Ramshackle: Margins

This month I finished this piece for the Stretching Art and Tradition 2020 exhibition. I didn’t get around to photos straight away because I had an extra project to get on with.
Anyway, finally.

Ramshackle:Margins
My series of ramshackle houses explores community. In this work, I am looking at the positive and negative space of community. Showing that different communities and those within their margins by definition also mean others are not included in that community.
So what about those on the edges?
Or those who who are beyond the periphery?

Detail

A bit of progress

A glimpse...

Halfway through quilting. Hope to finish a work on binding today.

This week’s project

Margins

I am working on a Ramshackle piece for Stretching Art and Tradition 20. The theme is Community. So, perfect for an idea I have had.
And here is a glimpse from early in the week when the sun was shining through the window.

The sun picked up the chalk marks I made for the villages and houses.

Ramshackle- a fresh one

I wanted to take part in the SAQA Spotlight auction which will take place at their conference in Toronto. But after the cough was gone, last week my back was so painful I couldn’t do anything much, especially machine sewing.
Finally yesterday I was able to ignore the pain enough to get a new Ramshackle piece done.

Ramshackle: Big House Small Tree

The size is 6”x8”, but they will be framed in a mount with an aperture 4.5”x6.5”. So I have laid paper strips around the sides to see what it will look like.

So, today I managed the post office, though I drove. And the piece is winging its way to the collection point!

When I was checking through the requirements, I came across a photo from a previous year, used as an example of how they will be displayed for the auction.

And there in the middle is one of mine! Ramshackle Hilltop from 2016.

West Country Quilt & Textile Show

Judges Highly Commended!!!

For Ramshackle Suburbs

As well as the rosette, there were goodies. Somehow they had 2 goody bags left for 3 people! So we shared the goodies out between us. 😁

Photo by Pat Beattie 

But is it Safe? At Festival of Quilts

I was excited to see that my work in the Art category had been hung on one of the white walls, rather than the black drapes.

And even more excited to see I had a Judges Choice!

And then at the SAQA dinner, I met another member. We talked of family things. Then she asked about my work. I showed a photo of one of the Ramshackle pieces. And then discovered she was the judge who selected my quilt as her favourite!

This photo thanks to Roz Rossiter. 

Yes, and of course, I have forgotten her name! Oh, yes. It is on the email Roz sent. Jenny Hall. 

Thank you Jenny for this support. 

Ramshackle - But is it Safe? Finished!

On Thursday last week I completed the work I have been doing about refugees. It is in my Ramshackle series, but I am just calling it But is it Safe? Follow the link to see the processes and development.

On Friday, I was able to get the photos done so, it is about ready to wing its way into the world.

Here it is completed and the story which goes with it.

But is it Safe?

Hearing news of refugees fleeing has made me think.

It appears that refugees in Country no.1 flee to Country no.2 because they are in danger.

Meanwhile, in Country no.2, refugees flee to Country no.3 because of the dangers they have faced.

Then in Country no.3, they flee to another section of their Country,
because they have been invaded and their homes have been destroyed.

In addition, I hear that from any of these countries, refugees head to the sea hoping they can get to a different place altogether where "no one" is in danger.

So, I ask...Who will break the cycle? What can I do?

Left side detail

Right side detail

Technique: Raw-edged, fused, reverse appliqué. Separate sections bound, inner edges joined with herring bone faggoting.
Material: Cotton, fusible, wadding, rug yarn, sewing thread

I like Thankful Thursday

I like progress! Today I began to see the progress on this Ramshackle piece, "But Is It Safe?".

The Thoughtful Man has finished painting the ceiling where the plastering had been done. Also, he set my table back in order. So, I have managed to get on with the Ramshackle piece I have been working on.

All the parts have been properly bound.

And I have started stitching sections together.

Someone, some time ago gave me a little bag of what they called “rug yarn”. I think if that’s what it is, it seems more like a thread they might have used to join carpet sections.

Anyway, it is just the right thing for this. There are other colours, too. I don’t know if I will stick with this colour throughout or use another colour.

I put white paper behind the herringbone stitching so you could see it better.

I might also add another row of herringbone over the first set. Not sure yet.
and then there is something about the deadline to consider! So, I better get the side pieces joined on before I think about that!

To see what the others like, follow the link to LeeAnna's blog.

Back to Ramshackle Ideas - 23

Light on the mountains. I will give it a press, 

but I am not going to add more stitch because it is mountains after all 

and I don't want to flatten them.

