The Gypsies of Bagra

In March 2023 I went with Marigold Tours on a 10 day adventure in textiles to Rajastan, India. We went to Bagra to experience dabu (mud resist) dying and there we met the gypsies. The parents worked in the dye baths and fields, laying out the long lengths of printed cloth to dry in the sun and the children, dressed in vivid colours ran about us as we wandered among the lengths of fabric. The older children shepherded the younger ones.

These people are itinerants and live in makeshift camps of bamboo covered with old quilts. I have tried to capture the camp in the background placing it under net to push it back in emphasis. The children were so happy and resilient, polite and delighted when we gave them toiletries.

This thread painting is a composite layout from several photographs I took and was quite a challenge in getting tonal facial features to show sunlight and shadow.

At The Water’s Edge

This small piece was part of an exhibition organised by Bernina. It uses surface decoration, laminated teabags, thread painting and textured yarns. The inspiration for this piece came from my grandchildren who loved to sit at the edge of the sea creating sand spires by forming wet sand through their fingers and slowly building up tall stalagmite structures.

Egyptology

I have always been fascinated by the art of Egypt and using the pictorial outline in the top of this quilt gave me the chance to use it in my art. It was an experiment using Inktense pencils. The first try was a disaster as when I added the water the bleed was excessive and I had to start over. The second try I outlined the cartoon of the image with black thread sketch before I started and used far less water.

The balance of the quilt was created using an Egyptian print and plain black fabric. I had purchased a template at rhe annual Hamilton craft fair and this fascillitated thepattern within the blocks as they were joined together.

The Long Blow

This was another piece made for the display during the new Zealand Shearing Champs. It was by far the hardest piece I attempted and getting my head around the positive and negative spaces was quite a challenge.

For those not accustomed to shearing, The long blow is the blow toward the end of shearing the sheep and starts from the back of the neck and travels down to the rear of the sheep. The shearer stands with his/her back straight and the sheep held firmly between their legs. The electric shearing handpiece slices off the wool at the skin level . In front you can see the shorn fleece

Mr Singh Cheese cloth

So the next phase was to create Mr Singh entirely in cheesecloth, using variable layers of cheesecloth to create the darker values. it is like working back to front as the negative areas receive the lesser layers of the cloth and the positive layers are built up with small pieces . The outline image is places under plastic sheeting and small pieces of cheesecloth teased off the cheesecloth web and are wetted with a pva water mix and worked into place with the end of a paintbrush or similar. I was literally amazed at how the technique developed. The beauty of this technique is you can do so much and then leave the glue to set and come back to continue on. Once the glue has set the whole can be lifted off the plastic sheeting. In this case I have enhanced the black and white by mounting the finished structure on black felt.

Mr Singh Collage

I had long been a fan of Mary Pal’s cheesecloth portraits and had even had a go at trying to construct one, but not very successfully. Covid saw Mary put her classes on line so there was a perfect opportunity for me. I often become overwhelmed in face to face classes but this meant I could bumble along at my own pace and my own time. I started with this portrait, which I collaged and wanted to try out making the beard and mouth before tackling a full portrait. I was struggling with the glasses when I happened to put my hobby glasses down on the portrait and saw immediately that the addition of real glasses created a much better option. I had an old pair that the frame had come out of and I had put aside in case I needed the arm screws to fix a pair - It was the perfect accompaniment.

The background is a batik piece free machine quilted in figure of eight stitches.

And what about Mr Singh? Robin’s brother, John, had a serious bout in hospital due to a heart condition and for several weeks they did not know if he would survive. We visited as often as we could and on one trip we had to leave the hospital room and go to the cafe while John had a procedure carried out. In the cafe was this Indian man in his beautiful blue Sikh turban. I was captivated and asked him if I could take his photo to use in my art work. He was happy to oblige. So Mr Singh in collage began there. I think originally I had in mind to use the photograph as a thread painting base but the folds of his turban made this a perfect foil for this.

