What was I thinking?

When I started with this quilt, several years ago? It is just black and white patches, no colour, the design is not working and the size is huge!
Although the quilt was named after our cat Pico (yes, the b&w cat) who already tested the softness and the quality of the fabrics I used, in reality this is my frustration quilt. I only work at it when something is bothering me, when I am frustrated or am wound up.

There is something calming and relaxing in hand-sewing quilts. With small patches you build a block. When you start to sew the blocks together you get this large top of soft cotton. Baste this top, a soft padding and a backing fabric together to form a textile sandwich and then start with the most tedious work: hand stitching through these three layers - the real quilting.


And that is where I made the mistake. I was so eager to make a new quilt, something to do that would be relaxing and calming because I just needed that. So eager that I completely overlooked the importance of the design process. Instead of carefully selecting a design, I just took an old design which was tucked away in an old folder (that is the reason it was tucked away of course - the design was just not good enough). Not even bothering going through all kinds of colour decisions, and picking out the bunch of black and white fabrics that for some unknown reason I had been collecting, I started - just wanting to get going.


And when I started piecing the blocks, it got so addictive that I kept making them - all 224 of them. By the time the top was completed, I was convinced that I had truly made a big mistake. And there I was, with this huge quilt top that I could either disregard or finish. Seems that I am not the quitting kind of person. So I keep on quilting, pulling the thread through these layers, bonding them together. Regretting that I did not take the time to make a better design cause this one is not working. Regretting the choice of black and white - I know that I am not a black and white kind of person anyway. Regretting the size...

What was I thinking when I started this quilt? The point is, I was not thinking at all.
Just wanted to get something going. Did I learn something from this? Maybe. Probably. The next traditional quilt has already been designed in my head. I know which colours will be used and the quilting design is planned as well.

I might not have planned this time-consuming quilt - I might do that with the next one. But so now and then, I just need to get things going. Spontaneous. Not taking too much time to think about it. I dared and it did not turn out so well. Maybe the next time it will?

Page for Textile book 'Symbols and Signs'

For the True Colours Round Robin (textile book) on ABEurope group, I started with the theme 'Symbols and Signs' in the colours reds and purples.
The theme of symbols seems to pop up regurlarly in my life.
Two years ago, when we were on holiday in France and went to Honfleur, I bought a beautiful book of the artist Luciano Di Concetto. His work consists of calligraphy and his own designed symbols. This has already inspired me to make a little book with my own symbols in it.
You can find a photograph in this blog in the archive under the entry 'Signs and Symbols' in october 2005.
And then there is my fascination for the ancient Egyptian art, especially the murals, filled with little drawings depicting words. This began when I was 15 years old and did a project about the Egyptian kings for school.
Just recently I read 'Rosetta' , written by Barbara Ewing (a wonderful writer, I have now read all her books) in which the main character is fascinated by the Egyptian hieroglyphs as well.

I hope to use my own symbols in this textile book, but will use symbols from all around the world as well.
This first page is a very simple symbol: a X. The X symbol is filled with fibers, trapped between two layers of organza. The stitching around the symbol helps to make it more visible.
I intend to make loose pages in different techniques and then bind them together.

Samples

It has been a while since I worked with textiles - apart from handquilting an enourmous quilt which will take ages to finish. I really like stitching by hand. It is very relaxing.
Inspired by the workshop "Layering" taught by Cherilyn Martin, I decided to get going. My aim is at this moment to try out techniques and make samples, so no pressure for complete projects!
Here a piece of layered papers and paint, sewn to felt. Straight running stitches surround the little piece.
Easy and fun to do!