My inspiration always comes from natural and man-made patterns in and on the Earth’s crust. My regular followers and collectors know that I’m currently very interested in stuffed Suffolk puffs. Several tabletop installations of these 3D units, in the “Growth’ series were presented in my recent solo exhibition, “Elements of Landscape”. Originally based on anything roundish as it grows in volume; think of some coloured dye dropped into water, or the rapid development of a huge storm cloud, and the volcanic magma solidifing as it runs into the sea forming large nodules known as pahoehoe (which inspired two wall quilts of that name) and just look at these mushrooms in our own garden today :

These puffs make a lovely surface for further stitch embellishment, and I’ll continue to explore it intil I feel it’s run its course, or that I just need to take a break from it. That’s exactly what I did with my “Ancient Explorations” series, last added to with A.E XIV, 1992. I’ve alway felt that it’s still ‘open’ and that one day I might resume making A.E. works – never say never! Recently another fibre artist, can’t remember in which group or SM page, apologised for being a bit obsessive with her current theme – but I feel that a certain degree of obsessive focus on one theme is the situation out of which innovation occasionally emerges as we artists periodically review and question our work.

In conversation with several other textile artists this week, the importance of meaningful stitching has come up in several ways. On Tuesday, our embroiderers circle held its fortnightly zoom meetup I’m no longer in StitchClub, but all the others in the group still are, and several showed some delightful samples from the recent stitched portrait workshop, with show and tell being an important part of our get togethers. StitchClub is about learning and trying out stitch techniques on sample piece with a topic the teacher selects. Some members leave them unmounted, but others methodically mount and catalogue them in albums as a record, and others incorporate them into a finished project by framing or incorporating into a cushion cover, and so on.. A couple of Pinks said/confessed they didn’t like stitching portraits so they’d skipped that workshop – and we all agreed it’s important to stitch something that has personal meaning.

As an experienced member of SAQA, each year I volunteer to mentor a fellow member who has applied for mentor guidance to help them work towards a particular goal they’ve identified n their practice. This year’s partnership has just commenced, and my new mentee is looking for guidance on focusing and refining her vision and style, in other words developing a recongisable ‘artist’s voice’. If I’m successful, the process that has just started will continue long after our contract year ends. My own personal experience developing my own voice rather than work to someone else’s theme began with a slide presentation by an American art quilter 35+ years ago. As she showed us her works in chronological order, she talked about what they told her about herself and her vision. Much of my work at that time was still creative embroidery, but all had been professionally photographed for my 1987 ‘Sunburnt Textures’ exhibition. So next day I did as she did, and it was an eye opener. Through this blog and lots of other bits of writing (lists, quotes) and sample making that my dear readers never see, I’ve continued with ongoing self examination with research of all kinds of things, ranging between my lifelong personal interests and newer, often tech driven interests. Through my own Life Story (see pickledgizzards) and jottings in this blog, you may see how some of my personal views have long been expressed in stitch of some kind.

And also in the last few days I was discussing my recent solo exhibition with a friend who strongly suggested that I now need to make and show some installations. They’re big on installation art here in UY, but it’s my opinion that too many fibre or textile art ‘installations’ are essentially large sized collections of fabrics or fibres, too often lacking real manual skill or craft. I admire a number of installation artists who do spend a great deal of time and effort using their best skills to present their vision, and my own portfolio shows that I could do the same if it helps me achieve what I want to create, but I’m not interested in working large just for the sake of it.

To the uninitiated, the collection of fabrics, the raw materials of patchwork, is called a ‘stash’, and this paragraph may not seem to have anything to do with a fabric stash, but please stay with me.…I’ve always been fascinated by the erosion/deposition cycle of landscape, and I’ve come to see it as a metaphor for a human life. From the very beginning of The Earth, volcanism, wind, water and temperature change have acted on the earth’s surface in a never ending constant cycle, usually producing change so slowly that we barely notice it happening around us. A human undergoes change all his life, too: dramatic, rapid and obvious in youth, but more gradual and frequently unnoticed by family and surrounding community as the person ages.