Another Recycle Quilt

A time for experimentation and challenge of not having nice tidy edges something I still find difficult from years of stitching in the traditional, “approved” manner. All the components in this quilt are recycled. The background is strips of old jeans woven together and later free machine quilted to help hold the weaving in place and to add texture and contrast. The doiley is a foil for the printed image on a foil coffee packet - a process I was playing around with at this time. The black and red windmills are actually large buttons from an old coat that have been embroidered through with red embroidery thread. The burgundy vertical is an old satin table napkin stitched with a koru design for renewal and the two diamonds consist of sweet papers sandwiched with decorative threads between organza.

This piece was made shortly after the Christchurch earthquakes and was a considered phase of renewal and letting go of the old but not ignoring the past. The colonial cottage in the foil print reminds us that our forebears lived simply and economically in cabin like accommodation with hard physical work and resilience part of normal life. This would be a theme i would revisit at later stages also.

The whole of tis small quilt hangs from a broken bough - broken but given new status as a support for the wall hanging. It is not a “pretty” quilt but there are layers of meaning within its construction.

Recycle, reuse. reinvent

Again, over lockdown I was trying to use what was at hand. I am a real sucker of buying unfinished work from the opportunity shops. These hexagons were some that I had acquired in that manner. A bag of hexagon that someone had lovingly cut out and then not used. I mused about their history - had someone passed away, were they surplus to a project or had someone just got tired of joining them together I joined them together and then cut out some leaves and added some eco dyed and some stitched between organza real leaves. The diagonal strip of machine quilted coffee bag inner acts as a strong visual and this line is repeated in the pale yellow block at the bottom left. The pods hanging from this diagonal are actual pods that have been encased in organza. I added some bits cut from an old book and laminated onto the piece and then stamped freely with some softie stamps to knock back some of the pale lemon hexagons that were too bold. The whole is mounted on felt

The Gingko Are Falling

I like to push processes and mediums to the nth degree. This little quilt began as an experiment in dying teabags (blue) with procion dyes. They blew away a couple of times when I was trying to dye them but eventually I got there. Once the teabags were dyed and laminated to a background substrate, I over printed them using a gingko stencil and black ink.

The gingko leaves are real autumn gingko leaves sandwiched and stitched between two layers of white tulle (net) and then applied in a random manner. It never ceases to amaze me how well leaves treated in the manner hold their colour and substance. Finally I free machine quilted the piece using a white thread and a random stipple patter, making sure I outlined the stencilled leaves and the applied leaves and only quilting in the negative areas.

The vibrancy of the golden gingko leaves against the blue background is especially pleasing.

Covid angel wings

And then came Covid. We were in lock down for several months and businesses struggled and many people found the enforced confinement difficult to deal with. It changed the world and how it works forever. For me it became a glorious treasure trove as many of the textile artists I admired were forced to provide on line courses to create an income so artist who I might never have had the opportunity to study with became so accessible right here at my computer. And even after lock down the ability to learn textile art on line has continued to be a treasure trove of ideas

So what about this little quilt. This was an experimental quilt from a tutorial of Merrill Comeau. Merrill works on large installations and to reduce the weight she uses net as the substrate for her work. This piece is assembled and sitiched on net.

At the top of the quilt is a mask and latex gloves - all so familiar in those early days of lockdown. They are perched on top of some angora paper that I made. This “Paper” is not perfect it has holes in it to represent those who fell through the gaps - My husband’s mate was one. He didn’t die of Covid but from not getting medical attention in time for a secondary infection following a bout of pneumonia. We all had our bubbles of restricted contact and Owen was outside of ours. He was a bachelor and lived alone and by the time I broke the rules and took him to emergency the infection was too strong for his constitution. I was in trouble for breaking the rules but as I said to the medical people “was I supposed to let him die in his house alone?

The bulk of the angel wings are used teas bags (we drank a lot of tea during lockdown) sandwiched between layers of net and free machined in a figure of eight design using variegated thread.

The Japanese anemones were flowering at the time and provided a ray of hope at the bottom of the garden when I looked out the window. In fact the leaves are actual anemone leaves stitched between layers of black tulle. The flowers are made from parts of an old shirt. These flowers are symbolic of hope so they seemed appropriate to add as a focal point.

