Author: Paola

Connected crafts

techniques

I have been drawing for several years, during my life.

My first sketchbook daily practice dates back to Primary school. Maybe I still have it, somewhere.

I’ve practiced several creative techniques during last decades: drawing, photography, painting on fabric, stitching, paper marbling, creative microscopy (that one was very addictive!), improv quilting (which added a relevant discovery: of quilting community!).

I’ve recently started to draw again, fine-liner pen on cotton paper doodle-type.

During the last exercise, I was surprised of how easily some spiralled clouds emerged from my blue pen ink work. Then, I realized: it was thanks to the long hours of free-motion quilting practice done while using that same motif: quilting spirals, indeed.   

The different crafting techniques one tries are connected to each other in some ways.

My photos of flowers were usually made in macro mode, so close-up that they tended to be abstract, and I tiled them in columns and rows like in a mosaic.

My first three quilts were aimed to represent a landscape; then I dropped that idea, and I continued mainly with abstract improv piecing.

My drawing re-start intent was to play with doodles and geometries, but it quickly turned into figurative subjects derived from my year-long database of photographs.

There is still a lot of room to learn, from this re-mix of techniques!

Quilting marathon colored as a blue sky

activism, collaborations, improv process

I’m happy to announce the start of a social sewing initiative, launched by local quilt shop Patchworkvictim, dedicated to the women and aimed to create a king size charity quilt.

We’ve been talking in the background of this project for several months, and now it’s ready to start. Quite on purpose, the initiative connects two dates, as the start and the finish of a quilting marathon, that are: November 25th 2020, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and March 8th 2021, International Women’s Day. Since my experience of some years ago, when I worked in my city council as a member of gender diversity and equal opportunities committee, I care that not just a single day is used as a celebration for such important themes, but a continuous practice is adopted, together, collaboratively. The charity recipient of this initiative will be a very effective working group: the local centre for protection of women from violence, G.O.A.P., a team well equipped to act both on the cultural change and on the practical needs.

So, here we are! The initiative calls for quilters that contribute by sewing one (or more) squares having 10 inch size each, up to a total of 132 squares. All those pieces shall be made using the technique I love most: improv piecing! I’m so happy to contribute to this project with local discussions on improv, and in the final sewing phase of more than one hundred pieces into a unique quilt top!

Improv can be defined in several ways, but in this occasion its main feature will be: composition! Indeed, participants are invited to experiment with minimalist composition improvisationally done, within own 10” square block. Isn’t it a nice challenge? To try graphic effects with the smallest possible number of elements? Minimalist composition can be both difficult and very simple: how to find elegance with tiny piecing and a wide negative space? There is a lot of room of expression with abstract mark making!

The rules to keep a uniform approach within the overall quilt are simple: use solid background, and choose light blue and white colours. Our quilting marathon looks forward to an arrival into the fresh air of new year Spring, and our community quilt can talk the language of clear white clouds running in a light blue sky!

If you wish to participate, all that is needed is to book your participation writing to info@patchworkvictim.it ; on Patchworkvictim blog all the details of the initiative are presented, including address for block shipment, key dates and initiative contributors.
I’ve already started to make a few improv blocks… come and sew with me!

Grass and wheat

improv process

I’ve completed my second quilt realized with the technique named “Wall Dance”, which I learnt studying with Irene Roderick.

I’ve tried to mix the lessons learnt about composition (to be tested by free remix on the design wall), with my habit of growing textures in a continuum, without interruptions.  

I’ve started this work in Summer, before the “Tagliamento king of rivers” exhibit arrangement, and at that time I was thinking: “Why not to include this work in the gallery?”. Too optimistic: I completed this quilt two months after the end of exhibition.

In September I restarted my collaboration with the local quilt shop. During the lecture I gave with them, on finding beauty in abstraction while doing improv (and managing chaos!), I was sewing yellow and green pieces “live”: the fabric which took part of this discussion, later entered into the quilt.

I chose the title: “Grasshopper path”. I imagine being small and jumping across wheat fields, leaving trace of route taken, as indicated by the arrows.

Yesterday I placed the finished quilt on the wall of my living room. My child observed the result, and proposed the following way to compose a quilt: “Take your small pieces of fabric, let them fall on the ground, and sew them in the position they have taken on the floor!”

Quilts playing hide and seek

Exhibits

Some months ago I went through a Facebook post that raised my curiosity.
It contained a light blue spot looking familiar to me.
I observed better: it was the story of a quilt gallery, held in Elba Island (the place where Napoleon reigned exiled in 1814). Just below the numbered text covering the picture, something real was playing hide and seek: a quilt of mine!

