collaborations

Design with a friend – part 2

collaborations, improv process, techniques

A few months ago, I started a series of photos with scraps and seeds, simply as an occasion to feel better in short time, thanks to the beauty of nature and fabric colors in my hands, and the ease of photography.
Later it became something more.
It clearly resulted as a way to exercise on composition.

Seeds on a table are like scraps on a design wall.

The feeling of improv quilting, appearing when you try casually the positioning of fabric scraps, came to me in the same way, when I tried different versions of compositions with seeds on the photo set.
Adjusting different quilt compositions may be slow and time consuming. I have a limited design wall space: to give room to new work in progress, I needed to add a new layer of batting on top of the previous quilting work!

On the contrary, photo composition are quicker to be made. By the way, if you use fresh vegetables, you must be quick. Sometimes I have only a few days available to manipulate seed buds, because they transform quickly. I picked the ones in the picture here below from a public garden bush, named pittosporum tobira. One day, these green buds opened and revealed the red seeds inside: It was a surprise! I took a picture of them, together with the red fabric I was using for my quilt in progress. The paper fragments in this composition are from Ally @allyryde.

An additional meaning of making photo compositions came when I realized that I could use them as an occasion of connecting with quilting friends, to continue the idea started embedding the paper pieces received by Ally, together with more quilting friends.

In these days I discussed with Linda @flourishingpalms  and Lenny @modernstitchwitch about the tools we use to keep connected with each other.  Most of the times we chat on the socials, and very rarely we can meet face to face, thanks to a flight overseas. Since the social platforms can be changed unilaterally, we shall not be fully dependent on them: it’s better to put alternatives in place. In that sense, I’m trying to use multiple channels as networking tools, to ensure I can keep connected with people, whatever happens with one of those channels: so I try to use also e-mail and on-line meetings.

For the playtime “design with a friend” I invite you to send me a small white envelope with your quilting scraps; then, I will try to make new photo compositions with them, to send you back a small photo print. Let’s make best use also of post offices!

Design with a friend – part 1

collaborations, improv process

This week I had the opportunity to talk to the group Beyond Borders, part of the Modern Quilt Guild, about the way I make my quilts and I design with scraps.

I’m a scrap saver, I allow scraps guide my improv and I use scraps as one of the elements of quilt composition. How did this quilt,  River gone green, come about?

This quilt was made with remainders of earlier work.
The green fields were non-used remainders from this work below: “Open air” (at the moment part of the SAQA global exhibition Abstraction: textural elements). A hint of the green area, inside “Open air”, remained: down at right.
Scraps can be used to trace lines on the design wall: you can see here, how I used scraps while composing “Open Air”.

In this period, when I didn’t have time for sewing, I thought that I can still use scraps… for photos! Like I did 20 years ago in my first photo gallery: Flowers, fruits and embroidery.

Recently I started to make photo composition with scraps received from a friend. In the picture below you can see how I used paper and fabric scraps. The piece of paper was from Ally Ryde, design teacher. Thank you, Ally, for giving me these small pieces, that became the start of something new!

I would like to continue in this way: to keep connected with quilting friends, receiving scraps (fabric, paper, small reminders from work in progress) and using them to exercise in making compositions. The name for this photo series will be: “design with a friend”. After having received a postal letter with tiny pieces, I can send back a postcard with the photo I’ve made.
Would you like to join?

When creatives connect

collaborations, techniques

I’ve had the special opportunity to be in contact with Lynn Woll, founder of Create Whimsy, for an interview.

She allowed me to talk about all the creative media I use. This arrived in the very right moment: her questions helped me to clarify my thoughts of these days. For example, Lynn asked me:

“You are a full-time engineer and have a variety of interests outside of work. How do you keep all the balls in the air?”

When I read this question, I started to laugh and weep at the same time… it looked as if the question hit the nail.

During the current year, indeed, my work-life balance has changed, such that I could not schedule my free time as easily as before.

Changes of life can surprise you with unexpected twists, which may, some days, overcome your coping skills. Complex and super busy periods strongly force your capability to adapt. The interesting thing is that stretching skills acts on the brain in a very powerful way. Fertile land is prepared for future creations, that will become interpretation for the plenty of things that you have learnt, while passing across difficulties.

Just in the days of Lynn’s contact, I was starting a new photography stream, which was acting as a valuable strategy to cope with stress: it made me feel much better. It’s impossible to have a photo UFO, because one photo is taken in one second! I took the habit of setting collected seeds and textile supplies in a way that gave me visual emotions. Then, the photo-finish of the day was made!

I have used different creative media depending on the period of my life and the work-life balance. I decide which medium I want to work on, based on the amount of time that I have: quilting is for long projects, drawing is for average spare time; photography is available even if I have a few-minutes-only break.

