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