Temporarily living in the USA in 1988 and having no work visa, I decided I’d study and learn to make traditional geometric patchwork. I signed on to classes and of course needed to buy some suitable fabric to use in that class. I began with the Flying Geese pattern, in a whole day class by Blanche Young.

Really enthused over it all, I joined the local Arapahoe County Quilters Guild and a wonderful quilting bee, the Friday Morning Block Party and those involvements increased my rate of fabric buying:- there were monthly block exchanges and challenges, and when bee members traveled anywhere we always looked for and bought a ‘souvenir’ fabric for ourselves, buying enough to to be able to give a fat 1/4 of it to bee members when we got back. Just as they say you shouldn’t visit the supermarket when you’re hungry, we all know you shouldn’t shop for fabric when you’ve more than enough time to browse the shop … and whether you’re a maker of traditional or non-traditional quilted textiles, an essential part of the whole quilt making process is selecting those fabrics you need/want from the array of colours and prints available in quilt and general fabric shops.

Early quilted recycled textiles have been recorded in many cultures, not just the north American and European ones we commonly associate with ‘quilting’ and many of those could have had bedding uses. The earliest reference I found was from Egypt 3500+ years ago. I personally saw in an exhibition on the innovations of the peoples of The Steppe, a fragment of quilted layered fabric dated to around 300 AD from somewhere in China, thought to have been used between a saddle and a horse. All of them have in common being made from layers of fabric salvaged from worn out garments and household linens once they were beyond repair. In the past decade or so this recycling aspect of quilt making art has again become important as a fashionable trend with a politically correct feel-good vibe, along with the money saving potential it has always had.

Among quilters whose studios have featured in magazine articles, or some makers I’ve known well enough to have been in their homes or studios, I’ve seen some incredible, huge, fabric stashes. Think walk-in wardrobes and dressing rooms filled with enough fabric to stock a reasonable shop – all folded and colour coded, stacked floor to ceiling on deep shelves. I’ve seen some double-door built-in wardrobes full of plastic tubs of fabric piled from from floor to ceiling. I’ve seen heaps of cartons full – and just plain heaps of fabric piled up everywhere in true hoarder fashion. I claim that my own peripatetic history coupled with my make-do or innovate attitude honed by 20 years of Outback living has had much to do with only ever having a modest fabric stash myself.

In the last year, I’ve been developing a real interest in 3D works, partly prompted by discovering a long forgotten 3D work in a package sitting on my shelf here for years. Following a talk I gave the SAQA 3D Special Interest Group a few months ago, I became more interested in something from my embroidery past – stuffed Suffolk puffs, and since then have made some new works featuring them, and these four pieces are currently in my Maldonado UY, exhibition.

As I write it’s mid January, and approximately a year ago (give or take a week) I bought some new fabric which turns out to have been the last fabric purchase in a year. I hadn’t declared a New Year Resolution to do so, but, in effect everything I’ve made since then, 2D or 3D, has all been from fabric I already had in my stash or at least partly made using recycled fabric. I’ll continue on this path to see how far I can take it… basically, in landscape terms, I’ve definitely moved from the stash building/deposition phase of the last 4+ decades to the stash reduction/erosion phase, and who can say how long this phase of the Fabric Stash Cycle will last? I’ll continue on this path to see how far I can take it before something interrupts this process!

Being a bit superstitious, on New Year’s Day I blew the teaspoon of cinnamon over the front doorstep into the house and wished on that; and did the pinch and a punch for the first of the month routine first thing while speaking my first words for the day to my dearly beloved… but three days later he still hasn’t responded with his punch and a kick for being so quick, so I’m not sure if that invalidates the good luck bit, or perhaps it does for him only, so fingers X – as I believe in the power of crossed fingers, too!

