Communities of Stitch

A few bits of images from Experimental Hand Stitching.

I wish I was a reliable picture taker, but I find that I am immersed in the moment, and when it passes, I wish I had taken more photos. This happened last week during an amazing workshop at Quilting By the Lake. My photos are meager, but the experience was rich and full of discovery. Eighteen artists, embroidering and stitching together, making meaning with needle and thread. Thanks to the Schweinfurth Art Center staff, the other teaching artists and the talented participants for a wonderful week in Syracuse NY. Some amazing exploration of stitch happened, but more importantly, we so easily formed a community of artists, sharing a common interest—and a common thread. I left with renewed inspiration and a lot of new art friends.

Here is a new set of Amulet Bundles, these are for cutting strings.

My Reading List for July: The Chalk Artist, by Allegra Goodman; Blood Child, by Octavia Butler; and Lucky Turtle, by Bill Roorbach.

Haven: A Place of Safety or Refuge

TEXTILE TALK

Date – July 6, 2022, at 2 PM EDT (GMT-4)

Title – Conversations with the Artists: Haven

Link — www.saqa.com/textiletalks

Description – Join three exhibiting artists from SAQA Global Exhibition Haven for our next Textile Talk! Words and communication continue to be Jette Clover’s primary source of inspiration. Instead of writing with a pen or printing text segments, she is ‘writing’  with a needle on fabric. This process has created an even closer relationship between writing and textile. Helen Geglio will focus on her recent work exploring ideas about protection and how she has discovered the protective nature of slowly making stitches by hand. Anne Bellas’ art is mostly abstract, focusing on nonfigurative designs, surface design techniques, and bold colors. In these times of pandemic and economic and political instability, Anne’s goal is to lead her viewers through open windows, hoping they can experience a feeling of well-being, serenity, and inner peace.

I am so honored to be asked to be one of three artists speaking about works in the SAQA Global Exhibition, Haven, juried by Eszter Bornemisza.

Premiere Exhibition Location
International Quilt Festival, Houston, Texas, October 2022

Use the link www.saqa.com/textiletalks to take you to the registration page for this free Zoom event. Recordings will also be available on the SAQA Textile Talk video channel.

My talk will focus on the protective objects I have been making these past few years. After the recent few weeks of upheaval, hearings, and court decisions, I am even more mindful of the need to protect ourselves and protect the ideas and principles we value. Important things can be easily lost.

One More Spot!

There was a cancellation for Experimental Hand Stitching at Quilting by the Lake (see sidebar for details and links), so if you have been wanting to do some interesting hand stitching and find your own vocabulary of stitches, consider joining us!

Some Summer Reads:

Metropolis, by B A Schapiro; The Paris Apartment, by Lucy Foley; Let’s Not Do That Again, by Grant Ginder; Portrait of an Unknown Lady, by Maria Gainza; Book of Night, by Holly Black; and Perfect Little World, by Kevin Wilson.

An Old Pink Quilt

My friend Carol gave me a very worn, but beautifully stitched antique quilt years ago. The quilt top, in a deep pink calico print and a matching calico in brown, was shattered from exposure to sunlight— but the backside was in great shape and clearly showcased the tiny stitches of an unknown maker.

Almost the entire quilt was used to make three large, garment-like pieces that are part of my Apron Strings series. Because the top side (in the Orange Peel pattern) was in such bad shape, I lined each piece with a linen backing, and appliqued the “apron strings” onto the whole thing. Then I added lots more improvisational stitching, and a few lovely little tassels. Pink is not my go-to color, but it seemed to work for a series focused on mothering and looked great against some black and navy areas. The garment shapes worked better for me than a couple of earlier rectangular quilts.

The idea of some unknown woman’s tiny regular stitches, so carefully and expertly sewn, juxtaposed with my own larger, more irregular stitches, appealed to my sense of connection to our textile past. Meditative layers of slow stitch.

Today I am thinking with anguish about the mothers and families who lost children to a school shooting yesterday. It is hard to take in that kind of overwhelming grief and despair. And yet it happens again and again. How can we not despair about that.

Reading List:

Leave the World Behind, by Rumaan Alam; Gods of Howl Mountain, by Taylor Brown; The Secret Place, by Tana French and Sea of Tranquility, by Emily St. Johns Mandel.