I didn’t know that this quilt of mine was travelling.
It was created for the 2019 Abilmente fair in Vicenza: it contained a bit of indigo fabric, participating to a national quilt contest based on the use of such color.
I named it “Pond”.
I allowed this quilt to be available for 15 months, potentially joining further events, but many quilting fairs were cancelled, several months have passed, and I forgot of its destiny.

The Facebook post brought “Pond” to my eyes again, since my quilting friend Ariella shared pictures of an unexpected initiative. Thanks to the post, I learnt of the exhibit arranged by Elba quilt guild, in collaboration with Quilt Italia, titled Patchwork as art to sew during times: “Pond” happened to become part of this event.

This was fascinating!
It suggested images of somebody’s hands, taking care of your work among other pieces, bringing it in Portoferraio town, hanging it on the wall, and arranging a group exhibit, all of this like a surprise. The gallery contained works of quilters from Elba, and a section of the indigo contest pieces, thanks to the organization by Anna Diversi.

Such photos were the first ones I could see since Spring, referring to a quilt gallery becoming true.
It was the end of August 2020.
In that moment, I felt confident that I could arrange my exhibit too, within the end of Summer.

And the idea for Tagliamento, king of rivers started to take shape.

Names for a texture

improv process, joining events

I like to explore the terms to be adopted when describing textures, the ones obtained by patchwork piecing. I’m tempted to borrow words that I use when I describe materials observed at the microscope.
A random texture could be an “isotropic” pattern. This means that you can see similar shapes, whatever direction you look them from. To make some examples: a bubble foam may be isotropic; a wood plate resulting from a longitudinal cut is not isotropic, being oriented in the branch growth direction.

I will talk about this in my next zoom video lecture, on Thursday September 24th at 17.30 CEST (Italian language), thanks to local quilt shop hosting the event. A good occasion to discuss on the fact that, even if improv piecing seems chaotic, there is still some reasoning behind!
For attendance, you can subscribe to Patchworkvictim mailing list, and you will receive free invitation link!

Overall video series can be found at this link.

Tagliamento king of rivers: exhibit vernissage

activism, Exhibits

The virtual gallery, Tagliamento king of rivers, lands on the real world!
The exhibit vernissage will take place in Trieste (Italy), on Saturday September 26th, hosted by Atelier dell’arte, with video live-stream at 18.00 CEST on Facebook page MostraTagliamento (discussion will take place in Italian language).

You will find photo prints on aluminium and acrylic for an immersive experience, quilt wall panels talking of water and sand, all hosted in an elegant Liberty style building, with large rooms that allow distancing; the attendance requires booking.

I’m so glad to host discussion on how to provide statutory protection to Tagliamento river and ecosystem, thanks to event guest Massimo Moretuzzo, regional councilor and primary promoter of the change.org petition aimed to enlist Tagliamento into Unesco Natural World Heritage. A few days have passed since the moment I subscribed the petition on-line, and already some more thousands of supporters have been added. Join us!

It’s not me who entitled Tagliamento as a king. The European relevance of the main alpine river ecosystem is established in scientific literature by German and Swiss researchers, creating the definition “den König der Alpenflüsse“. After reading the article by Tockner et al., “The Tagliamento River: a model ecosystem of European importance“, I understood why the most beautiful photos I took along Tagliamento streams were from the zone between Amaro and Cornino towns: because that area is recognized as the one with highest biodiversity!

Come to see it: you’re invited.

Quilts for a river

activism

Why we quilt? So many are the approaches to expression mediums, that this is the title of a book collecting diverse replies from re-known quilters speaking of the power of art, activism and community. The instances of creativity obviously include political quilts.
Time has come for some of my work to take this role!

May a quilt save a river?
If not one quilt, let’s try with three of them.

As soon as I heard on the media that our beloved main river of the region, Tagliamento, is endangered, all the stories in my memory, and all the material I composed, thanks to my long relationship with the river, joined forces.

I already created three quilts dedicated to Tagliamento river: the first was “King”.

“King” is inspired by the colors of river Tagliamento, said to be king of rivers of the Alps. It’s been, up to now, one of the few rivers in Europe having unaltered stream during all its route, from spring to sea. Recently approved highway construction plan threatens its course!

Tagliamento river water occasionally submerges under the rocks, and re-emerges after a while, a fascinating mechanism due to varying permeability of its riverbed: thus, lower part of composition is blending to white as the colors of river stones.

On “Tumbleweed” quilt, my log cabin piecing looked like the plants that break away from their roots and are driven around by the wind as a light rolling mass. Tagliamento riverbed hosts migrant plants; its natural territory has been subject of important scientific studies.

My most recent quilt is titled “Dam”: this name refers to a moment of play of my son with his friends, on the upper zone of Tagliamento river, accumulating stones in fancy shapes along the water. It was slightly raining but we could not stop staying there. While I climbed the stream towards the spring, I recalled my ancient love for this wonderful river.

