit more on his stall last sunday. The background fabric looks black - I really tried with the fill lighting but what worked on the one seemed to effect to other at the same time - the pics were taken at different times of the day, different lighting etc, so this is the best I could do - but its a really nice medium grey with just a touch of greenish hue, rather like hail-laden clouds about to burst. As for a name for this 1.5m x 075m wall quilt, I have no idea, but something will come to mind while I am making it. The blocks, seen more clearly as outlined with gold machine quilting, are about 10cm sq.

On the quiltart list a week or so back someone asked how to deal with older work - she was clearing up her cupboards and work area, finding lots of much older work some of which she'd forgotten about, and taking inventory, all that. I think she has now been persuaded that her current collectors would be a bit upset if she sold stuff off cheaply just because it is old. Cutting up and recycling bits into new works, rather like an artist sometimes paints over an old canvas, never seems to be an option to m, but I do know some who have done it. I also think it is a good idea to go back and revisit your work occasionally - and pieces look quite different in the flesh than on slides. I certainly have a slide record of my first solo exhibition in 1987. All the pieces were carefully photographed against a blonde brick wall!!! which I now know to be a total no-no, but I had little idea then other than I needed to keep a record of what I had done. However, the sharp details and excellent colour are superb - the photographer's day job out in that isoloated Western Australian country/mining town was staff photographer for the largest mining company out there - no doubt his work was excellent for company records, reports and promotional material - he'd just never done any textile/needlework pics before. I still have several of the stitched works exhibited at that time, and they occasionally they see the light of day. For various reasons, it often rather surprises me to see what I did back then.

When is a Quilt an Art Quilt?

2007-06-23T19:32:00.000-03:00

According to one writer on the Quiltart list this week, art quilts are "Stuff That Hangs on The Wall and Never Gets Washed".
The discussion topic centred about what batting/filling people preferred to use in their quiltmaking, and her comment inferred that lightness and warmth were irrelevant for those who made art quilts, ie that these were too small to be of body warming use, anyway, since they hang on walls, see above, and, ergo, are small.

Does this mean only art quilts are small? Does this mean that art quilts cannot be large? Or does it mean that no art quilts are large, ergo, sufficient to be placed on beds as either docorator covers or warmth pieces? Someone else on the Quiltart list today even asked if anyone could give her a list of the dimensions that are usually required for entries into art quilt exhibitions ..... my only thought was " how long is a piece of string?" there is no answer - anything goes, usually.

The term " Art Quilt" is a vexed one. It has come to be a generally accepted but often confusing and criticised term describing those quilted textiles which are far removed from the domestically crafted work that we know and understand to be 'traditional quilts', and yet which at the same time by virtue of construction similarity (2 or more likely 3 layers,, quilted together as one) are clearly derived from the traditional. The differences between the two focus on their implied purposes (bed coverings versus decorator, wall-art functions) and the manner of the decorative patterns on the quilt top/front. In general terms, the majority of traditional quilts involve patterns of either intricately pieced geometric patterns (sewn together by hand or machine) or pictorial designs (either pieced or appliqued) After the surface design or patterning, the top is layered with batting and backing, and the whole quilted, with often very elaborate quilting stitchery forming another surface pattern. In the constantly evolving world of art quilt design, almost anything goes, from digitally enhanced photographic images, applied with stencil, screen or by hand, paints or dyes, inkjet and various other means of print and other transfer processes, fabrics bonded with adhesive film, and in addition various modern uses of the older traditional technqiues. Piecing and applique techniques still abound, but I noticed that in this year's Quilt National exhibition, that something less than 25% of exhibited pieces relied for surface design on the ' old' techniques of hand or machine piecing and applique - all others have some blend of paint, dye and computer aided digital something or other, and often quite a few different surface design techniques were used in the one piece. This is not a criticism - just a sign of how rapidly and how far things are changing in the world of Art Quilting. Some prefer the term Studio Quilts, by the way, and yet to me this implies something a bit aloof , elitist perhaps... so I don't feel really comfortable with it, either.

