(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!
3 comments:
(grin) OTWFridays is suppose to encourage you to create - not to stress you out - so I'll always have linkage open for Fri and Saturdays! The idea of rubbings is so intriguing - you could really take that places - also saw your work and thought about stitches mimicking the rubbings - very cool!
It is already very beautiful. I know the border is probably not your art but found art, but it is striking and will make your art stand out all the more.
I love cemeteries and gravestones. When my children were young, I held school, taught lots of lessons in cemeteries. Love what you're doing here. I've poked around and seen some of your other pieces featuring tombstone rubbings. This one is fabulous. Love that bracelet, too.
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