We’re only on day 4, but already the trouble spots around the world have been added to and become far more worrying. I read several daily newspapers from Australia, Uruguay and USA, and follow developments through several podcasts I’ve come to rely on for sensible reporting and analysis. Mike and I only have TV news on first thing in the morning, turn it off for most of the day, and watch news and commentary for a couple of hours in the evening, and then we go to Netflix or other entertainment channels. We think that’s a reasonable balance, but I know several people who refuse to watch any TV news at all, and also read very little about it what’s going on “out there”. As citizens of the world, I’ve always believed we all need to pay attention and have opinions on what’s happening at the local, national and international levels of our world. While current events are concerning, nothing stays the same for ever, and the power balances that shape politics all around us are all fascinating: there’s always a ray of hope, no matter the crisis.

Though I’m not a big maker of resolutions, I have made a couple: the first was really before the end of last year, and the other formed in my mind today.

Firstly, I am determined to read more actual paper books for pleasure. It’s wonderful to turn over pages as I read something that is holding my attention. I’ve always had the rule that if a book hasn’t grabbed and held my attention by page 50, I just abandon it – ditch it, and prepare to read another. There are so many books to read and so little time, considering that I also hold needles and threads in my hands for large segments of my waking time.

Secondly, I’ve decided that as far as possible, I’ll only work with fabrics I’ve already purchased; and will seriouly consider recycling fabrics of worn out clothes and household linens where I can, because there’s also the duster bag-cleaning cloths alternative, too. This morning I faced reality about this favourite, classic tailored style button-down long-sleeved Jones of New York shirt that I’ve had at least 10 years. The poplin cotton has just a little stretch, and the rich strong pink my mother called ‘lipstick pink’ has always suited me. It’s been worn and washed so many times though, it was now visibly threadbare along the collar and cuff edges, damage that dabbing with a felt tip pen could no longer help hide. Ignoring the temptation to wear it ‘just once more…’ I cut it up.

Once the buttons are all removed I’ll toss the collars and cuffs in the bin, but the body sections and sleeves will be put into a placcy bag to wait while I think about how to use it. I envisage either a 3D assembly in the Growth series or it would be nice with a strong contrast colour to make a piece for the “Opposites” – old v. new ? My entry’s due by the end of the month… and I need to get pedaling on that now.

I’ve pretty well finished curating my own solo exhibition, for the first time, really. In the past ‘someone else’ organised the venue and everything, and pretty much all I’ve previously had to do was turn up to help with or supervise the hanging… and then grace the opening with my presence 🙂

How things have changed since my last solo, here in Montevideo, 2009 – too long ago, I know. I’ve made many works since then, but though I’ve shown them in juried group shows in Australia and USA, only a few have been seen here in Uruguay. WhenI accepted this solo exhibition opportunity, I then went through a lengthy thought process, reviewing why I create what I do while I updated mywebsite and reworded statements. Everything tumbled about in my mind for several weeks until the phrase ‘elements of landscape’ popped out at me from something I had written. Once that title was settled, and I had seen the gallery and had the dimenstions, it was easier to make final choices. They needed to strongly relate to my overall statement, and because of space limitations with just one exception I chose works younger than 5 years old which includes the new soft sculptures made this year. The one age exception is the 2018 diptych Sweat of The Sun;Tears of The Moon, because those are the Ancient Incas’ terms for the precious metals gold and silver, referencing an important part of this continent’s human history.

The Casa de la Cultura is owned and operated by the City of Maldonado. The director, Ana Guerra, told me that the centre’s team of people will hang the show as I want it; and they have arranged local advertising using material I supplied, which is wonderful. I’ve been distributing my own poster announcement to my personal contacts. Everything is ready to take to Maldonado for the hanging on Monday Dec 29th, and the opening, (vernissage) will be on the evening of January 2nd. The centre handles the opening night, and I expect it will be similar to the Glass+Textile one I attended in January 2024: people wandered through all the other 6 or 7 exhibitions opening that night, while out in the courtyard a string quartet played and someone served non-alcoholic drinks. It was all very pleasant.