Since everything I make is of my own design, regardless of size or intended function, I claim that everything I do is an art quilt. Modern quilted textiles, IMHO, defy categorisation in any meaningful way other than to say they are all 'quilts'. The pic above shows "Tara and Ivan's Quilt", a very large king size bed cover intended for their 4-poster as a modern day 'wedding quilt'. Two friends, Robin and Vance, pictured with me in front of this very large art quilt, were attending the opening of my most recent solo exhibition in Washington DC at the Aus Embassy, in 2005.

Landscapes of a kind ...

2007-06-18T17:40:00.000-03:00

Wandering along a NZ beach a few weeks back I was pleased to see these
patterns left by the receding tide.
The top one is very landscape like - reflections of trees in water maybe?
The middle one is rather delta like, and the bottom one was most likely initially formed of algae bubbles now dried out a little and collapsed like a row of calderas.
I don't necessarily plan to do anything with these mini erosional and
depositional patterns, they just appealed to my eye and might inspire
something some time in the future, and maybe not.

Facing irregular shaped quilts

2007-06-15T12:57:00.000-03:00

I have made quite a few irregular shaped pieces in the years since around 1992-3, many of which can be found in the gallery pages of my website, www.alisonschwabe.com

In the past couple of days, on the Quiltart list there have been questions about doing this, and various answers given, and since I sent the original questioner this jpg, I thought I should post my version for anyone else who is interested in trying irregular shapes but intimidated by the finishing.

There are lots of ways any shape can be finished, and even look 'unfinished' if that goes with the integrity of the work, but irregular shapes can be tricky if you are looking for a really neat 'properly finished' edge, as many who are currently entering pieces in the experimental areas of quilt shows are feeling they need to achieve. (the Quilt Police loom large here) If the outline of the quilt is not too convoluted a binding will probably work OK. But if you have lots of pointy bits this one really works well. Granted a bagged back is popular, and probably perfect for small things, but I have noticed that bag-backed large quilts are often just that - 'baggy'. This method always works for me, and despite the several diagrams is not at all difficult; if you can face an armhole or neckline of a garment, you can do this easily. Note point #8 - faced pointy bits do tend to curl a little allowing the facing to roll forward and be seen from the front, even other less shaped areas will tend to do this too. Even if you use some of the same fabric as used on the front, this looks sloppy and incompetent. So use the instructions in point #7 around the whole, and #8 where you get to a tricky point shape. Then complete by sewing the edge of the facing down.

I teach workshops taking this all further, including how to get some seriously non-straight shaping along the top edge. Some steps need to be taken in the pre-quilting construction stages to ensure these hang easily and conventionally, also that they fold for transportation, if these things are an issue with your work. To me it sometimes feels disappointing to see exciting shapes along the sides and bottom of a quilt hanging from a straight edge along the top. I think that if that person had known how, he/she might have chosen to make the top shaped, too. .. or maybe not, of course.

Malcolm Harrison - mixed media

2007-06-15T04:26:00.000-03:00

This piece stopped me in my tracks as I entered the Encounter design gallery at the Museum in Auckland.
Entitled "Little Barrier" by Malcolm Harrison , a large figure stands on a canoe in front of a sail. The whole thing stands about 6ft tall in the glass case, which unfortunately caught a little of my flash no matter which way I approached it.

My first thought was " that looks like a quilt....great" but then it seemed to be a sail and then it had characteristics of a map. On it are appliqued shapes suggesting wind and wave, and schools of fish up to the right of and above the figure's head. Some of the appliques could read as suggesting fluttering seabirds.....anyway, the sail in muted greys blues and creamy whites on the sandy coloured canvas offset the warmer coastal sandy earthy tones of the figure itself: is it a man? or a woman? It is godlike in pose, anyway.

