sewing my fingers off

Time Passes... will be installed in the BUFU Gallery from Sunday, December 5 through Saturday the 11th. I will inhabit the space for 30-60 minutes each day. During this time I will sit in a chair in the back of the room with a stack of blank quilt blocks, a pen, and a bottle of ink. I will write whatever comes to mind while I'm in the space, but generally, the majority of the text will be (or will be based on) my own personal memories. I will pile the full blocks on the floor for viewers to leaf through and read at will.

This is the approximate schedule for the performances. I will document the installation's progression at the end of each day.
Monday, December 6: 5-6 pm
Tuesday, December 7: 12-12:30 pm
Wednesday, December 8: 12-1 pm
Thursday, December 9: 5-6 pm
Friday December 10: 12-1 pm

Through this installation, I am exploring the quilt as both a commemorative and a memory-inducing object. The performative element is, in part, a metaphor for the time-consuming physical process of piecing and quilting. Because I am in the space hand-writing my own personal memories, the performace also speaks to the idea of the quilt as a diaristic object. In my absence, the text-covered blocks act as visual traces, as records of my having inhabited the space; they trigger the memory of my actions.

progress, part two

First, a few thoughts about the installation.

The muslin will be pieced in a clamshell pattern (like this one). The pattern will be at a larger-than-life scale (that is, double or triple the size it would be for a functional quilt). I chose the clamshell pattern because it is difficult and rarely found in pieced quilts. It also has an interesting reference to clouds and/or sky.

Instead of quilting the text as I had originally planned, I am thinking of handwriting it with indelible ink on a small section of the muslin (probably on a piece near the floor). This decision came about from an experiment I did last night where I hand wrote a part of the text on muslin and quilted a few words. It took a long time to quilt and was very tedious, and didn't even look that good when I had finished.

I also did another lighting experiment this week:

I used two layers of the same muslin I plan to use in the final installation. They did not have batting between them this time (although I tried it at one point and it had almost no effect on the quality or brightness of light that came through the muslin). I tried two things:

~Hanging a strand of Christmas lights about six inches behind the muslin (about six inches away from it), and

~Hanging a single bare bulb in the back of the room (around three to four feet away from the muslin).

I liked how the Christmas lights looked - there were definite points of light, but it was easier to get the kind of gradation from bright to dark by manipulating the fabric's distance from the source. For the installation I'm planning to use a net of Christmas lights, hung about six inches above the muslin.

Sources
Mary Schafer, American Quilt Maker  
Gwen Marston
University of Michigan Press: 2004
p. 62-63

progress

I've made good progress on the BUFU application, including getting specific dates nailed down. I will use the formal proposal (from the previous post) and one or two sketches for the application.

Yesterday I did my first lighting/materials experiment: I hung a sheet of fabric about two feet away from a bare light bulb in an otherwise dark room. I did this about 10 times with various materials (for example cheesecloth, silk, several thicknesses of muslin, cotton batting, and felt). The results were surprising - the most successful combination was two layers of cotton muslin with quilt batting sandwiched between them, exactly what I would use for a functional quilt. These materials cast the kind of warm glow I'm looking for.

I haven't consulted many outside sources this week - I've spent most of my time thinking, writing and drawing. But I did come across an interesting line in a Wikipedia article about memory:
One of the primary functions of sleep is improving consolidation of information, as several studies have shown that memory depends on getting enough sleep between training and test. 

hiding under the covers, a proposal

Here is the formal proposal for the installation. It is currently untitled.

Physical Description

I will construct a large quilt from translucent white muslin and cotton batting and suspend it from the ceiling of the gallery. The quilt will be large enough to continue down one wall and fall into folds on the floor. The suspended fabric will be hung slightly below head level, except for a portion near the entrance that will be hung above the top of the door (to allow viewers to enter and exit comfortably). The entire installation will be lit from above; the light will shine through the layers of fabric, illuminating the quilt and casting a warm glow over the room.

I will suspend the quilted fabric with around 40 or 50 strands of clear fishing line (monofilament), placed about six inches apart from each other. Each strand will be a different length, which
should create a rippling effect in the fabric. The entire sheet will be quilted from top to bottom with text that addresses the nature and process of memory and the idea of the quilt as a powerful memorial object. I will use white thread to sew the text, which will be based on my own experiences with quilts and quilting.

Here are two sketches to accompany the physical description. The first sketch is a cross-section of the gallery, showing all aspects of the installation. The second sketch is a partial view of the installation, as if seen lying down. The shading in this sketch shows how I imagine the fabric will be lit.