With the spread of digital information since my last solo, I’ve used several digital information resources. I will be present at the opening of couse, but won’t be in attendance most of the time the show is up. To help gallery staff with any inquiries, I’ve compiled an information folder containing my contact information, my bio and artist statement (in two languages) and selected resume, plus an illustrated price list, so there’s no confusion about what’s being bought by direct funds transfer to my account. I’ve printed off and mounted on foamcore the title of each work and a sentence or two about their inspiration, in both languages, Spanish and English. These will be attached on the wall near each piece, or on the plinths for the several soft sculptures.

When my friend Virginia Castleton (dec) organised my 2009 solo show, she recommended having 6-sided folding brochures printed, with photos, resume and bio highlights, which was terrific at the time, but when I consider the fate of artist brochures I’ve collected down the years – well, let me say I’m not doing that this time! Just this morning I came across a sheet of paper I picked up at an Australian artist’s exibition in a gallery I visited in 2014. There must have been a heap of these, printed on both sides with artist statement, photo, and bio and resume highlights for us to help ourselves, but all I’d done with that paper was fold it in 4, bring it back in my luggage, and put it with other bits and pieces into a folder on my shelf. I checked this forgotten artist’s website and found she is still producing art inspired by the same themes, but as I don’t care for her newest work, I binned it, which is where most of these things end up, anyway.

So this time, for anyone who really wants to learn more about me, ta daaaaah!!! this QR code with my photo will be up on all walls around the gallery, and using their smart phones, visitors will be taken to the links of my website, (up to date) my blog, a couple of YouTube videos and my social media, Instagram and Facebook.

Nothing replaces going to a gallery or museum and seeing up close what people create, and thinking about what inspired them, why they chose the materials they did, and whether their techniques were appropriate to their theme or intention… those are big questions I have in mind as I wander through any exhibition. Most weekends I browse for an hour or two on Pinterest, which I regard as the digital equivalent of looking though the latest art books and catalogues, and I can glance through so many more different media ‘shows’ than I could possibly visit in real time.

This morning I discovered the mixed media art of Wendy Meg Siegal with whom I resonated on many levels, for her thoughts about creativity and inspiration, and her techniques, some of which I also use. Her work features lots of raw edges that are mostly also frayed to emphasise their rawness 🙂 but what caught my attention was that many of her works include holes and cutouts as design elements. As my regular readers know, I’ve long had a thing for holes and lace, as you’ll see if you visit this Pinterest board htpps://www.pinterest.com/alisonschwabe1/holes/ My followers and collectors know that my inspiration comes mostly from patterning in and on the Earth’s crust, and Wendy’s art was a timely reminder of ‘holes’ everywhere around us – in both the natural world and in man-made objects.

Now that I’ve almost finished curating my January solo exhibition (eeek – hanging day Dec 27th is pretty close!) … the next project I’m self-committed to is make an entry (or three) for the SAQA Oceania Region’s exhibition “Opposites”, entries for which open and close in January. Back in September I began thinking about this, and I’m STILL thinking about it.

This little sample has been hanging round for at least ten years, along with others which have all appeared in various posts on the concept of ‘lace’ (I should date them like Shelley Rhodes – she has an actual date stamp) Recently this and the others have been on my mind, calling me down a path I should explore more. When we think of ‘opposites’, one of the things I myself go to automatically is black v white, and as I’m tipping there will be several entries in black/white designs, I probably won’t go there. But of course it needn’t be so cliched, as the design could be made using colours from opposite sides of the colour wheel, or even any two colours separated only by enough values so that, like the two above, as used they perform the function of ‘opposites’, the success of which would be determined by the actual shapes and their arrangement.

But first, I must choose some materials to work with ! I’d love to do a grid of black squares and the brushed metallic finish gold polyester I’m so in love with just now (here’s that ‘glitter’ thing again) but that fabric melts with the iron… nevertheless, I’m thinking about some way to work with it…