It was my lucky day. I attended Local Environmental Action 2018, where keynote speaker Loretta Ross emphatically (in her folksy way) made her case for all aspects of human rights. Loretta would like to see a culture where we can “call in” and build connections rather than “call out” and isolate people.
In group sessions, I marveled at the different paths life leads us and heard motivations for attending the Conference. International approaches to reducing our carbon footprint and adapting to the change inspired me to keep moving forward. Strategies learned at a session inspired by research from NNOOCI give me a framework to communicate in ways that can build consensus. I even won something in the silent auction!
At the closing keynote, Mariama White-Hammond encouraged everyone to protect our progress, build connections in our community and envision a future that will result in a more equitable and sustainable future.
It was an inspiring and tool building day.
There was a moment when my face wrinkled: When Carol Oldham praised the efforts of Jane Palmer leading a knit in to protest a proposed pipeline in VT, she had to pause while many in the audience giggled. Oh, dear, not again.
Does “knit in” make you laugh? Let me call you in (a chance practice what I learned).
I cannot deny the stereotype of knitting as an activity of the elderly women, which is somehow not perceived as cool as… Beyoncé or Juan Manuel Santos. Not that many years ago, knitting was a necessary activity done by all ages. In the US, knitting and protest trace back to the Revolutionary War. While the decline in handwork was dramatic in the 1950s and 60s, activity rebounded beginning in the 1970’s. In this millennium, motivation and passion for not just knitting, but all kinds of creation are growing in a new way.
Even Stephen Colbert half heartedly recognizes this, making a short attempt to learn to knit on air.
We hold that all communities should have the means necessary to meet every essential need of their own people.
To that end, the Revolutionary Knitting Circle calls upon people everywhere to take up the struggle through the tools of local production. We shall bring forth not only our voices raised for global justice, but we shall rise together, with the tools to liberate local communities from the shackles of global corporatism.
By sharing in the skills and resources of our communities, we shall become free to cast off dependencies on global trade for our subsistence. In so doing, we shall all be able to enter fairly into meaningful and equitable trade of not only goods, but also those cultural intangibles that are necessary if we are to bring about understanding, justice and peace to truly enrich our individual lives and our communities.
I do not know exactly why Jane Palmer chose to knit at Vermont Gas. Perhaps, like me, she enjoys making each moment productive and doesn’t leave the house without her knitting. Perhaps the rhythmic, repetitive movement of their hands calmed everyone’s minds. Perhaps they were creating an installation to raise awareness of the proposed pipelines’ pathway. Whatever their motivation, knitting is part of their activism tool box.
You, too, can learn to knit. I’d be happy to teach you, and lead classes at Lucky Cat Yarns. If you’re not nearby, find your local yarn shop, pick up a book at your library or look online for videos to begin your journey.
It is time. Time to stop reading, planting, nurturing and foraging. It’s time to start my journey into natural dyes. My first bite into this aromatic and interesting exploration is to make a mordant from rhubarb leaves.
The water based, delightful tonic binds the color to the fiber – chemistry in action. A mordant’s role in dyeing fiber is particularly important as natural dyes tend to fade. If I spend my time on an art quilt, longevity and conservation are paramount. I’ll do what I can to ensure this piece will be around for a long while.
As in many journeys, where would we be without our support network? Thanks to a dear friend who shared 1.5kg of gorgeous rhubarb leaves (and even stalks to eat!).
My young rhubarb plant doesn’t have nearly as many beautiful leaves, so I’m grateful for this contribution.
With an enamel pot found at a Savers, my “elixir” topped my camping stove on Saturday night. It’s not exactly singalong or s’more style, but the desired results were attained (or at least, I hope so… wait and see the final results). After simmering for several hours and sitting in the bath all night, I hope this mordant will do the trick.
When the Studio Art Quilt Associates announced their 2017 Member Trunk Show, I had a pretty good idea of what I might send. After all, the portrait orientation letter sized quilt could easily grow from a nuno felting day inspired by the greens and blues of warm weather swimming toward shore.
The big question: How to bind this tiny quilt? I love the flowing color that comes with nuno felted pieces. A traditional fabric binding can be so stiff and angular. A facing would have worked, but I should have considered that before I cut my final size. What to do?
Somehow, the answer came to me as I babbled at our NOBO SAQA break out group… a felted binding! This time, I tried needle felting. Maintaining uneven edges, I needle felted the binding to the finished quilt top and sewed it to the quilt back. It took much longer than expected.
