Slow Stitching - Kantha inspired

I have been busy doing paper and stitch and now cloth and stitch.  I am inspired by a vintage kantha purse I purchased several years ago.  I have dyed my own cloth a flour sack cloth for the diamond shape and kona cotton for the back - all in the same dye lot.

The piece is around 15in by 15in and I used the valdani thread cotton 12 to do the kantha stitching.  I was trying to capture the shadows and waves created by the stitching.

And a close up.

cheers Rebecca

Hawaiian inspired quilt

My daughter and I recently visited Hawaii.  I love the surf and sea and decided to make a small quilt inspired by the surfboards on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu.  I used my hand dyes and the hand patterned fabric for the surfboards.  I used machine quilting.

 Bye Rebecca

Fabric Postcards - Chartres

I made some fabric postcards for my NZ swap just before Christmas.  In October we visited Chartres Cathedral near Paris and I took lots of photos of the sculptures.  The Cathedral was magnificent.  I printed a photo onto transfer paper and then hand stitched with silk thread.

 cheers Rebecca

Gelli Print Notebooks

Happy New Year may you have a wonderful 2016!

Just before Christmas I made these Gelli Print notebooks as presents.  They are about A5 size with Italian paper folded inside.

take care Rebecca

Agnes Martin Exhibition: Tate Modern London

I was fortunate to arrive in London just before the Agnes Martin Exhibiition closed at Tate Modern London last month. It was a brilliant experience to see so many pieces of her work together. Agnes’ work covered examples of her six decades of paintings and drawings. These works were varied, subtle and soothing. The work featured much of her systematic use of grids, symmetry and stripes but the subtlety of the work was entrancing. Agnes is considered one of the pre-eminent painters of abstract art of the twentieth century. Agnes was born in 1912 and lived in the United States she died in 2004. My favourite works were those made in the last few years of her life when she began to work less systematically, her brushwork was more freer and there was a little more colour added. These works reminded me in some ways of modern quiltmaking and I have noticed a number of USA quiltmakers have mentioned the influence Agnes has had on some pieces of their work. I could see that weavers also could be influenced.
The straight lines of work like “Gratitude” 2001, “I love the Whole World” 2000, “Untitled” 2002 are so inspirational. Similarly her triangle piece “untitled#1” 2003 and floating squares and bar in “Untitled”2004 were just amazing. These works were  152.4cm by 152.4cm so quite large works.

To see the photographs of her work I would refer you to the Tate publication”Agnes Martin” 2015, edited by Frances Morris and Tiffany Bell.  See photograph of cover below.

Hawaii inspired Postcards

For the latest round of Fabric Postcards I used Hawaiian serviettes torn and and glued to fabric(inspired by Dale Rollerson of Thread Studio) and used my own drawing to make a Gocco screen print and added some hand and machine stitching.

cheers Rebecca

Knitting and Stitching Show part 2

Further highlights from the Knitting and Stitching Show.  I loved listening to the Lecture by Jean Littlejohn and Jan Beaney and was lucky to see them later and they showed me through their beautiful samples and some new pieces. They have a lovely new book "Memory Cloths" which of course I bought!!

I was really keen to see the New Zealand Exhibition "Art Textiles from Aotearoa 2015.  I spoke with the curator Alysn Midgelow-Marsden which was a treat because I have followed her work for a long time.  Some pieces from the Exhibition which caught my eye are shown below.

Marine Parade by Katherine Bertram from Wellington

 Karaka Bay by Katherine Bertram of Wellington - I just loved her pieces

Stitched Birds piece also by Katherine Bertram

On the Cross by Alysn Midgelow-Marsden.  I liked the collage and stitching on this piece.

On the Fly also by Alysn.

cheers Rebecca