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.

Tea or Coffee, Jane

A colleague I worked with was interested in my use of recycled materials. At Christmas she gave me some little stencils with NZ themes. I decided to use these to create a quilt in standard blocks using teabags as the substrate. The used teabags were laminated onto a cotton base and then the stencils were applied using black ink. Each block was free machine quilted with a figure of eight pattern. Some additional stitching was added to enhance the images. For example around the wings of the birds and between the fronds of the foliage. The pieces were squared up.

For the sashing I used the inner foil coffee bags joined in strips with textured yarn and an overlay of black organza. This was also free machine stitched in a figure of eight pattern. The blocks and sashings were joined in the traditional way and the quilt was finished using a facing technique.

Jane had given me the stencils and the quilt included coffee packets and tea bags so i called the quilt “Tea or Coffe Jane”.