List of Materials

Clear fishing line

1" x 2"s, chicken wire or pig fencing, screws and staples for suspension frame (if necessary), rope and screws or hooks to hang

Ten to fifteen yards of translucent white fabric

Quilt batting

White sewing thread

White quilting thread

questions and references

What elements of quilting am I most interested in addressing, conceptually speaking?

How will I convey a sense of memory through the installation?

Will I use one quilt pattern or several? Will it be conceptually significant or purely aesthetic?

What stage will the quilt components be in (e.g. cut, basted, quilted, or hemmed and finished)? Will the installation show the process of quilting or will all pieces be in the same stage?

Artists to look at:

Emily Ann Nachison

Ernesto Neto

Eva Hesse (as always)

Lorrie Fredette

Giuseppe Penone

on doubting (and getting behind)

It looks like I haven't posted in almost two weeks. It's partly because I've been stalling, searching for better ideas. I've also been pretty sick for the past week. It hasn't helped that, despite a fair amount of searching, I can't seem to find any examples of contemporary quilts that are relevant to what I'm doing.

I began doubting myself shortly after I photographed the Oceanside house. I could see that there would be no way to make my quilt both beautiful to look at and conceptually intriguing. Some photographs translate more effectively into line drawings than others; I would not be able to show the decayed state of the house through embroidery alone. And besides, mid-century architecture just doesn't appeal to me.

I also considered using images from the Latourell Falls house. This wasn't a good option either, for a variety of reasons. The most important reason not to use it was that I'm not interested in making a quilt about (and only about) abandonment and decay.

Part of the problem has been in my approach to this project. I've been thinking about quilts as two-dimensional picture planes, as vehicles for patterns and images; I've felt like the conceptual content for my quilt was only allowed to be on the quilt top - surface decoration, if you will.

But as much as I love printmaking, drawing, piecing, and embroidery, I need to remember that I am also a sculptor and an installation artist. Even at the beginning of this project, I did not set out to make a standard quilt. So why am I not taking these other mediums into account?

I really admire how installation work physically relates to the human body (especially suspension pieces like the image below and this one). This relationship seems very relevant to quilts, which have generally been made and used for the same reason.

I included the installation below because it's similar to what I imagine my installation might look like.

White Room

Emily Ann Nachison

For now, I'm thinking of making an installation of components that are related to the craft of quilting, or that are quilted. I will install it in the BUFU Gallery unless I find a more appropriate site. These are some preliminary ideas.

~The installation will incorporate a variety of fibers/materials (muslin, linen, wool/wool felt, silk, lace, cheesecloth, possibly batting and thread). They will probably be monochromatic, like Nachison's installation.

~There may be parts of the installation that have been intentionally damaged - burned, stained, torn or threads removed, etc.

~It will include a variety of piecing techniques (clamshell, various stars, wedding rings, drunkard's path, etc.).

I'll have to think about the installation's relationship to memory. I could include prints, photographs, old letters, bones, or decaying plant matter, but I'd rather this information were found in the fiber component.

Sources:

Emily Nachison Studio

http://emilynachison.blogspot.com/

Abigail Doan

http://abigaildoan.blogspot.com/

BECA Gallery

http://www.becagallery.com/

the poppe home and a beginning

First, a quilt from a book called Treasures in the Trunk:

This quilt was made by Frances Burris Tandy Harlow in 1898. What interested me about it is that it is a sort of family tree quilt. As Mary Bywater Cross writes,

Mrs. Harlow's name appears in the center with the notation "Pieced by Grandma Harlow Age 83." Her daughters' blocks are immediately surrounding hers. Then come the granddaughters and great-granddaughters, each grouped near their own mother's name. The names were written by one person, and are all embroidered with white thread in a stem stitch.

I wrote last week that I intended to have three experimental blocks made by today. In reality, I've spent the past week doing a lot of thinking and some writing about my plans for the final quilt - I want the trial quilt blocks to be worth the time I spend on them, to help me decide what I'm interested in doing with the final quilt both conceptually and craft-wise.

Here are some ideas that I've had for the final:

The central block has a house embroidered on it, similar to the two quilts in last week's posting. The surrounding blocks contain small drawings or simple embroidery of particular objects the house contains. The quilt serves as evidence of an accumulation and makes a statement about the house's occupant(s).