Turtle Grass II
Now it’s time to send this piece out for its traveling adventures. Fair winds, oh little quilt.
From a stack of library books, a quilt was inspired. The Celery Stick block from Marnie Buck and Jilly Guffy’s Quilt du Jour was supposed to quickly yield a nice big quilt top to build my machine quilting skills. Oh, well. Quilt and quick aren’t really two words that go together.
The Celery Stick block is easy to piece and scale up or down. Shopping my stash, deep night blues and yellows formed the color palette. Oh, yes, an Italian hilltop town at night could totally be an option. Many great memories of day trips to this northern Lazio town were reason to start strip cutting.
But what to quilt? After all, the whole purpose of this quilt is: 1) to play and enjoy the quilting process 2) to create a warm queen size bed cover 3) to be challenged. Then it occurred to me. I could quilt in the guild symbols of 18th Century Orvieto to build my skills.
Arte e Mestieri di Orvieto
The Guilds of Orvieto depict the reliance on textiles in 18th Century Orvieto’s economy. I remember the afternoon spent chatting with a gentleman who made terra cotta representations of these Guild mascots. I bought one as a gift. I wish I’d purchased more. So here is my quilt that is inspired by Oriveto which hung at the 2016 Rising Star Quilt Show
Vintner was one of the easier quilt shapes to dress.
Detail of the quilt top.
The Oriveto City Seal
Orvieto as it hung at the RSQ show
Save
So think of me if you’re ever on vacation and you find you cannot sleep forever. I’m under this wonderful quilt with twinkling lights and wonderful wool batting.
A flash sale on Southwest Airlines suddenly snapped my long held daydream of visiting a Quilt National exhibit in Athens, OH. Owning several of the exhibit catalogs is never the same as seeing art in person. How I thoroughly treasured my afternoon dose of reality at the Dairy Barn, hanging out with the 84 expressions of art quilting today.
Choosing quilts must have been challenging for the jurors. Quilt National seeks to create a statement of today’s quilting trends; quilts that balance historic roots and yet incorporate new techniques and experimentation. As such, one could easily define this as a quilt exhibit and not a surface design or mixed media exhibit. Rich in message and layers of media, I saw these quilting trends:
Upscaling and recycling: True to a patchwork tradition, many artists used clothing and scraps in their work.
Adobe Photoshop: This software has become the quilter’s favorite. Whether creating images or modifying photographs, digital image manipulation is part of many quilters’ visual vocabulary.
Beyond textiles: From Deidre Adams‘ layers of paper to Wen Redmond‘s metal, to stones and other ephemera become integral to art quilting.
Machine quilting: The norm and not the exception, by longarm or free motion, machine quilting has become the norm. Storytelling through stitching was evident in many works. Hand quilting, what will happen to you?
Machine Embroidery: Creating embroidered texture and images made dramatic statements on many works.
The show was hung well, using a variety of different mechanisms to let the work hang. Lighting was also generous and focused, without being detrimental to the longevity of the work. I walked around the exhibit once, soaking up the different artistic flavors… and the flavors were striking. There was often an enormous shift from one quilt to the next. Certainly the curators spent a lot of time trying to find the right flow.
Next to each quilt, the label stated basic quilt information and a QR code that would take you to the artist’s web site. I appreciated the artists who gave you a landing page with their QN15 image and perhaps a statement about the piece before exploring other aspects of their web site.
The Dairy Barn Quilt National 2015 You Tube Channel gives you a fantastic background for many of the works on display. Throughout the summer, I had viewed videos as they were released. This formed the basis of my second tour of the exhibit, back to visit the quilts I remembered from videos. I toured the exhibit one last time, listening to the artist’s video as I looked at the quilts. Got two minutes? Watch one of their videos… they are well done.
Quilt National closes today, but fortunately you can enjoy their YouTube channel to hear many of the artists speak about their work. If Quilt National 2017 is on your summer travel list, swing over to my travels in Athens, OH blog post for more scoops about enjoying the area as well as the art quilts.
It was my lucky day. I attended Local Environmental Action 2018, where keynote speaker Loretta Ross emphatically (in her folksy way) made her case for all aspects of human rights. Loretta would like to see a culture where we can “call in” and build connections rather than “call out” and isolate people.