Found objects include wood, presumably driftwood pieces, stones and some tiny shells formed into hair or is that a diadem? The clothing on the figure is of a natural silk, embroidered in toning and near-toning threads to provide interesting textures and patterns; it is also marked by quilted lines and hand written figures - making no sense but suggesting recorded information of some kind - the passage of time? sailing data? cultural information? or weather records perhaps? ... it really doesn't matter that we don't know this, it's powerful anyway. Other techniques around and on the figure include wrapping, applique, fabric manipulation and hand painting. There may be more. The head is a simple stone marked in such a way to suggest an ancient mariner searching the distant horizon ahead. A wonderful tribute to the ancient people who arrived by sea from distant Polynesia, over 1000 years ago.

Oh , and in case you hadn't picked up on this, I loved this work.

The case for trifocals

2007-06-15T02:48:00.000-03:00

The three sets of glasses in this case had retired for the night -as had their wearer - in repose they struck me as rather comical, appearing conked out after participating in an all-day hectic juggling act at conferences and quilt exhibitions; taking turns in and out of the case, on and off the nose. W - it's really time to trade them in for the 3 in 1 number!

My quilt at Quilt National 07

2007-05-29T12:48:00.000-03:00

Greetings from Greeley, CO, where this is the first chance after a rather hectic few days in Athens and subsequent travelling and family visiting that I have some computer time on an unfamiliar computer - takes 3x as long to do anything!

Here I am in front of "Timetracks 1", my third QN appearance, to add to those in 1993, 1995; it's been a while although I have entered every time. The opening was very crowded of course, and this was taken the following morning at the special viewing opportunity for exhibitors and SAQA participants, many of which overlapped. The quilt itself is on black cotton fabric, and the segments in the blocks are of applied leather, held on by stitches sewn from behind, partly because bonding and a leather adhesive I had did not hold for long. At QN07 I met someone who helpfully suggested a suitable adhesive would be barge cement, and I will be taking some back down south with me to try. I will post results of those experiments.

It was great to see many people I knew, and meet some very interesting new ones there at at the SAQA conference over the several days, and it was particularly great to have present two of my closest textile friends from Perth Western Australia, Cherry Johnston , and Wendy Lugg, who took this pic.

Over all there were some very interesting pieces in the show, the usual few that I felt should not have been included - but we've all felt that way over large juried exhibitions, haven't we. The quilt you can just see in the background was a work among several shown to us on slide night by Kathy Weaver from her Robo Sapiens series, a very clever and witty comment on the modern world. I really enjoyed her work. There were so many others to marvel at - but right now I am heading off for the day with DDaughter here in CO, and still mentally sorting and sifting my impressions from a crowded few days, and that will be compounded by what the SDA conference in Kansas City holds, to which I head out tomorrow evening. There will be even more food for thought and will write some more later.

Also From the Museum in Auckland

2007-05-19T20:26:00.000-03:00

Hung up high, ie out of reach, was this taifaefae patchwork coverlet from Samoa, with the patchwork itself being a little less than than double-bed size, each of the tiny patchwork pieces forming the motifs measuring about 3/4 inch/ 1.5 cm approx square. Hard to tell if it was hand or machine sewn, and pieces that small will tend to buckle a little regardless of technique used.

I would love to have been able handle this breastplate and turn it over to learn more of the construction. An intriguing jigsaw of slices of bone, measuring about 10 inches /25 cm across, and with what looks suspiciously like blood on the two left hand side panels ..... my imagination is just too vivid for my own good sometimes.

There's Nothing New Under The Sun

2007-05-19T12:48:00.000-03:00

In the Auckland Museum my first stop was the gallery featuring New Zealand design and finely crafted objects of all kinds including several textile numbers, among which is this gorgeous 1964 silk two- piece culotte cocktail suit, by designer Colin Cole. It was not made clear whether the fabric design was his, or not.