Experimental Hand Stitching

Winter does not want to let go here in Northern Indiana, so it is nice to think about a warm week in July, stitching with fellow needle people at Quilting by the Lake, in Auburn, NY. The workshop I am teaching is called Experimental Hand Stitching and we will explore the possibilities and potential of hand stitching in textile artwork.

Standing Amazed: Shape Garden (detail)

For me, these past two years have revealed the restorative nature of stitching by hand—and I will share some of that journey in stitches at QBL. Find out more at https://schweinfurthartcenter.org/qbl-2022-classes/

This detail is from my series Standing Amazed, created with imagery from my previous life as a elementary art teacher in the South Bend public school district. My youngest students were learning to cut paper with scissors and navigate the challenges of working together. My shapes are all in wool, and covered with stitches using perle cotton.

I rarely buy thread in the usual way. Instead, I look for mixed lots on Ebay from estate sales and the stashes of unknown embroiderers. Having a pot-luck of colors and weights in tidy little balls is such a pleasure and challenges me to try less obvious choices sometimes. I recently bid on a large lot from Minnesota and it came with twelve new balls of bright red DMC #8. My latest work is featuring a lot of red stitching, and I love it. I have not solved the thread storage piece yet—I keep the balls in plastic zip bags by weight (so I can see colors at a glance), and have a number of bags stuffed into a lovely basket from Ghana under my work table. I like the idea of thread connecting me to other, unknown makers and finding new purpose in the things I am making. Another recent lot came with a few little “keeper clips” (shown at the bottom of the photo on a ball of blue thread) that I had never seen before. Someone had a great idea on those.

Years ago, a friend gave me a bag of candlewicking thread that she had found in the estate of a neighbor. This four-stranded cotton is not glossy and I have found it very useful for many stitching situations. I don’t know if it is even available new anymore, but I have been able to source a good bit of vintage on Ebay.

And then there is my collection of wool thread—a story for another time!

Here are a few good titles from my recent reading:

Five Tuesdays in Winter (Stories) by Lily King; All the Winters After, by Sere Prince Halverson; Women Talking, by Miriam Toews (five star recommendation); Chemistry, by Weike Wang, These Silent Woods, by Kimi Cunningham Grant, and Trashlands by Alison Stine. An eclectic mix for sure.

More Bundles

Early March rarely brings spring in northern Indiana, but it is nice to know that February will soon be behind us. Today is sunny and cold and my thoughts are with the people of Ukraine.

Amulet Bundles for Teenage Drivers

These are three amulet bundles I made for the mothers of teenage drivers. Some years ago, my sixteen- year-old totaled the family mini-van. The airbags deployed and no one was injured, but the car was a complete loss. Somehow, in the confusion of daily life, two sets of keys to that vehicle remained in the “key bowl” at the back of the junk drawer. The keys, some “protective eye” beads, charms and other small objects were wrapped and tied into these protective bundles. I remember the driving years as being an especially stressful period of parenthood.

My exploration of the complexities of our relationships to our children continues.

Here a few of the books I have enjoyed recently:

This Tender Land, by William Kent Kruger; The Cold Millions, by Jess Walter; When Two Feathers Fell from the Sky, by Margaret Verble; A Town Called Solace, by Mary Lawson.

Readers Note: Mary Lawson wrote one of my favorite books, Crow Lake. Check it out, and her other two books if you can.

Bundles of Protection

I have spent the last few weeks of winter making mothers’ amulet bundles.

Amulet Bundles for Childhood

These bundles are loosely constructed with found doll or infant clothing and small objects and charms. I have about a dozen so far, and I think I will present them in small groups. The bundles have been formed around board books that I get for fifty cents each at the library sale. These are meditations on motherhood.

I have enjoyed working at a smaller scale, and drawing from the detritus of scraps and found things in my studio.

QUILTING BY THE LAKE July 18-22, 2022

I have been honored with an invitation to teach at the Quilting by the Lake conference this year. My class is called Experimental Hand Stitching. Registration begins February 1, click here for more information!

Rediscover the pleasure of pulling a threaded needle through layers of cloth. Hand stitching can be used to make marks, define texture and create a rich and visually interesting surface design in fiber artwork. We’ll use materials we already have—the textile “keepings” of everyday life, to explore the possibilities of sewing mindfully by hand. The goal of this experimental journey is to develop a vocabulary of stitches and make personal connections to the process of creating. And by slowing down and working by hand, we may find a new path to well-being along the way.

