In my work I am currently exploring the concept of irregularity, or at least loosening up my work. I remembered an exercise that I undertook in a workshop at Textile Fibre Forum in 2004. The work in the previous post was a recent example of that process.

This is the work that was jointly made by the class and presented by the class to our tutor.

Blind Stitching

This project was inspired by an 80 year old blind quilter. Although she
was blind she still led her Quilt Group, taught others to quilt and quilted
herself. ‘The physical act of stitching was encoded in her being after a
lifetime of quilting. The social interaction of women quilting together
was an integral part of her life.

In this project each participant was blindfolded and sewed eight lines of
stitches in response to eight different words: Gesture, Shape, Interval,
Texture, Mass, Organic, Intuition and Dialogue. These were sewn as if
they were lines of writing on a page and as stitching progressed the
personal marks of each individual emerged. When viewed as a whole the
marks read as a map of minds and hands finding their way.

Tutor: Dorothy Caldwell

Students: Leonie Andrews, Maz Beeston, Mary Crehan, June Fiford, Helen Grey,
Suzanne Gummow, Marita Hanigan, Alison Horridge, Jan Irvine-Nealie, Susan Jardin,
Adrienne Johns, Camille Lord, Kylie Rose McLean, Susan O’Connor, Sandy Soul, Carolyn Sullivan,
Belinda Von Mengersen, Fiona Wright