The whole is extremely light and was an interesting and different treatment of substrate.

Graeme

The shadows on this portrait were quite challenge.

Graeme was a farmer Rob and I met when we took the camper van on an inaugural tour of the South Island and were close to Springfield, headed to cross the Alps over Arthur’s Pass. I was busy photographing the landscape when he came along in his landrover and we started talking. The upshot was that he and Rob went off to his club for the early evening and I extracted permission from him to use the photo I took of him in my art work

Kahawai Run

This long runner quilt began its life as a piece of eco dyed fabric that was too wet in the steamer so the leaf imprints became blobs of colour instead of printed leaf shapes. I never throw these “disasters” away because they can often be reinvented in another manner. Such was this case in point.

The fish, again a precursor to the Reef quilt , were printed using the gyotaku, Japanese method. A kahawai fish was applied with grades of light acrylic paint and then the fabric was wrapped over the fish. The fish was kept stable by “inserting “ it into a roughly shaped piece of foam. The fish imprint was transferred to the fabric. Each print can be slightly different according to the colour of the paint used. The outlines of the fish, their eyes, tails and fins were enhanced with machine stitching and the background free machine quilted with a random stipple stitch. In printing yhe fish I have tried to slightly overlap and have some fish swimming into and out of the picture to make it more like a kahawai run. Kahawai are a common fish off the New Zealand coast and delicious smoked but it is always difficult to get a smallish one from my husband for art work so, in the past I have purchased a small one whole from the supermarket. I have tried mullet as well but the shape and definition of the kahawai make them an excellent choice for this type of printing. When I had finished painting, the fish was consigned to my vegetable garden as fish fertiliser as I did not want to eat the fish after it may have absorbed some portions of paint.

I have sold several individual fish prints done in this manner, framed for wall art.

Save Our Fisheries

The fish in this little quilt were the fore runner to the reef fish in yesterday’s post. For their silver anniversary, Aotearoa Quilts called for quilts in a specific size octagon in predominantly silver colours. My husband is a keen recreational fisherman and he has major concerns about the trawler catches off the coast netting all sizes of fish and hauling them in. This little quilt portrays the random fish caught in a Seine net being hauled into the surface and references that concern and the need to protect our fisheries for the next generation.

The fish were created individually using silver fabric and white organza. they are slightly padded and their fins are elongated sequins. They are trapped between a white net fabric and the silver substrate. The outline of the net is a silver cord that comes together at the top. so this quilt is both decorative and has a social message

The substrate was made separately from coffee bag liners with textured yarns sandwiched between white organza and the coffee bag liners. This was free machine quilted in a figure of eight pattern before the hexagon was cut out.

The idea of the hexagons was so that all the different mini quilts could be displayed as a unit. The display was quite amazing with different people’s ideas harmoniously brought together by the colour pallette.

The Reef - Hoffman 2021

Quite a fun shape for this one. It was longer but I had to fold over the top to keep within the 1 metre limit. The challenge fabric is the fungus print which I have reinterpreted as growth on the tocks of the reef.

The bakground was hand painted before beginning and is actually brighter than this photo suggests. The large fish were created using gyotaku, a Japanese printing method where the fabric is printed off actual fish. This is a traditional method that Japanese fishermen used to measure the size of the fish they caught. The fish are gutted and dried and the openings stiuffed with kitchen towel before beginning. Amazingly there is no fishy smell to the prints - probably the acrylic paint takes care of that. The eyes and gills were further embellish with stitch. These images were cut out and appliqued on. The small reef fish were made using shiny fabric embedded in organza so the fins and tails are semi transparent. They are lightly stuffed to sit out from the quilt.

If you look carefully on the rocks you will see some beaded sea anemones dangling down. And the background weeds are textured yarn.

The whole quilt is free machine quilted in a wavy horizontal manner to repicate the movement of water. This quilt travelled with the collection for the year

Z is for Zebra

Hoffman 2020 was a white on white floral. The fabric was pretty in itself but getting some sort of impact into a design was more problematic. I chose to create this zebra using the challenge fabric for the white stripes and a variety of small scraps for the black stripes. I had learnt from Tuatara Tropicana to simplify the outer edges for binding. This one also travelled with the collection for 12 months

Tuatara Tropicana

The Hoffman 2019 fabric was multicoloured oranges and lemons on a white background. This was my submission for that year.

