Women's Roles in Sapa, Vietnam

Visiting another country on holiday and seeing the many roles of the women of the Sapa region, Vietnam inspired my quilt design. Here the women are multi-skilled in farming, domestic duties and the production of their traditional clothing which their adorn with embroidery, patchwork or indigo batik. The women grow, process and weave hemp into lengths for clothing. They use natural indigo to dye the hemp cloth.

The Museum in Sapa had many story boards of the village production processes. It was fascinating reading.

Old textiles are recycled into bags, wall hangings, jackets etc  sold at the market by the women who often have started their day in the fields before walking long distances to sell items.

These are some of the recycled embroidered pieces made into neck pieces, based on those worn by women of the Black Hmong ethnic groups.

Back baskets carry everything needed for daily life and this was a common morning procession. We spent 9 days in the area and I bought a few small embroidered items, cut from clothing to use in my work so when the challenge was announced I was still in Sapa and thought about my designs for a quilt. I also had a piece of  batik fabric I had made a few years ago. This fabric piece had the family roles of women written on it- wife, mother, sister, aunt, daughter, grandmother and was a perfect inclusion. The women of Sapa work very hard in all their roles.

Women's Roles in Sapa, Vietnam

18"W x 40.5"L [46cm w x 102.5cm]

Women in Sapa, Vietnam work very hard in their family roles and those of farm worker and textile producer and seller. The batik text in the central section lists familial roles while the three short woven hemp, indigo dyed with embroidery strips, showcase their needle skills. I have reversed the strip under the batik to show the hidden side of the piece, just as we don't see all the women do in a day's work. The necklaces are stitched and hand painted over the batik section.

Detail

Materials: cotton, hemp, embroidery thread, wax, dye, paint, batting, thread.

Techniques: batik text hand drawn, hand painted, hand couched, hand woven fabric, machine pieced, machine quilted.



 

The Magic of Shakespeare

I am a great fan of Shakespeare. I particularly love some of his more magical plays, such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, which I saw recently again, twice - once at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, and once on the BBC - an extraordinary version dreamed onto the TV screen by the team that made Dr Who - so you can imagine the fabulous effects they used to work magic on the viewers!

This quilt is called "The Play's the Thing" and uses Shakespeare's titles to work a design with text on a dark background.  It is made with a fused appliqué technique, and it is 40" by 33".  Measurements are the wrong way round - but it could be hanged the other way, as the titles are both vertical and horizontal.

Greek Isle: Le Journey

This past several months the news has been full of extraordinary, very disturbing images of failed attempts by masses of individuals and families trying to flee war and poverty, no matter the perils.  The image I can't erase is a beachside on a Greek isle, mounded high with piles of color-filled clothing, sprinkled with life-vests.  Detritus washed ashore from failed attempts to cross out of North Africa to hoped-for security in Europe.

With this imagery in mind I searched my stash of text.  I like text, especially foreign text.  Text that doesn't necessarily mean anything to me, it just looks interesting.  Because of this, I collect text...so far the collection is fairly limited to English, French, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.  It was from this collection that I found a piece...a vintage, rough linen sack with cursive French.

Jumping off the fabric was 'le journey' and I knew where I was going.

Combining African fabrics with this linen, I built an island based on the traditional log cabin quilt block to underscore mankind's most basic and longed for right:  HOME.

detail

Greek Isle: Le Journey 40"x42"

Words cannot express...

How do you depict Joy?

I love words: their shape, their meaning, their sound. So much contained in so little, but somehow, never enough. I cannot imagine this generation will not learn the beauty of cursive writing and how creating the flow and shapes of words is artistic and calming.

As a writer, this challenge thrilled me. I often use words in my quilts and I’m continually seeking the best methods and tools to represent them either explicitly or implicitly in my art. My husband would say I’ve wasted lots of money chasing the perfect way, but I’d say I’ve learned a lot!

The words in the background of this quilt were written with white Liquitex paint via a small bottle and 9mm tip. The technique was loosely inspired by an article in Quilting Arts Magazine June/July 2015 issue by Sue Bleiweiss. The actual words tell my story as a high school swimmer and the joy of the water and the discipline of training.

