Better Late Than Never!

(Above: Carl Sandburg's Remembrance Rock, in progress. Click on image to enlarge.)

Last week Nina Marie Sayre started an on-line project called Off the Wall Friday. (Click HERE for this week's OFF THE WALL FRIDAY.) The idea is for artists working in textiles (especially art quilters) to post a blog image on her site of a WIP ... that is "Work in Progress". One is to link her blog post as well. I thought this was a very good idea. I'd fallen into the habit of blogging only finished work. This is week two. It is also Saturday ... a full day late but "better late than never!" I hope Nina Marie's site accepts this photo. I'll see in a minute!


(Above: Remembrance Rock, the final resting place of Carl Sandburg and his wife on the grounds of his birthplace in Galesburg, Illinois.)

So ... what am I working on? One of my current projects is the hand stitching of a unique grave rubbing art quilt. The rubbings are on a small vintage tablecloth with a wide crocheted edge. They include various Sandburg quotations, his name, and the impression from Remembrance Rock, the final resting place of Carl Sandburg. I made the rubbings on my first weekend at Studios Midwest for a month long art residency in Galesburg, Illinois, birthplace of Carl Sandburg. I combined the tablecloth with another, tan one with lots of cross stitch and did the free motion machine embroidery around all the letters during my final two days in Galesburg. I started hand stitching on the ride back to Columbia ... two weekends ago. The stitching is inspired by kantha, a form of quilting done in Bangladesh and West Bengal, India ... a way to use dense running stitches to "repurpose" old saris together as "quilt" or another household piece of linen. I love doing this ... and it will take quite some time to finish the surface!