Anyone who has been paying attention to developments in contemporary quilt design will recognise this pattern in the fabric as having been done over and over, I wouldn't say done to death but it has become a modern quilting classic, which I attribute to the development of freehand rotary cutting and piecing methods mostly - as well as being a totally natural way to divide a square by curved non-intersecting lines. Although many quilt artists have totally abandoned any suggestion of repeat or block design in their desire to avoid anything to do with the traditional quilting world, I have always found it fascinating to explore the nontraditional within structures of repeat blocks and units.

Several of my quilts built of blocks in this design including John and Sue's Quilt, Mary and Joyce's Quilt, Diamantina, Spinifex, and Tidal Shallows 1 & 2 can be found in the gallery pages of my website, www.alisonschwabe.com
The colours I really love.

A great week in New Zealand, totally nqr

2007-05-14T16:59:00.000-03:00

Over the past couple of weeks I have had very little time for anything at all related to email or blogging and will try to do gooder over the next few weeks, although I will be on the move again, in the USA, including QN07, SAQA and SDA, with a couple of brief family visits fitting in between them.

The 8 days in New Zealand, based on Waiheke IS off Auckland, with my two sisters, was fabulous . On one day we spent several hours in Auckland's War Memorial museum where there is a wonderful design gallery where I took some snaps of a few interesting fibre related things and pics of these will pop up in the next couple of days. We also fitted in some time to browse in book and shoe shops before going to a terrific comedy show, The Kransky Sisters, a rather dark domestic comedy routine from Australia - that seemed appropriate since we three were there together. The dynamics of each 3-sister group , Kranskys and Padmans, were at times parallel, and we totally related to them.

We visited the home of a noted NZ interior designer Neil McLachlan and marvelled at the design features there, including a beautiful enclosed courtyard garden complete with almost art deco gates, and as always seems to be the case in NZ, a fabulous view. Everywhere we went it seemed so hilly, up and down all over the place, that either reflects or formed New Zealanders' hardy national character, I'm not sure which way that went, but I feel less indomitable people would never have persisted !

One thing I was very aware of was the water themed nature of the NZ contemporary art and fine craft I saw in various places. By contrast, Australian equivalents are earthy, land-themed, and this is especially noticeable in colours used in each country. To me it is a perfect reflection of the different history of human colonisation in each land mass- the Maori people came from Polynesia by sea, the Australian Aborigines moved over land, for the most part, from the Asian land mass, and much further back in time. I know from my passing, ie not very deep, acquaintance with the mythology of both peoples that their legends also bear out this different ancient history.

Apart from a bit of local history and culture there, we spent a few days up in the north of the North Island around Tutukaka and went beyond up to Kerikeri to see the very early mission station up there, which in the early 1800's was under the supervision of an early twig in our Aus family tree, The Rev. Samuel Marsden, aka The Flogging Parson of Parramatta (in the aus colony then known as New South Wales) Reading through some of the mission station records, what we were totally amazed at is how this man, so dreaded and loathed in NSW, was so totally beloved by the Maori of the northern regions.

So, I have crossed the Pacific and am cooling my heels in Santiago once more awaiting a flight to Montevideo very early tomorrow. More soon.

Sleepless in Perth W.Australia

2007-04-25T23:29:00.000-03:00

Suffering a little jetlag still, possibly, today I found myself awake at 4am, thinking about my current work and where that might be going..... when suddenly I thought of these two embroidered panels, which live on one of the walls in our living room here. Made for my solo exhibition "Sunburnt Textures" in 1987, I recall they are titled "Behind the Scenes", although I can't confirm that since I can't lay my hands on a catalogue from that show, but know there are several upstairs somewhere in my sewing room. Every time I come back to Perth I think I must go through all the stuff in that room... but somehow never have the time or the mental energy required as it's going to be quite a job, involving lots of trips down memory lane, for one thing.

