My regular readers know that since since the pandemic I’ve been having fortnightly zoom chats with a group of stitchers, that was started in a trial by the organisers of StitchClub using their Zoomn account at whatever time we decided to meet. When that trial ended, we had become good friends and wanted to continue our fortnightly calls, so one of our members came good with her own Zoom account, and we’ve continued that way. Since then everyone in the group has met up in person with at least one other member. Admittedly we do sometimes veer off into general topics, but we never stray for long or go too far from things to do with stitching and embroidery as we discuss what the others are working on, workshops taken, who’s sold something, or exhibiting somewhere. We mention interesting stitch-related books, magazine articles and sometimes recommend links to websites the others would find interesting.

Earlier this week we got onto the topic of working with sheer fabrics, and as a couple of them have done a SC workshop involving tulle, I sent a link to https://www.instagram.com/joanna.kara.art/, whose works I found on IG; and Nancy of CA mentioned an artist https://www.christinemauersberger.com/ whose work she’d once seen in an exhibition. I mentioned how interested I am in sheer fabrics, but that I am sometimes a bit bothered about how light delicate constructions that cast interesting lace patterns on the wall behind so often have clunky hanging arrangements that seem to me quite out of keeping with the delicacy of the work. Nancy didn’t think it mattered if the work is very long and hung from high up, as such works often are I agree to a point, but not everyone wants to make lengthy works, including myself. I’m considering placing a few grommets along the top in several places, which could give a drapey look appropriate for some, but I think tulle is not strong enough as they could easily be torn out of the work – but organza would be fine.

I’ve mentioned using plastic as a background ‘fabric’, and just remembered this number from 2020 https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=5666 – a StitchClub workshop project with teacher Merrill Comeau

That really led on to discussion about a question Ali raised, asking how artists cope with managing all the different hanging systems that galleries use. I guess there’s no definitive answer here, but exhibition calls sometimes stipulate that framed works must hang with D-rings or something else in particular; and I see that as a matter between artist and gallery in an ongoing relationship. For my own 2D works which are primarily wall quilts, the rod or slat through a hanging sleeve on the back works well with all systems, but in my recent exhibition I mounted some small pieces on unframed artist canvases, which I felt looked good, as these days people often simply hang them without frames. Other 3D pieces I presented as table-top works – which is how I always saw them myself, but they could also be attached to artist canvases and hung on the wall that way, or placed in a frame, or even just hung unmounted and unframed directly onto the wall. I am considering making something larger to show that way, but we’ll see.

With light 2D or 3D works, sometime a motorised slowly revolving display unit hanging from the ceiling would be lovely whether it’s made of something sheer or something more solid and 3D.

My point is that it is really important to consider how I’ll present/display my work during the early planning stages, not to have to rig up something once the last stitch is done, as such last minute solutions are often less effective and some look very amateurish. For example, in this irregular shaped wall quilt stiffening for the upper edges was built in during the construction stage: and the hanging sleeve placed so that the top of it never appears above the lowest dip in the wavy top. It’s unfortunate that many artists cut the top of an otherwise wonderfully irregular shaped quilt straight across the top to avoid those issues – but I wrote a 2020 post on it and another method of hanging such a quilt – https://www.alisonschwabe.com/weblog/?p=5925

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In this year’s New Year Resolutions I pledged to use fabrics from worn out clothing whenever possible. I don’t need to hunt in thrift shops though, because I have enough much loved shirts and some household linens that really must be retired.

In January I cut up and saved the best bits of a much loved bright pink Jones of New York classic poplin buttondown shirt, at least 12 years old. Such things never go out of style, but the poplin had worn so badly on the collar and cuffs that the white stiffening was showing through at the edges in holes that were now so big the felt tip pen dabs I applied for a while no longer fooled anyone, and the cuffs were threatening to part company with the sleeve.

Those pieces didn’t sit around long waiting for their assignment, though, because soon I partnered that pink with a charcoal grey sheet, cut both fabrics into strips and shapes, machine pieced and hand quilted a 50cm x 70cm work I called it “New From Old”. It was juried into the SAQA Oceania Region’s exhibition “Opposites”, and is now touring Australia and NZ quilt shows with that collection, but I forgot to post the whole view after it was selected:

A few weeks ago I simply had to face similar realities with two more classic buttondown shirts by J Jill, in white and milk coffee brown linen. They’ve done good service for at least 8 or 9 years, and although pure linen, they weren’t as high quality as the cream Maggie T linen classic button down shirt I’ve been wearing for nearly 30 years. (I’m into investment drassing!) It recently underwent a little discreet mending, and while it’s no longer suitable for Sunday Best, Going Out wear, it’s still fine for daily doings.