The central block has an abandoned house embroidered on it (possibly with white thread on white muslin). There is one house in particular I'm thinking of, in Oceanside, Oregon. The surrounding blocks would contain embroidery of either objects contained in the house (pictured as found) and/or scenes of decay from it. It might also be effective to add bits of appliqued found fabric (e.g. insulation or curtains). I would need to make a trip to the house to photograph and collect objects.


In my thinking about the final quilt, I'm trying not to make it too personal. Working from family photographs can sometimes make this difficult. I would like for the quilt to deal with an issue that I'm interested in, but to also be accessible to a general audience.

At this point I'm leaning towards working with the abandoned house idea. I could imagine it being a whitework quilt like this one:

It could also be simply embroidered in white thread on white fabric, like the experimental block I'm working on now (which I'll post as soon as I finish it). I drew the image from this photograph of my maternal grandmother's family's house:

Sources
Treasures in the Trunk: Quilts of the Oregon Trail
Mary Bywater Cross
Rutledge Hill Press: Nashville, Tennessee, 1993


Barbara Brackman's Material Culture "Whitework, Stuffed Work and Corded Quilting"
http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2010/06/whitework-stuffed-work-and-corded.html

experiments and a synthesis

This week I have found myself in a place of transition. Over the past month, I have done a good amount of reading and research through multiple books and websites. Throughout this process I was vaguely thinking about what I would like to achieve with my final quilt, but didn't have any specific ideas. Now, I am beginning to sew experimental blocks, so the reading I did this week has been in search of conceptual and aesthetic ideas to incorporate into these blocks (and, if they work out, into the final product). The following quilts are three that I found especially interesting, and might draw ideas from for my own quilt.

1842-3

This unfinished piecework top is an example of a Marriage Quilt (a sub-genre of the Friendship Quilt). What interested me most about this quilt is the center block, a detail of which follows:

The quilt below has a similar center block, although it was made to commemorate the building of a church in Louisville, Kentucky:

1899

What interested me about these two quilts is that they both feature buildings as arguably the most important part of the quilt (or, at least, the most eye-catching). This leads me to believe that these places held some significance both for the makers of the quilt and for its recipient. The idea of a certain place being connected to a set of memories is something that I have addressed in my own work, and am interested in thinking about for the quilt I will make.

c. 1840

This block, made for a Friendship Quilt, documents the Rollins family. It's interesting that the layout of this block works so well when family trees and other similar documents usually present their information in a linear way.


With all that said, my plan for the next week is to make three experimental blocks:

Working from old photographs, I will make line drawings of different houses that my family has lived in in the past hundred years. If there are figures in the photographs, they will be drawn as outlines. I will transfer these images to white muslin squares and embroider them with red thread (like the Louisville, Kentucky Church quilt). I will also incorporate names or signatures into these blocks (similar to the family history block above). These will fill in the white space where the figures would have been in each photograph.

Sources:


Forget Me Not: A Gallery of Friendship and Album Quilts
Jane Bentley Kolter
The Main Street Press: Pittstown, New Jersey, 1985
p. 59-60, 70-1, 96-7

ten samples

Friendship Quilts

1840-6

c. 1840

Album Quilts

1842-3

1840-5

Baltimore Album Quilts

1851

1847-50

Crazy Quilts

c. 1890

1880

Mourning or Memorial Quilts

c. 1877

c. 1898

Sources:

Women in Pacific Northwest History

Edited by Karen J. Blair

"Quilts in the Lives of Women who Migrated to the Northwest, 1850-1990: A Visual Record"

Mary Bywater Cross

University of Washington Press: Seattle and London, 2001

p. 258-266

Artstor Database (first eight images)

Metropolitan Museum of Art

http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1983.349

Betsey Telford-Goodwin's Rocky Mountain Quilts

http://www.rockymountainquilts.com/files/antique_quilts_quilttops.php

memory quilts

Project Description

I will research different types of quilts made for the purpose of commemoration, including Friendship, Album, and Mourning Quilts. I am interested in finding out how different quiltmakers have used their craft towards remembering, in terms of both the images and text that the quilt contains as well as its actual construction (especially concerning materials choices and piecing techniques). I will draw on my research to make a small quilt that is not only commemorative but that, like the rest of my artwork, questions the role, function, and process of memory.

Questions

What is memory?

Which types of quilts were made for the purpose of commemoration?

What materials were used or reused to make memory quilts? What is their significance?

Whom were memory quilts usually made for?

How is the commemoration of a person, place, event, or object represented in different quilts?