Back in 1987 I was preparing pieces for the exhibition and my son commented as he watched me lacing a panel of fabric over a board by zig-zagging the lacing back and forth, that the back of a piece was interesting in its own way. Taking that observation as inspiration I came up with these, with stitchery wandering over the detached framework of such lacing. I have always been keen on various kinds of needlemade structures, and hugely inspired by the book on needle lace and needleweaving by Jilly Nordfors which I bought in 1977. I haven't done any of this stuff for 20 years, but find myself thinking of it more about these days. Come to think of it, I do know where that book is, and might take it back with me.... or at least flip through it while I am here.

Talking of things in books, I have had an Agnes Martin catalogue out this week, ready to lend a friend. I had not read it since I was presented with it by the gallery owner at La Spezzia Cultural Space in Pocitos, Montevideo, way back in 1999. In his talk at the opening he not only thanked me for bringing my locally unknown art form to Uruguay, but also presented this book to me with an expression of appreciation pasted inside. That totally blew me away, and with my friend Laura beside me translating each sentence, I was able to think very quickly on my feet and respond suitably to such an unexpected gift. Having just re-read it, well the english bits anyway, I now have an even greater understanding of why that particular book was given to me - not only are her observations of life and art fascinating reading, but several of the pieces pictured bring to mind contemporary variations of some of the elements of traditional geometric patchwork. I do not recall consciously feeling inspired to follow some of these ideas or even remember them since 1999, but perhaps I have without realising it, or perhaps this is the way things sometimes come together after seeming to have no previous connection .... anyway, my friend had better hurry around for a quick borrow because I think this book might head out of Perth with me when I leave here next tuesday.

No Actual Rules, Can Be Scary For Some

2007-04-20T19:34:00.000-03:00

In the last few days I have been tearing around getting ready for several weeks travel, to Aus(family, business) and then up to the US (QN07, SAQA and SDA and family) At the last minute a few curly Qs requiring a bit of computer work to settle problems re an exhibition later in the year meant time doing what I had not planned to do! But I did also manage to get some good photography done with avery good Montevideo photographer, Eduardo Baldizan, which will enable me to get slide dupes done (better) in Perth. So, at last, en route, greetings from Santiago de Chile where I am obliged to spend a few hours.

Over the past couple of days on the quiltart list there seems to have been a larger number than usual of people wondering about technical questions and whether or not it is appropriate for ArtQuilters to do things this way, or that. IMHO it really doesn't matter how one finshes an edge, or whether one burys threads or leaves them hanging, so long as that fits with the integrityof the work. At times the heated discussion has showed how nervous some people are about just trying it and seeing what the effect is....one of my pet peeves being how the sense of exploration, of experimentation, seems to have been forgotten, and perhaps is not being encouraged by current teachers in the quilting world. I thank my lucky stars for having come under the influence of the(late) great English embroiderer, Constance Howard, the english expat Cynthia Sparks and Meg Douglas in Australia - these three in particular encouraged an approach of try it and see.... SAMPLISING, in other words.

I am looking forward to picking up some new Aus books while there, and with this in mind have brought none with me -I always watch at least part of a movie and then go to sleep on the plane anyway, so I'm just catching upon a weekly bit of news reading in the Economist. If needs be I will buy a magazine or book when I get to NZ in the morning. Also, some of my close quilting friends are having their monthly get together, joined this time by myself and Ilze Ivaks who will be visiting Perth next week to teach. It is a long time since I met her back in our Denver days, and I am looking forward to hearing and seeing more of what she has been doing and teaching. Well, what they have all been doing in the last 8 months since I was there.

On the way back I am having a week in NZ with my two sisters, first time it is to be just us 3, sans kids, grandkids or husbands, in 20 years. And so its about time, but we are all so far flung from each other. This will officially mark my 60th birthday late last year, sort of like the Official Queen's Birthday, which is quite different date from her actual one, which is I dunno when.