Water is my theme for this cycle and I had this picture of a dear friend’s daughter from a Christmas card years ago. I was captivated by the total joy in her daughter’s face and asked if I could represent it in a quilt one day. Alicia’s challenge was the perfect opportunity to combine the inspiration of words with the raw emotion of this beautiful child. 

“Joy” measures 29” W X 40” H. It is whole cloth painted using Liquitex soft body acrylic paints and Derwent Inktense pencils. It is quilted with cotton and polyester threads. 

Original Photo

Back

Writing Detail

Text on Fabric

Letters, words, phrases, paragraphs – in short, text on fabric - are very appealing elements of design. The letters can be clear or garbled; they can be read easily or not at all.  Their meaning can be part of the quilt’s idea, or just a background part of the design.

Reflection 4 by Jette Clover

Letters and words could be applied with many different methods and tools: embroidery, fused appliqué, pens, paint, computer printing, screen-printing, thermofax, ironing paper transfers, and many more.

 Walk in Orville by Susan Shie - detail

I challenge you to incorporate an element of text into your next quilt.  It doesn’t matter what size the text section is, neither it should be necessarily readable - as long as it is sufficiently visible to be understood as a clear component of the design of the work.

Alicia Merrett - Mayfair 1761 - detail

Text printed on other materials - paper or whatever - can also be incorporated, as long as the finished piece has some fabric on it. We will continue with the size of 40” high, and whichever width you prefer - in this case, even long narrow strips will be acceptable!

Texting whilst quilting

I have employed text variously over the past several years.

For my Aunt and Uncle's BIG Anniversary I wanted to give them something no one else would/could...and surprise them.  At their big party, I quietly handed their friends and family squares of cotton that I had prepared, along with ink pens.  Their messages spanned congratulations to intimate, cryptic, and personal messages.

My Uncle Mort's family owned a department store and he was noted for being ever-present, community-minded and a snappy dresser with very smart ties.  My cousin raided his closet and supplied me with some of them...and, apparently he never noticed their absence.

The quilt was one of his treasures.  As he aged, it was always by his favorite chair for his afternoon naps.

Mort and Sue's Anniversary

I sometimes use cursive script to quilt my fabrics together.  It is functional and adds to the narrative of the piece

I'm Not From Here/detail

In a small pieced titled, Miscommunications, I hoped that the commercially printed text on cotton would underscore the imagery of personal communications in this piece from 2009.

Miscommunications

And then there was the series in which I worked through a big birthday using cotton that I had discharged.  That must have been about 5 years ago....I'm facing a REALLY big birthday next week :^)

Sing

Foreign language confusion

I have been fortunate to travel to many countries and still enjoy the excitement of new discoveries in foreign lands. Nothing is more indicative of a country than its way of communication through its language. It is impossible for me to learn the language of every country I visit, so a few words are picked up here and there, polite formalities and the all important word for 'toilet'.
In Vietnam there is a bombardment of signage on the streets advertising all manner of items. Some are easy to read and interpret especially when a picture or English translation is attached.

Others are just a guessing game.

Accompanied by graphic illustrations.

And just because!

Painting Pictures with Words

Yesterday I received the sad news that my uncle had passed away from ALS, (a disease formerly known as Lou Gehrig's disease).
I was reminded of a poem my mother wrote, shortly after Uncle Jerry was diagnosed. Her words painted a picture of that strange moment... when you are temporarily frozen in time and space as your mind comes to grips with something.  An experience that was repeated, for me, when my mom told me about his passing.
As I went back and found her original poem, I realized it was written less than a year ago.  It seems like too short a time to prepare for this news.
Words have to power to sooth and comfort us as much as they can startle us and hurt us. Not that it offers any explanation of why these things happen, or insight about the afterlife or existential meaning. But I read these words and feel understood, connected through a common experience.

(With her permission), this is my mother's poem:

Suspended Animation
by Kathleen A. O'Brien

The phone rings:
“I have something to tell you.”
How the mind can race in the void.
How the hands of the clock pause.

Time stops, like a Jack-in-the-Box at the last crank.
The moment inhale converts to exhale.
The expectation, the blood pressure spike,
when words are pitched into space.

“I wanted you to know before
you found out from someone else.”
The roller coaster apex before descent.
Vacuum of feelings as the mind computes.

Like an unopened letter
from the IRS,
Like flashing red lights
in the rear-view mirror.

On the phone:
news given,
yet not accepted.
What to say now.