Reading List

Here are a few titles I have enjoyed this month: Creatures of Passage, by Morowa Yejide; The Joy and Light Bus Company, by Alexander McCall Smith; Cloud Cuckoo Land, by Anthony Doehr, Five Tuesdays in Winter, by Lily King; Freedom, by Jonathan Franzen; Wish You Were Here, by Jodi Picoult

A Year in Stitches

2021—what a year. I found myself stitching my way through a lot of anxiety and circular thinking. Mike and I also welcomed a new granddaughter and a new son-in-law. Two of our offspring bought their first houses, and we are looking forward to the arrival of another grandson in a few weeks. Given these blessings, it is hard not to be optimistic about the world —even if we worry about the future we are leaving to the people we love. Here is a gallery of details from artwork I have stitched in 2021:

Five Star Review

Today I finished The Sentence, by Louise Erdrich. This is a great story, well told—and embedded in the text are dozens of other noteworthy book suggestions! I listened to the audio version, read by the author, and at the end is a website to go to for an annotated list of those books. I’m on it.

Video Encore

Davana Robedee, from the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, NY, interviewed me for the exhibit Quilts=Arts=Quilts. Follow this link to the video, and other interviews with Q=A=Q artists. The Schweinfurth is a fiber-forward organization and this annual exhibit features 80+ wonderful contemporary quilts. A gallery tour is also available on the website. Oh, and don’t miss the Quilts and Poetry Project on their Instagram Page and website!

Work on View

One of the interesting consequences of the COVID pandemic has been the exponential increase of online exhibition opportunities. SAQA Virtual Galleries exhibit Legacies is all online and was curated by an artist I greatly admire, Barbara Schneider. Follow this link to see the exhibit, and my piece, Recollected 5.

Three of my Women’s PPE Breastplates will be exhibited in the next months. Exoskeleton 2 at the Artlink Gallery Midwest Regional in Fort Wayne, IN: Exoskeleton in Fiber Art Now: Excellence in Quilts, print and at the Virginia Museum of Quilts; and Padded Brigandine in OHIO + 5, at the Dairy Barn, Athens, OH.

Best Wishes for a happy and peaceful 2022.

Wise Women, Wise Words

In this season of gratitude, one of the things I am most thankful for are the women in my life who have offered me their practical wisdom. This has been true at every stage of my life, but especially as an artist, as a teacher, as a mother, and as a person getting older. I gave a Zoom talk for the Indiana Women’s Caucus for Art this month, and shared how much I have valued being part of a community of women artists that has offered support, encouragement, advice and friendship. The work I am doing now is not the work of a younger artist; instead, it is work informed, shaped and influenced by my lifetime of experiences.

Wisdom Cloak: The Oracle

This Wisdom Cloak is called The Oracle. Some of the Wisdom Cloaks draw on references from the ancient world. An oracle is someone, often a woman, with insight and great wisdom; called upon for advice and prophesy. A person telling uncomfortable truths.

This piece is made from wool and found charms and amulets. The center is constructed from a felted wool experiment from many years ago, thrown in an acid dye pot and reused in a new context. I just finished the hanging sleeves and photography for this piece. The shapes and lines made by the appliqued and couched felt pieces reminded me of language—maybe wise words coming out of the mouth of a cave.

So, to all the women who have given me good advice and wise counsel—thank you.

Reading List:

More good books: Oh William, by Elizabeth Strout; Pslam for the Wild Built, by Becky Chambers; Burntcoat, by Sara Hall; Velvet was the Night, by Silvia Moreno Garcia; and Shiner, by Amy Jo Burns.

Wisdom Cloak: The Oracle (detail)

Wool, found objects

Snippets of an Idea

Winter is coming…and I have been experimenting with some “stream-of-consciousness stitching” in long strips. I am calling them Apron Strings. I have wanted to explore ideas of mothering— not an easy subject for many women artists, yet often a defining part of our lives. Here are some of the beginnings of an idea, not yet fully formed, but emerging.

Reading List

Lots of good reads. Here are a few at the top of my list: Harlem Shuffle, by Coleson Whitehead; The Madness of Crowds, by Louis Penney; The Lincoln Highway, by Amor Towles; Bewilderment, by Richard Powers; The Seed Keeper, by Diane Wilson.