In the picture below, a set of natural treasures collected during a walk, part of my creative supplies.

I invite you to read the interview on createwhimsy/spotlight-paola-machetta and to check also other featured makers: I’ve found plenty of inspiration on Create Whimsy. Thanks Lynn!

Quilts connect with drawing

collaborations, Exhibits

My work “Open air” will be part of the “SAQA Global Exhibition Abstraction: Textural Elements”, opening in a few days at Max Berk Textile Collection, Palatinate Museum, Heidelberg, Germany, on September 15, 2024.
I described its story in an earlier blog post, at this link.

“Open air” is one of my quilts more connected with drawing, since it is mainly based on the use of line.

What is drawing?

Joe Cunningham said to me (during a mentoring session with him, which I had the pleasure to attend): “Drawing is a direct connection to the mind”.

My first drawings, at primary school, included roses from the home garden of my class mate Sara. Last month I was in Oslo, in Norway, and I visited Vigeland park. The smell of roses I found there made me wish to draw roses again, as in the innocence of childhood.

I once displayed a drawing gallery “en plein air”, thanks to the arrangement of my friends Serena and Andrea, who made a concert in a natural reserve, in the Cona island, near river Isonzo. During that evening, they played, among their own music, also the song by their friend Ares Movio, which talks about childhood innocence too. You can hear it in the following video.

I had the honor to illustrate Andrea and Serena’s CD “Laila”: it was a wonderful joint creativity experience, one of my best memories related to drawing.

I recently started drawing again.
Rivers, obviously.

From Australia to Canada

collaborations, joining events

I had the wonderful experience of being interviewed by @janekellyquilts for the “Meet the Makers” section of Make Modern Quilt Magazine. Her questions gave me the opportunity to think about my quilting journey, since its start, to the possible ideas for my future quilts.

I’m honored to find my story published in the now available issue 54, in a beautiful four-pages layout. I’m in good company of many other brilliant quilters, such as Birgitta Jadenfelt, who had her bluebells pattern published in the same issue.

Since the magazine is fully digital, it can immediately reach distant locations. Such as Canada, where Linda McLaren had the kind idea of bringing my mini quilt “Giraffe’s rock” to the London Modern Quilt Guild Canada Show, as an example of the MQG Make a Mini Make a Friend swap. The article featuring me, from the just released Make Modern issue created in Australia, was pinned to it by Linda, who had been paired with me in the swap. Connections within the quilting community run quick!

Heat map

activism, collaborations, Exhibits

The first episode of the series “The secret lives of quilts” of this Summer is out on Patchworkvictim blog, on its YouTube channel, and here above! This episode talks about the quilt “Heat map” and the fabric I’ve used to make it.

Most of my quilts refer to happiness, beauty, and the delight of nature.
But last Summer, for the first time, I had very strong and opposite feelings. Anger, and pride. My quilting practice could not avoid embedding some of it. These days, while I was making a quilt aimed for the SAQA challenge “Color in context: Red”, I marched in the biggest parade experienced by my city in years: 15.000 persons joined from so many different communities. The tv showed for days videos including my position in the front line of the parade, while I was waving the flag of my labour union; its color was red.

Thanks to SAQA Exhibitions Committee and to juror @judykirpich: I’m honored that my quilt “Heat map” created in that period, has been selected for the SAQA global exhibit “Color in context: Red”!  For this quilt I tried for the first time the longarm service by Giulia Molon @quiltlovestudio: thank you Giulia for finding the perfect thread solution to match with my work.

In this detail picture below, it can be gained a sense of the different red fabrics I’ve used. It was the first time for me to piece red on red, and I discovered that I have some preferred and favorite red among others. Do you have a favorite red too?

Textures connect with Nature

collaborations, improv process, joining events

During March 2023 I had the opportunity to present my talk “From the microscope to the sky” to SAQA Texas, in a zoom gathering moderated by Susie Monday, Texas Regional Representative of Studio Art Quilt Associates. Susie, together with me, will be part of the Color in context: Red SAQA global exhibition. 

I explained how I am inspired by textures that I find in nature and during my professional experience.

I have used photography for twenty years, and among my past photo galleries there was one fully dedicated to textures visible in the reflections on the surface of water.

I started to use microscopy during my thesis work at the University, and the pictures I gathered in that period became part of a science communication project which travelled around Italy for some years.

I am still using microscopy and other imaging techniques, such as optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray tomography and ultrasonic testing: I have a professional relationship with images and I continuously work extracting technical meaning from raw abstract pictures.

When I put my recent texture quilts aside to the images obtained at the microscope, sometimes I find they have similarities. I don’t use photos as a direct source to make a quilt as a replica of the subject, but the library of pictures filling my memory surely influence my quilting practice.

