Apr 30, 2018
seen from Belgium
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seen from United States
seen from United States
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seen from United States
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Reflections on Natural Dyeing
I'm attending my second Natural Dye workshop. This one is at Penland School of Crafts and is taught by Charlotte Keon and her daughter Sophena. My first Natural Dye workshop was taught by Rebecca Cross, a visiting fiber artist at East Carolina University. My formal academic training comes from Christine Zoller, chair of the Textiles Dept. at ECU. All my other natural dye experiences come from my momma, two grandmothers and two great-grandmothers. Ma, Mama and Momma Mary maintained Dye and herb gardens for most of their lives. So, as I create on the mystical energy vortex of Penland Mountain in the historical Lilly Loom building, I know this is the moment in time to begin writing our stories about making color on cloth and stitching. This journey honors a promise I made to my dying mother. It's her last gift to me!
Life After QuiltCon
After a long weekend of sensory over load and inspiration from my first QuiltCon, what's next? I do I turn visual eye candy into my own creative hands practice. The one thing that I'm concentrating on is machine quilting. I'm a 4th generation hand quilter. I'm ready to learn machine quilting but learning from the quilting point of view doesn't make sense to me. I've taught drawing and I've done Zentangle. I see machine quilting as line drawings. So with my fine black sharpie in hand and a pad of tracing paper, I'm beginning my muscle memory for a meandering line. Stay tuned! Will post by progress!
Reflections on my first QuiltCon! A passerby in a park in Savannah asked if she could ask me a question. “What is modern quilting,” she asked? I invited her to share my park bench. I explained that “modern quilting” is like jazz to music. We love the fundamentals: cloth, color, pattern, rhythm, visual texture and stitching. We also love the traditions of quilting. BUT, how we choose to put the basic ingredients of making a quilt together is what separates us from the traditionalists. Modern quilters are the “What If?” quilting people. We push the boundaries; we harmonize using improvisational techniques; we break the rules; we make up our own patterns or deconstruct traditional patterns into something new and unexpected. From an art history point of view we are interpreting the cultural saturation of sameness using cloth and quilting as a metaphor for post modern contemporary life experiences.
Quilting as Social Commentary. A brother created this quilt as cover of protection for his young son. In response to the tragic death of Treyvon Martin, some police departments used this symbol as target practice. The quilt uses appliqué and is machine quilted using language. This quilt won a ribbon in the appliqué category. I have to look up the artist's name and add it when I get home. There were very few people of color at QuiltCon but the presence of this beautiful quilt gave dignity and voice to "Black Lives Matter" movement. I thought of my young Black male students at Chowan and cried. I heard Junior Barrow explain in his own voice and words that "its brothers like me being shot down." I pray for justice, inclusion and safety for every mother's child regardless of income, skin color, ethnicity, religion, country of origin or sexual orientation. Every one of us is somebody's child! We have more in common with each other than our differences. Finding fault with someone else's sin prevents us from seeing our own!
Last of the bundles for indigo dyeing that I made with my Momma. Will go in the indigo pot in a few days. It's been 4 months since my Momma passed and I miss her everyday. Dyeing cloth connects me with 3 generations of my many mothers including grand and great-grand. Precious memories. ❤️@indigofibershed in Wilson, NC
5th Session Is officially over. I learned so much, so fast it will take me a month of Sunday’s to process it all. I'm going down the mountain with three improvisational accidental geometric pieced quilts. Repeating a new skill three times helps me to own it. Now my goal is to make 25 quilts using this technique at home. I was in class with a great group of fellow learners. Jennifer enlightened me to the value of making small quilt squares as objects. Above is a small quilted book made from a Penland printed bandanna for our wonderful class studio assistant. I experienced another transformative creative hands adventure on Penland Mountain. Now it’s time to open VHQ and get ready for Auction. Whoohoo! 🎨🎨🎨
Quilt Sandwich No. 1: United America / hand dyed cotton fabric / improvisational pieced top, whole cloth back