This morning I took in three works to Eduardo’s studio to be photographed. This first detail is from a 1999 work I called Bushfire 4, 150cmh x 200cmw. I’ve always had good photography done of my fibreart, but this one was on a 35mm slide the original of which is in storage, and the scan isn’t totally clear, so I took it in while I was having another couple taken. It’s been tucked away in a cupboard for a few years, and when I took it out I was amazed at how much work I put into this, the sewing machine must have been running red hot! Contrary to my belief, and often stated claim, I discovered there’s not a single hand stitch apart from sewing down the binding folded over to the back… not even in any of the many ditch lines between the blocks, or the 6 segments/block, or along the seamlines of the several inserted strips/block! It’s all machine stitched and machine quilted, and is a very typical piece of that era.

In this next detail, a landscape inspired work about which I blogged during construction.

As I spread this work out to show Eduardo’s assistant Nestor, it struck me that the only machine stitching in this work was that which attached the binding to the front before being folded back and hand stitched into place.

In other words, between these two works there’s been a gradual move from 100% machine stitched to 100% hand stitched… and hand stitched surface designs are typical of my current work.