When were Friendship or commemorative quilts most popular (or, what is the time period I should focus my research on most)?

How can I represent the issues around memory in a quilt - what materials, subject matter and piecing techniques are appropriate?

four genres

This week I have been reading The American Quilt, by Roderick Kiracofe. The bulk of this book consists of American history, but it is interlaced with the history of quilts. Kiracofe provides a general overview of many quilting genres, and through reading it, I have been able to narrow down the types of quilts I will continue to research to four. Here is some information about each of them:

Friendship or Album Quilts were made to commemorate a special event (for example, marriage, birth, leaving a community, or death). A mixture of old and new fabrics was often used, including scraps from old clothing. In Friendship Quilts, the blocks are all of the same design:

This design features colored bands of fabric crossing each block diagonally from corner to corner, with a square at the center for an inscription; in some quilts the areas between the bands were also filled with signatures or inscriptions. (81)

In Album Quilts (also referred to as Presentation Quilts, Bride's Quilts, and Freedom Quilts), each block is different both in design and construction (some may be pieced while others are appliqued). Like a Friendship Quilt, it is also signed (although not necessarily in every block). Both Friendship and Album Quilts were popular in the 1840s and '50s, partly because of westward expansion - the quilts were inscribed with messages from friends and family and given as gifts to the traveler(s). Blocks were sometimes sent by mail to the recipient to then be made into a quilt.

Quilts that the pioneers took with them had other uses besides as bedcovers: they were used to cover windows and doors; to line wagons against wind and weather, and to protect fragile things such as china while in transit. They were also hung across the open ends of wagons to protect against Indian attacks. Quilts were sometimes used in lieu of coffins on the journey, especially if wood was scarce.

Crazy Quilts often contained swatches of cloth from wedding dresses, gowns, cloaks, or other articles of clothing, as well as commemorative ribbons from military campaigns or reunions, horse shows or fairs, and political campaigns.

Mourning or Memorial Quilts were sometimes made from garments of the dead (usually large swatches instead of small ones), but more often they were made as memorials. These quilts seem to show their significance in the images, words and colors they contain. The Kentucky Graveyard Quilt is a well-known example of this genre.

Sources:

The American Quilt: A History of Cloth and Comfort 1750-1950

Roderick Kiracofe

Clarkson Potter: New York, 1993

p. 80-2, 86-90, 118-120, 146-9, 170-1

Kentucky Historical Society

Graveyard Quilt

http://205.204.134.47:2005/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/quilts&CISOPTR=24

questions

Over the past week I have been asking myself what memory is. It seems like a logical starting point for this project - if I am to examine how quilters have used their craft towards commemoration (and, at the same, to make my own artifact), I will need to have a working definition of what it means to remember. It is a difficult question. The process of remembering is so changeable, so dependent on circumstances and context, that it seems impossible to generalize. Memories can surface from a particular scent; a quality of light; a specific site (or a place that is a reminder of somewhere else); a photograph or sound recording; language or speech; an emotion, or a physical feeling - there are an innumerable number of causes. But memories often seem random as well, unrelated to physical or psychological conditions.

In the exploration of this question, other related questions have come about:

Why are some events, figures, and feelings remembered while others are lost?

What marks something as worthy of remembrance (i.e. what distinguishes one moment from another)?

These questions are not new - I have constantly asked myself them in the past, and continue to do so. But, like memory itself, my answers are also changeable. What applies to one memory doesn't necessarily relate to the next.

This week, I consulted two sources: Sans Soleil, a 1983 film by Chris Marker, and The Mechanism of Mind by Edward de Bono. Sans Soleil is the film that first sparked my interest in the nature of memory, so I went back to it to look (or listen) for relevant information. This is what I found:

I'll have spent my life trying to understand the function of remembering, which is not the opposite of forgetting, but rather its lining. We do not remember. We rewrite memory much as history is rewritten.

Since my work constantly questions the process of remembering and examines forgetfulness or a loss of memory, I was interested in this quote from the mechanism of mind:

A memory does not have to be particularly informative about what has caused it. The interpretation, or readback, of the memory may be difficult, misleading or even impossible. (39)

These two quotes form the basis for what I hope to achieve conceptually with the quilt that I make. I am most interested in the 'holes,' the places where there is no such thing as an accurate memory and one is forced to use one's imagination to fill in the gaps.

Sources:

The Mechanism of Mind

Edward de Bono

Simon and Schuster: New York, 1969

p. 38-56

Sans Soleil (film)

Chris Marker

1983