My original idea was to use old linens for this piece, but as I wrote in my last post I ran out of time to work with those ideas. I liked the idea of recycling things and so I started thinking about what I could use. One of the assessment pieces for my C&G course seemed to be a good starting point. It was my piece for bias strip appliqué. I had always intended to finish it off at some point.
The photos that my DH had found for me were images that reflected the changes that happen to our bodies as we get older. The background fabric on my bias strip appliqué piece reminded me of neurons. Both DH and I have experienced “senior moments” just recently. And so I ended up thinking about how we start to lose our mental faculties. We have also had the unfortunate experience in our families of watching parents lose contact with the world through dementia.
A bit of googling for dementia images turned up this wonderful sketch, which was the final inspiration for my piece that I am calling “Unravelling”. It seems to me that this is what happens to us as we get older. In our brains the neuronal connections start unravelling.
I had another senior moment when quilting this piece – it was only when it was completely finished that I realised I had forgotten to lower the feed dogs on the machine. I had remembered to put on the darning foot though!
Unravelling, 23cm x 30 cm, hand dyed cotton fabric, cotton thread
The bias strips and the cotton thread are both actually dark purple – they look more like black in the photo. The only change I made to the original piece was to lower the eye to its more natural position to allow room for the brain.
[...] image of the teaser image posted below. To read the whole story behind this piece please go over to Use Your Eyes and follow the challenge there. Unravelling, 23cm x 30 cm, hand dyed cotton fabric, cotton thread [...]
Love the the picture. it is so telling. I work almost daily with people suffering from different typs of dementia. I love how you use the line in differnt strength as a design element. Do I ever learn to put things simple an clear?!?
I think as I get more senior I’m actually having more junior moments. I love the idea of the question mark – I think there’s just more questions as we age, not less. Surely that’s the best way to be?
I think my brain has been unravelling a little just lately so I can really relate to this piece of work – I love it – well done for making me smile Ruth. I often deliberately work with the feed dogs up together with the darning foot. It give a different feel to the stitching but can be most successful on a thicker “sandwich”. If I remember (!) I’ll post a photo of a bag I made in this way.
Gill, I’ve made the same mistake on one of my pieces for C&G. The white sampler made from a pillowcase. I did all the quilting with the feed dogs up. I think if you are doing mostly front to back stitching and not side to side movements it works very well and gives you more control over stitch length. Some machines don’t have the option anyway do they? I have to admit that it wasn’t either time intentional though