Blind Stitching OR Stitching Blind 2

Equinox - Night and Day

Kathy Loomis and Terry Jarrard-Dimond

2010

Fabric and Embroidary Floss

Two summers ago I attended a workshop at QBL and took a class titled Expressive Stitching with Dorothy Caldwell. It was an interesting experience and has inspired me to incorporate some handstitching into my work.

Day

The experimentation that I most connected with was an exercise where Dorothy had the class put on blindfolds and stitching following very specific directions. This might sound a little strange but from my perspective, the most expressive stitching that was done that week was while we were all blindfolded!!! It is not my intention to insult the members of my class with that statement. My sighted stitching was the most constrained of all. I like to think of myself as able to communicate and "express" feelings and ideas with my art materials but it wasn't happening until I worked blindfolded.

I did all of my stitching at my work table.

Fast forward to fall 2010. I became very interested in a SAQA competition titled Beyond Comfort which challenged artists to expand on the idea of textiles or textile techniques and "Blind Stitching" came to mind. Ultimately I decided not to follow that line of thinking but I did discuss the idea with my friend Kathy Loomis and we decided to do a collaboration where we would each spend time stitching blindfolded and then join the work into one piece.

I threaded the needles without the blindfold but I ended each length of floss with the blindfold in place.

Here is the process we followed:

• We choose a diptych format. One side black and one white. We drew lots and Kathy got the black and I drew white.
• We each individually decided on the color or colors of thread we would use and did not discuss it with one another.
• We each would stitch 12 hours making the piece "worth" 24 hours of blind stitching or stitching blind.
• We would not look at the work once we began until reaching the 12 hour mark.
• We would each select what stitch or stitches to use in the work.

This is now the fabric looked before it was stretched. I had not tried to keep things flat.

I'm very happy we decided to divide the 24 hours because I found out very quickly that it was hard to not look. While there was pleasure in trying to "see" with my finger tips, I found it tempting to peek and had to work hard not to do so.

Detail of Day

The best thing was that I liked the feel of what was happening on the fabric from the very beginning. I could feel puckers, bumps, tails, knots, tracks. I could visualize what was happening on the surface although not how the thread colors were working.

I selected about 24 colors which were placed in a paper bag. Each time I sat down to stitch I randomly pulled one skein from the bag, threaded 8 needles and worked until I ran out of needles. I made it without looking until 6 hours in and then I couldn't stand it anymore. I looked. I couldn't believe now nice the work was. I then reframed from further looking until I finished.

I did have issues with tangled threads and sewing in the tails but somehow it all looks just fine now that it has been finished. Kathy did the finish work and she did a bang-up job. Thank you Kathy. Each side is mounted to a stretcher frame and will be hung side-by-side but not attached to one another.

Kathy chose to work with a cross stitch and I did mostly a running stitch although I did work some areas into patches of stitches.

So what's the meaning of this? For me it is an example of how powerful our senses are. Artists tend to be very visually oriented naturally but I believe we also use the sense of touch, smell and sound - even when we aren't aware of doing so. Think installation or performance. In a very real sense Kathy and I created a performance work by quietly sitting and stitching allowing our fingers to communicate with our brains to tell us what to do next.

You are invited to visit Kathy's blog to see her photographs and thoughts on the process: http://artwithaneedle.blogspot.com

I have some ideas of ways to carry this forward. I'll keep you posted.

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THINKING BACKWARDS : Shape and Construction

ALONE TOGETHER

During October I will be presenting a one-day workshop in Seneca, SC with the Mountain Lake Quilters and later in the month a three-day workshop at Quilting By the Lake 2 for The Schweinfurth Memorial Art Center in Auburn, NY.

The one day event is entitled DISCOVER YOUR SHAPE VOCABULARY and the QBL2 worshop is ALL ABOUT SHAPE. In preparation for these workshops I have been making a few samples and I'm sharing one here.

My personal body of work for some years has focused on large shapes and how they interact with one another and how these shapes activate space. The question I am most often ask is how do I piece this work. That is a hard question to answer because each construction is unique and my process for piecing is one I developed for myself. I am not suggesting that it is any different from anyone else but simply that as I began to develop my work I also had to figure out on a piece by piece basis how to sew it together.