Looking for my earlier work which represents my feelings for Tagliamento, was like reconnecting with my inner self: and I found plenty of material.

I wrote a travel diary of riverbed explorations: it is now available at this link, in e-book format.

I dedicated many years to photography: my favorite shots of Tagliamento river are now collected in a virtual gallery.

May this inspire you to act?

Invitation is here: sign the petition on change.org to give Tagliamento statutory protection, by its enlistment as Unesco World Heritage.

Degrees of freedom getting large

improv process

It was two months that I’ve been waiting for the “Quick Steps” live course by Irene Roderick to come. I was so impatient that I started to count the days remaining to the starting date!

I’ve now completed the attendance. The experience has been up to expectations.

Trying her methodology, named “dancing with the wall”, meant for me to go out of comfort zone. I left behind, for a while, my usual boundaries (to repeat the same shape all around the quilt; to fix the position of figures by sewing blocks step by step). This resulted in an opening of possibilities, if not an exploding of variables!

This method clearly results in a continuous design exercise. Each change brings a surprise (which may be addictive…), each view suggests new ideas…

While doing my first try, I visualized: a sea, a gondola in Venice, a summer festival poster, a gun (no no no… I had to change this!), a horse looking a dog, a family crest, a paper collage, a Liberty style decor…

I experienced getting stuck, tearing it all down, restarting work from scratch. The brain was steaming for the effort of approaching multiple graphic problems: every time, a new balance was required…

After this “dance”, I’ll look to my way of working from a different perspective.

Joining pieces, joining people

collaborations, improv process

Last Autumn I discovered the extraordinary work of Leslie J.  Riley. Her quilts, full of textures, secondary motifs, and swinging colours, suggested me the idea to make systematic exercises in textured piecing. I started preparing blocks with different texture types, such as: striped columns and rows, log cabins, high contrast colours, low contrast colours, and so on.

Last Winter I joined the local quilt guild “Biechi Mati”, mainly focused on traditional patchwork, but open to trying any type of technique. According to their request, I carried my sample texture blocks, they put on the desk all their sewing machines, and we spent one afternoon playing with improv piecing together.

Last Spring it was planned to repeat the textured improv exercise at local quilt shop Patchworkvictim. Francesca made the Zoom platform available in order to keep the discussions on improv virtual and interactive. During the first session I have been sewing some pieces of the column and rows texture, and this sample is shown in the first video resumed at this page (visible also on Patchworkvictim you tube channel).

This Summer I took my textured samples out from the demo bag, and I decided to grow one of them wider. Now that I’ve finished the columns and rows quilt, I’m aware of how many people has influenced this year long work!

Birmingham shows quilts live

Exhibits, joining events

Last year I was planning a travel to Birmingham with my family, with the Festival of Quilts as one of the destinations. Some friends listened to our discussion and said: “Why not? Let’s go to London all together, and you Paola shall be our guide for English translation!”

At that time, we postponed the plan to year 2020. But we’ve not purchased any ticket to Birmingham yet: the holidays were adjusted to visiting the mountain in our surroundings, in order to remain within our region.

Still, my opportunity to join the Birmingham event arrived anyway: the Festival of Quilts went “live”!

Today I’ve attended the virtual inauguration, and the emotion was there when the moderator announced: “The winner is…”. And this happened for no less than 15 times: so many, indeed, were the categories of the virtual competition, and I could appreciate the view of very elegant winning quilts, including striking works from kids down to 5-9 years old category!

I participated to the event with one of my works too. My quilt “Seaside” is now visible in the on-line gallery of the Festival of Quilts virtual competition, category contemporary quilts: I decided to propose my entry to the contest, by submitting one of the rare cases where I used raw edge applique.

“Seaside” is dedicated to the colors and ripples of Adriatic sea, wetting my home town Trieste. Shells, sand and sunlight reflections on wave crests appear as symbols on this work. The longitudinal development of the layout allowed me to play with the band line direction: I quilted three long stripes with walking-foot, that can be read either as waves, or as an abstract shape placed at the panel core.

A quilt by Giovanna Nicolai is on display too, in the modern category of the Festival of Quilts 2020 gallery. I love this work of her, titled “Fluorescent hope”: it’s featured also on the home page of the site hosting our joint project Quilt Improv Studio, that we share with Carla Beretta. Giovanna wrote in her article, themed on the recent expansion of digital quilt world: “We will participate to inauguration ceremonies staying at home”: I’ve experienced this right now, together with hundreds of quilters connected at the same time to the Festival opening ceremony, during my lunch break, with a tasty dish of spaghetti and meat sauce!