HEY POLLY YOU'RE SO FINE Y.S.F.Y.B.M.M!!!!!

HEY POLLY ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !






^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^MY FAVE ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^










Oh Polly, You're so wacky!!!

I found this little gem in the Library. It's brilliant. Like all the other old fashioned embroidery i've found from around the 70's - 80's - it's a bit mad and sometimes creepy! In the last image i've selected, that man's face looks like the Michael Myers mask in Halloween! I do love the second image though, it's great. It's all kind of a bit sketchy. I think that's what makes it good in a strange way, it's a bit whimsical and childlike.

SEW HIP!!!

THIS MAGAZINE IS SEW HIP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



It's really useful actually, given me a lot of pointers when making my final piece.

Tracey Emin

I'm sometimes a bit dubious of artists like Emin, I spent a long time really hating her but I do like her comfort blankets, I do i do i dooo-oooo (not much as Kel likes Orange Soda). I like how they're predominantly text but on a base of patcwork style fabric. Also, the themes in the written text contradict the theme of the comfort blanket where as I want to go with the theme rather than against.

MAXINE SUTTON

I found this artist in a embroidery magazine in college. I really like the mixed material and composition. I think i'll probably have a bit more of a sense of a story with the piece that i will make. I'm not going to produce a patchwork quilt, just oging to apply the idea of patchwork and quilt seperately to create more of a comfort blanket with imagery inspired by my collections.

PATCHWORK # 4

This book is by far the best yet...if not ever. It is probably the best book I've seen for ages. It's called 'Creative Patchwork' by June Field. Oh June!



Not only is it from the 1970's, it's also absolutely full of amazing and funny imagery, tips, colour photos galore! There really aren't words for how up my street this is. I've got to buy it.

Unfortunately, a lot of photos are in black & white but they're still brilliant. There are even ideas for patchwork clothes, umbrella's, cushions. One photo looks like her whole kitchen is covered in patchwork... that's a bit hardcore for a novice like me.



The whole idea of the book is to give patchwork a new dimension. This is exactly what I hope to do.

"It will appeal both to the enthusiastic beginner, and to the skilled worker looking for new ideas."

Brilliant.



^ These designs look to be fairly easy to have a go at myself.



The image above had me laughing for ages. It still does now actually. I stopped to look at this page because I saw the dolls made of patchwork and they looked to have really sweet faces. But the longer I looked the more sinister it became. I'm not sure whether this is intentional or not but the expressions on the faces of each of the dolls looks as though they're going to 'do that clown in'

LOOK!



I have included the next image in my research as I feel it's strongly influenced by some of the work i've already looked at in Samplers. It's nice to see indirect aspects of imagery repeated from early centuries in the same area of work. HERE is the exmaple of the old samplers. The use of houses was a strong theme for textile based craft work in the Victorian era.



The image below is the mark of a turning point in my project. It's a piece from the mid 19th century. I love it. The collaged imagery of animals and inanimate objects with different textures and sizes has influenced me to maybe try something like this rather than the panelled idea i'd previously come up with. I like the idea of different fabric being used. It's given me a little bit of an idea for a screenprinting method I have used in a workshop a few weeks back. I could produce a mixed media fabric based piece included small areas where there is print combinded with texture in embroidery or different fabrics. I feel patchwork has a Swiss folk fabric feel to it and reminds me a little of the work of Swedish designer Olle Eksell.

Patchwork # 3

The 3rd book that caught my eye was this one, Japanese Quilt Art III (THREE!!!) By Setsuko Segawa. Although (like the others) the publication is pretty dated, I like the layout & size & style of the book... which is odd. The first double page spread has the really nice photo of who i'm assuming Setsuko Segawa. I like the composition and graininess of the image and i'm sure it was not intended to be such a large factor of why someone might be attracted to the publication as there is nothing else like it in the book.







I really like the first of the images below. I find it quite humourous and i'm really drawn in by it's childlike qualities. I'ts a really unusal and interesting image to base a quilt on. It's almost like the quilter was having a bit of a mess around with sewing lines on the machine when they came up with it. It really works though!... weirdly!

<





The top two images are more reminiscent of the styles that spring to mind when I frst thought of Japanese designs in quilting. They're very elegant and involve traditional imagery and colours. They're beautiful and the age of them kind of makes them tacky at the same time. I say tacky because of the bits of shiny fabric that was probably really beautiful in the 80's but now is all a bit dated a twee. I can't help thinking of someone down the market shouting, "TWO PAAAAND(£2) FOR A METER'...TWO PAAAAND A METER!" I really like that about it though as it appeals to my junk collecting/hoarder side.

Patchwork # 2

The next book I found was a bit of a jump into the 'future' compared to last book.
Contemporary Quilts By Barbara Hallas is described as a 'gallery of modern textile hangings' I think the main use of the book is to inspire quilt makers on 'what to make next'. It's a good insight to what was deemed 'modern' quilting in 1994.

There are some really impressive designs in the book along with some really dated and awful ones. All of which have taken an awful lot of time and planning to create.
I have picked out a couple of really nice geometric patterns which look quite simple to replicate but i'm sure a pretty frickin' difficult.

I have not yet looked into the details of quilting iteslf as far as how to quilt goes but I think i've got a pretty good idea. I know that it's really difficult and time consuming if you've never produced one before but i'm not exactly looking to make a direct copy of 'a patchwork quilt' I just know that i'm going to be using textiles panels of imagery and stitching in a patchwork style, not necessarily with the word quilt on the end.

PATCHWORK

Since the final peice I want to create is inspired by the idea of a patchwork quilt, I decided to trawl Vernon Street & Blehneim Walk libraries.

These are photos of a few examples of the book 'Samplers' (V&A) By Donald King.

Samplers are old embroidery peices from the early 17th to the middle of the 19th century. They were usually produced by young school girls from ages as young as 5 up to around 15 years old. Although sometimes they were also made professionally for specific purposes. (cover)

The pieces I have selected are those I find the most applicable to my own work and hope to get a little bit of inspiration on layouts and themes. After a lot of reading it's really amazing to think about the work that has actually gone into them. They are all hand sewn which is the most impressive thing. Most of the book is very old fashioned craftwork but I really love the examples with animals involved, they remind me of ancient cave paintings or Egyptian hieroglyphics. I love the sense of storytelling in some of them, where some have a central focal point surrounded by pattern and others have horizontal left to right composition like a page of a book. It's a shame the whole book is in black and white, It would be nice to see some coloured samplers to see what was used at the time, although seeing as they're Victorian they'll have faded with time.

When I think about it, I'll have deffinately seen some samplers in real life at the V&A but obviously not payed a heck of a lot of attention. Next time i'll not be walking straight past!










Check out the intricate needlework! Those poor little fingers!