Some constructions are pretty straight forward and some are mind benders. Sometimes I can sew everything without making extra cuts into the fabric and sometimes there just isn't anyway to sew all the seams without cutting into another shape to access the edges of some shape.

My term for constructing very complex things is "thinking backwards". What this means to me is that very often, the last thing I cut or add to the composition is the first thing I have to sew together. Sometimes I actually write out a plan for the order things must be sewn. I believe the ability to understand how to piece complex compositions is sort of like learning a computer program.....need inspires creative thinking. You have a problem, you find a solution. As a beginner if you look at the entire program you feel overwhelmed but if you start with one component of the process and take things step by step you can eventually learn the whole program. For example, you say "I'm going to learn how to create a folder". This helps you identify a specific set of things you need to do and you learn those steps. Piecing is exactly the same process.

This sample was created as a demonstration of Raw Edge Applique and I had created some shapes using a technique I will be teaching in my workshops. This technique uses paper patterns you create and I decided to construct a second Pieced sample using the paper pattern so we could see the difference.

The example I'm showing here was created to show ONE way to construct this composition. After I completed the piece I could see that there was another way I could have constructed the piece but I'll remember that for next time.

As stated earlier, I began this sample by cutting a pattern freehand from a piece of paper. This is not how I do my large work but it was helpful for this example as I also constructed one using raw edge applique and I wanted to compare them.

I have cut 3 shapes which will be sewn together to begin this composition. The first piece I cut was the brown shape. I used my paper patterns to cut these shapes but If I had not had a pattern, I would have used the leaf-like shape to cut the edges between itself and the brown fabric etc.

This shows the back side of the piece after it has been sewn and before I pressed.

This shows the face after pressing.

Next I add the side elements.

The shows the Face of piece after pressing. You can see that I gave myself more fabric in the brown fabric than I needed and that will be cut off. I do not add an official 1/4" seam. I just know I might need additional fabric to make things line up and I know the elements will "shrink". Most of my work involves large expanses of fabric and that shrinking doesn't impact my work in the way it impacts work done on a small scale like this sample.

Now I'm going to add a large piece of the brown fabric to the top. I slipped the brown fabric under the top edge of my construction and cut an arch. I don't mark it but I do often retrace the blade on the rotary cutter and practice how I am going to cut. This helps me to see better visualize the line I am going to cut.

This is the face after being stitched and pressed. The edges are getting very wacky but that if not an issue as they can be cut as needed when the composition is finished.

Now I am going to add a green shapes that mimicks the negative brown shape I started with. I used my ruler to cut some brown fabric which will become the top edge of the finished composition.

This shows the back of the elements stitched. Before I cut the brown fabric I did mark with chalk the spot where I should place the green shape.

Now the piece has been pressed and I will lay it next to a piece of brown fabric and cut a "bottom" for the green element. (I failed to make a photo of that.)

The piece is complete except for being squared up.

Side by side samples show some of effects of piecing small elements. Either technique can be successful but it's nice to have options.

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Facing Technique for Small Work

I mentioned in an earlier post that I use a modified "pillow" facing for my small work and I received several emails requesting information on that process.



The picture above shows a piece which has been quilted and is laying face down on a cut of fabric that will become the facing.





This is a close up view of one corner and you can just make out where I have stitched 1/4" inside the edge of the quilt. Once I have done this, I trim off the facing material so that all edges are flush. I do stitch twice around each corner to reinforce.




In this photo you can see that all edges are now even. Using a chalk pencil, I draw a line from opposing corners which makes an X. This X marks the center of the work.





If the piece you are working with is not square, you will add a 90 degree angle from the center of the X . You can see this in the above picture. This step is not necessary if the piece is square.




The next step uses a paper circle from a set of paper circles I purchased from a quilt shop. I use the largest circle and line up the marks on the circle with the 2 90 degree marks on the fabric and this centers the circle. If the work were square, you line up the marks on the circle with the X and that centers the circle.




I mark the outside of the circle with chalk and cut out the center.





I trim diagonally across each corner and push each corner out as much as I can. These corners have a rounded contour. I then finger press the edges and put on clips to keep things in place while I turn and stitch the inside circle. It turns very easily.


This is how it looks on the back when completed.