Myriad Interpretations of Language Project

Awhile ago, Sam Hunter put out a call for some blocks for a quilt she wanted to make. I thought it was doable for me at that time, so I decided to make a block. This is the idea she shared with us—“I invite you to stitch a block, following some very simple instructions. The project is to interpret the instructions the way YOU think fit; there is no right or wrong. Once I put the collective collaboration together into one piece of art, my hope is that it will illustrate the concept: that there are a myriad of ways to interpret the same language.” She told us that she planned to assemble the blocks into a quilt and submit it to various quilt and fiber art shows, starting with QuiltCon 2023. 

We were instructed to cut a solid-colored cotton fabric measuring 6 inches square. (She didn’t tell us what color the block needed to be. She let us decide.) We were told to embroider a line on the fabric using a contrasting thread. Then, we were to choose another color of thread and embroider a second line that crosses the first. We were left to interpret the instructions however we wanted.

Sam shared with us that the quilt WAS juried into QuiltCon into the Group Quilts category. We saw the first image of the finished quilt this week. This is the first block (upper left corner of the quilt).

The picture below is a picture of the whole quilt. The instructions said nothing about the color of the fabrics to use, and look at how she stitched them into a glorious color wash. I love how it turned out. (My block is on the bottom row to the left of the butterfly block.)

This is a closeup of the block I made.

What a fun experience! (If you are attending QuiltCon and you see the quilt, let me know what you think.)

It Has Been a Minute!

During the pandemic, I took a kawandi-making class and made this piece. It is called "The Days Run Hot and Cold." That is how I was feeling at the time. I made lots of "mistakes" with this first kawandi. I didn't know how to judge where to add my pieces, so some of the seams were not secured as they needed to be. That "mistake" led me to adding some embroidery onto the surface. I ended up thinking it wasn't a mistake but a learning opportunity. I learned that I liked embroidery on my pieces.

My next piece is called "166 Days" representing the time I didn't get to see my grandchildren. I was feeling pretty black/white/gray! The spots of color (made with sari silk ribbon remnants) represent the times I DID get to "see" them via FaceTime. Some closeups are below. You can see the marking of time--the embroidered hashmarks on the surface. There are 166 hashmarks. All of the stitching is by hand.

I was so excited about making these little pieces (ranging in size from 18" square to 22" square) that I thought I'd start experimenting to see what stripes looked like. I thought this one was a "happy" looking piece. It made me smile, and I needed that.

Then, I thought, "How would it change the piece if I incorporated solids with the stripes." I still liked it, but it didn't change the looks as much as I thought it would.

Then, I decided I wanted to do a piece using ironed silk sari ribbon--all VERY narrow pieces. BIG MISTAKE! I love the look of the piece, but it was a real pain (literally) to do. The silk was SO hard to sew through that I injured my wrist. (It even dulled several needles!) My wrist was so wrecked that I couldn't hand stitch for a month and a half.

As many of you know, my husband died in 2019. I thought I'd do some "memory quilts" using his polyester ties from the 70s and 80s. (He had been a coach and had quite a few "wild" ties.) This is the first. I called it "Close Ties."

 This next one is one of my favorites. It is called "The Man Loved Brown." He did! I really like the unplanned partial spiral I got from the improv piecing.

I have some more Siddi/kawandi/inspired pieces to share with you. I'll save those for another day. I have to see if I can even remember how to publish a new post and figure out how to get it to you. Let me know if you still even read blog posts.