Turning some of those edges was not easy but it was awarded best modern quilt at the Quilt Symposium in Auckland. I don’t do these challenges for the awards but for the stimulus of the challenge and working within the parameters of the competition. I do have to say that this quilt came together very easily and I was very pleased with the result. I start with the outline drawn onto a cotton substrate and then begin the collage process. Once all the fabric is in place, I free machine the edges and then go over the whole with free machine quilting. In this case I have used a small figure of eight pattern to replicate the scales on the tuatara - a survivor from an earlier age.

Hoffman 2018-An Octopus’s Garden

This Hoffman Challenge took a very pictorial fabric (see below) and I wanted to completely disguise those patterns. The individual circles in the design were overprinted with gold leaf and the bead and glass stamen embellishments added. Unfortunately one of the stamen was broken in transit but this still travelled with the collection for a year.

The circles were created individually and then applied to a velvet substrate. This was quilted in a Karen McTavish style - she calls it Cs but I tend to think of it as leaves. It is a free machine pattern I use quite a bit. The whole is bound with black satin so it is a very rich looking quilt

Carrion

And then came the Hoffman NZ entries. This was my first attempt in 2017. The competition chooses a fabric which you must purchase 1 metre of and use sufficient of that fabric in the wall art for it to be recognisable. In this case the fabric was surfboards. The finished quilt had to fit within a metre square dimension but not be square or rectangular.

Off I went creating the feathers from the fussy cut surfboards and creating the head and body from confetti piecing (small pieces under organza free machine quilted together). The top of the legs are velvet and the claws are bound wire clutching some fur material that I had left over from cushions made for one of my girls.

The piece was returned without any explanation. That was interesting because a year later I discovered the reason. My hanging on the back was not regulation, so rather than point that out, my entry was simply rejected. If I had been less confident in my own work that could have been quite disastrous from a development point of view, but I was quite pleased with this piece and still have it hanging in my lounge today. A word to the wise - The judge/jury at competitions is only an opinion and does not necessarily desecrate the value of your work.

Babies in the Garden

Apart from the background and the nest this little piece is all thread painted directly onto the substrate backing. We have a large garden and each year there is an abundance of nesting going on. For several years the same blackbird nested and raised her family behind the Virginia Creeper on the side of the dining room so it is always a joy to be able to peer in and see the changing stages. Mumma bird didn’t mind me at all but poppa bird was much more cagey and would sit, with his beak full of worms, in the tree outside the dining room and then, when he thought he was unobserved, dive in to feed those hungry mouths. Because there was a window just above the nest it was quite easy to look in and see the development and how, when the parent birds were away, the nestlings sat quiet and still at the bottom of the nest. Any semblance of disturbance and hungry mouth appeared expecting it to be parent birds with food.

The thrush was an interesting experiment as I used variegated thread and had to manipulate the colour changes to get the speckles on the breast.

The nest has been made from some fibrous florist shop find. Until I did the Gypsies from Bagra this was the largest thread painting I had attempted.

A Workshop With Gloria Loughman

I had long been a fan of Gloria Loughman and when she came to teach in my local town I was up for the challenge. Unfortunately the venue had extremely poor lighting which affected me quite badly and i ended up with what I could only think of as a type of migraine headache. But I did get to create this little masterpiece. We started off dying the fabric and then cut it into strips and realigned it. The outline of the scene was drawn on a backing fabric and the pieces applied in a flip and stitch manner.

This little piece is a landscape from the estuary at Whangamata with the big pohutukawa tree on the walk to the open beach. I wanted to have an open texture to the tree so it was created on water soluble and applied afterwards. The background hills on the other side of the estuary are just commercial cottons and the while thing is free machine stitched.

This is a very simple composition but the idea of deconstruction and then reconstruction was one I would revisit in later quilts