I’m currrently working on a couple of small works in my Out of Order series, to enter a juried call, so I won’t say any more about them, except that one’s finished and this week I started the second, using some of the milk coffee brown shirt linen. Works in that series have distorted grid layouts, but the large tacking/basting stitches you see in these photos will be removed before I stitch the grids in a technique yet to be decided.

Most of the materials I auditioned have now been knocked back and set aside for a future project, but as I still haven’t decided how I’ll define the grid, I won’t put them away for a few days.

The modern world is heavily dependent on petrocarbons for fuel and energy, fertilisers and the production of over 6000 other uses including the huge variety of plastics on which we all depend for packaging, insulation and building materials, to name a few. You’d have to be living under a rock to not be aware that disposing of the world’s rubbish, of which plastics are a large portion, is the greatest environmental problem today. Large amounts of plastic waste are swirling around in rivers and streams that eventually make their way to the oceans. Everywhere along the way plastic bags, rings, lids, containers and other items endanger animals, birds and fish, and foul fishing nets. It is true that increasing amounts are being recycled, particularly in advanced countries where considerable advances have been made with salvaging and recycling projects resulting in road sealing materials, outdoor furniture and play equipment for civic parks and gardens, fencing, building cladding, new packaging materials, and many kinds of fabrics for both clothing and upholstery. But, as I say, that still leaves a lot of raw material for creative people to make things with.

A quick google brings up pages of links to many artists using salvaged plastic as their chief raw material, and one could spend many enjoyable days researching this topic. However, I don’t have to look far for such artists with whom I am very familiar.

The first is Jessica Grady, a UK embroiderer who uses packaging materials+stitch to create her richly coloured and embroidered surfaces. I was privileged to take a StitchClub workshop with her in 2021 that really inspired me – and looking back through my posts then, I re-discovered this photo, which I’d completely forgotten –

I found other pics of samples I did around that time, too, reminding me to re-visit the whole idea of trapping this lovely shiny mylar stuff and fabrics between layers of plastic for what Jessica Grady calls ‘sequins’.

While browsing around Instagram this week I discovered an inspiring artist, Imogen Williams who’s doing wonderful things with recycled plastic water bottles; and her work reminds me to seriously consider getting the heat gun that’s been on my mind a while.

Next is a Uruguayan artist here in Montevideo, Felipe Macqueira and this website page takes you to one of his fabulous works fashioned with modern technology and application of heat, and his materials list and statement give insight to his inspiration from that symbolic woodprint The Great Wave from the C19 Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai. For stitchy fibreart people like myself, the rest of his website with more examples, and his studio too, are tremendously inspiring.

Another artist is Margery Goodall of Perth Western Australia, a good friend since we met in Kalgoorle WA in the 1980s. Back then she was very involved in Kalgoorlie’s quilting group, the Patchwork Pollies, and eventually I took her suggestion and learned traditional patchwork and quilting, QED. Always one to push technical and materials boundaries, this interesting work is one of many recent works in which her traditional patchwork and quilting background provides clear grid design structure for works expressing her concerns for the impact of throwaway plastic items on the environment; and a visit to this post on WAFTA West Australian Fibre Textile Artist site contains further examples and statements.

On the SAQA members FB page each monday and thursday a question is posted for us to think about and respond to, and resulting discussions are usually interesting and stimulating.

Today’s Thursday Question was “Symbols can be found everywhere we look. From the golden arches to ripples in a puddle. Are there symbols you find you incorporate into your work? Do you find they create a reoccurring theme?”

My inital response was to ask whether the question was about symbols or patterns that become symbolic to us?  A morning walk later I went back in and edited my response to add “For example, I have always liked the grid as a layout for repeated units in a design – the repetition has a unifying function even if the units themelves are not exactly the same – think the typical traditional sampler quilt, for example. These days in my designs grids, and the units themselves on/in them are becoming less uniform as a response to the increasing chaos around the world today – grids have become far more important to me as a symbol than I ever thought they would.“

Here’s just a few (in chronological order) from down the years, 1988-2025, I’ve spent making quilted fibreart:

In the most recent works of the Out of Order series, the grids have become far more distorted; so here’s a detail of #7 – to go into a juried call, so I won’t show the whole thing – but you get the idea: