At the end of 2020, I began to assemble the pieces I had worked on during The Year Of Covid. I spent the time wondering and looking for answers in needle, thread, and fabric, with a little paper thrown in here and there. One thing I did not do was to engage in dyeing. There seemed to be nothing I could envision that I might accomplish with dyes. So, I dealt with what I had done in past years, with color schemes that had interested me earlier. And sometimes tried new color combinations. This was probably a good decision, as I had cataract surgery in December, and my world changed from grey-tinged to a lovely, bright rainbow of colors I had not known since . . . ???
When I began putting the pieces together, I realized I had not kept up with things I had been making in an organized way, so the next job was to plunder drawers and boxes until I could collect everything in one place. When I did, the pieces began to talk to me, to need moving to be with others of that color or design or simply to improve the look. I saw patterns emerge, saw several ways of working that were new, even a return to using buttons. Oh, my gosh, but there is power in putting together a collection!
Below is a part of that body of work. The idea was to simply explore, to start thinking about stitch possibilities, to use the materials to follow up on sketchbook ideas or to work intuitively. Sometimes the intuitive work generated sketchbook activity that led to other pieces. There were no rules except what I might set for myself from day-to-day.
But first, these three pockets were made for a vest that I cobbled together from previously worn garments. It is pieced from different textures of light brown linen, and it needed some splashes of color.
It was interesting to make these pieces, but I did not plan for laundering, so we will see if this goes to the cleaners and comes back in reasonably recognizable condition.