When I started having all the back spasms and eye problems last Autumn, I was working on a Ramshackle piece about refugees and displaced people. Now that I have caught up with other things, I have started back to work at it. Now all the pieces have had threads snipped, edges trimmed and squared up and the binding ready to apply.

I was closer to finishing than I realised. So, perhaps I can get it done by the end of this Bank Holiday weekend.

I like Thankful Thursday

A bit late today. Trying to get a photo and form submitted.
note: I hope the photos show up for this post because they don't seem to be loading properly. 😭

I am REALLY liking that I can see to sew on my machine!!!!
I did the stitching round this piece I am sending for the SAQA donation for the Spotlight Auction at their conference. Now to post it.

Ramshackle Bungalow. 6" x 8"

I like that this is the the first thing I have completed since I got new eyes! 👀

I was going to show a lot more, but I will just add this little lion shaped tea stain. The photo situation is not loading easily.

I like discovering random spills or whatever that look like something.

Come back next week for more I hope!
And to see what others are posting that they like, go to Lee Anna's blog.

Ramshackle ideas 22

Desert house. The look changes with the stitching.

Somehow enhances the character.

Now to deal with the threads. I have started stitching the forest section.

Ramshackle Ideas 21

The 31st October would have been the deadline for this work if I entered it into SAQA Forced to Flee. But although the theme seems just made for me, there have been too many things that kept me from working on it as much as I like.
I have been doing the machine stitching, even though suffering with my back. and to be honest, was really stretching myself to my limit.
However, I know there must be another venue waiting for it, so I am going to carry on. I did take a few needed days off...well, they were full of other things!

But, here is a little more of what I was doing the past week.

Since I am not overlapping the sections, I needed to fill the space I had left. So, Extra houses for the desert section. The bits that look like croquet hoops are meant to be housing set up for refugees rescued from the sea.

I have given them doors of a sort to look more like a house. A bit like I have done for the housing in the forest for other sea rescuees. (That should be a real word!)

Ramshackle Ideas 20

Design dilemma...
Now that the sea section is cut out, the dilemma is the fabric underneath that shows through the openings. Basically, I haven't got any more of the spotted fabric I used for the rest.

Here are some options I considered. I hadn't cut out all of the houses because I was afraid they would be lost!

underlying fabric choices

Left - the reverse of the wave fabric I bought for the project and realised it was too not going to work. It gives a light grey look which gives small glimpses of the waves.
Middle - the fabric I am using for the backing of the work
Right - a blue fabric with small print of curved leaf branch...could read as waves.

The middle was too yellow. The right was very good and would work in another situation, but it doesn't work with the colours in the desert, mountain and forest sections. It is quite a bit too different than the underlying fabric on those sections.
What I chose was the left one.

ready to fuse

When I originally chose it, thinking to use it for the sea section, one of the reasons was that it worked colour-wise with the other colours. (Later I found it was just too bold compared to them and the houses would blend into the waves.) So, what I mean is that the colour works. It gives a similar colour contrast in value as the other fabric does in the other sections. The waves aren't so overwhelming when glimpsed through the openings that make up the sketch.

So, by now I have also decided not to overlap the sections. So, I need to finish off part of the desert.

Ramshackle ideas 19

Now for the sea or water section

The chalk drawing


one of the capsized boats.

Ramshackle Ideas - 18

So, we are getting there!

The forest section ready for fusing.

some of the different houses
Normal houses, refugee housing, angry (militant?) houses, attacked village

Ramshackle ideas 17

2 parts of the forest section have been cut.

parts will be tweaked before fusing.

This is the destroyed village I showed the other day when it was just a sketch on the fabric.

a bit overexposed
I am trying to decide what to do about the windows. I had in mind a small solid line. But I have used that for villages attacked but not destroyed. On the photo above, you can see them on the right of the section... windows not cut yet. I am debating the idea of drawing the 'window' for that with thread.

Ramshackle ideas 16

one of the villages cut out and the pieces put in place.

The houses in the forest section are on stilts...like in some of the rain forest areas of the world. I hope when you can see them altogether they don't look like TVs!

Ramshackle ideas 15

some of the trees which have been cut in the forest section.

  

wondering why I decided there needed to be so many!

Ramshackle Ideas 14

So to the forest section...drawing the houses in chalk.

The villages are surrounded by various trees.

This part represents one of the villages which has been attacked.

Ramshackle ideas 13

and the desert section pretty much there.

The refugee tents in the desert near the top and the places they fled from in the bottom.

The gap on the left side is still there while I am considering if another section will overlap. I can rub that house out with a cloth, or go ahead and cut it out...I left that area unfused. maybe a few more smaller houses further up.