Ally Ryde described my works as “quilts of places”. My last quilts are a collection of landscape textures, such as: Grasshopper path, Sealights, The space between the clouds and River gone green.

After many quilts dedicated to exploring this subject, I have the feeling that textures spontaneously speak of Nature. Since ancient times, our brain needed to recognize the variation of a popping fruit among the dense foliage; to spot the movement of creatures approaching through the thickness of the grass.

We are specialized in looking at textures.
And this experience is a continuous pleasure.

Quilts can invite giraffes to dance

collaborations

The third and last episode of the series “The secret lives of quilts” is out on Patchworkvictim blog, on its YouTube channel, and here above!

This time, the power of quilts to connect, flies from Italy up to Canada! I had the opportunity to participate in a mini quilt swap arranged once a year by the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG), and I created the work below for my swap partner: I titled it “Giraffe’s rock”, being inspired by fabric with text on the theme of “rock”, which was preferred by my swap partner: because the aim was to use a fabric pull according to the taste of the person who will receive the work.

This fabric selection was really surprising to me: I used a group of super cold blue shades which I don’t adopt very much (since I prefer the turquoise selections of blue). And I discovered how every blue skinny line, pieced among the warm orange blocks, created a very bright contrast effect.

I learnt a lot from the mini-swap experience. My swap partner, Linda, a biker form Canada, is a professional quilting longarmer: what an honor to be paired with her! She proposed that we wait for both mini quilts to be received either by her, in Canada, and by myself, in Italy. When I received her pack, knowing that she had my pack ready for the opening moment, I couldn’t wait! I contacted her on Instagram, and we started a minute-by-minute chat, sharing all the emotions of discovering all the features of our received quilts. We shared common taste for the orange colors: both of us made the quilt with such hues! She used a professional label: I should improve my quilt label style!

Thanks to Linda, and to our MQG swap fairy Mary , who supported swap timing and international communication, for us and for other 15 couples of swappers. Isn’t this title for the swap facilitator role, “fairy”, a confirmation that quilting power is a kind of magic?

Goldfinger quilt spy story

collaborations, Exhibits, improv process

The second episode of the series “The secret lives of quilts” is out on Patchworkvictim blog and its YouTube channel and here above! Like a spy story, we may call it mission Goldfinger. Do you remember the scene when James Bond emerges from the sea, unzips his submarine gears and appears perfectly suited in his smocking, equipped with a fresh flower ready for its place in the white jacket? The same happens to travelling quilts, hidden in small packages, ready to surprisingly pop out from their mystery box, to reach their destination in fully elegant settings.

This episode indeed features works by Quilt Improv Studio participants, such as the wonderful mini quilt “Delirium” made by Carla Beretta shown in the pictures below, which I had the opportunity to see in person after its travel to the venue for the gallery “The tales of the needle and the brush“: it perfectly unfolded from its tiny shipment pack, without showing any crease thanks to its incredible thick free motion quilting fill. Carla is a founder of Quilt Improv Studio together with Giovanna Nicolai and myself, and even if we collaborate by remote, I still remember the wonderful sensation of keeping first time among my fingers her masterful creation in the shades of gold.

One of the secret powers of quilts is the capability to connect people from all around the world. Since two years ago, Quilt Improv Studio launches its games online: the Instagram gallery of works made by game participants nowadays displays more than 160 quilts, showing how varied can be the ideas emerging from improv process adopted by quilters who were inspired by the same game prompt.
Quilts made for the game include excellent examples such as the works selected for QuiltCon2022 and aired last February in Phoenix, Arizona, by @aquilterstable, @quiltcreation and @kathycookquilts; @sakuraquilting was awarded at Gramado Brasil quilt festival with her quilt “Emergiendo” created during Orange Summer challenge and @hollygrovethreads was awarded at Greenville quilt festival with her work “Mod Mondrian” created for Primary Improv challenge. If you want to join such adventures, you are still in time to participate to the latest game Pop Improv challenge!

To conclude with funny anecdotes, I add a bonus track here below: my favorite parodie of James Bond reiterating his name, by the great couple of Italian comic actors Lillo and Greg!

The secret lives of quilts

collaborations

I’ve started a new video miniseries, thanks to the collaboration with Patchworkvictim, titled “The secret lives of quilts”. Like an investigator, I look for hints of fascinating behaviors of fabric creations, which walk around and play tricks especially when we are distracted or asleep.

Several witnesses shall be called in: quilt stories involve quilting friends who know more details than me, and help to connect the dots.

In the first appointment, titled “Fabric as a best friend”, I mention contributions by Brenda H. Smith (who spotted my work during her travels) and Ally Ryde (who gave me suggestions on how to uncover a best friend hidden among fabrics).

The story tells about my work “Sealights”, already described in my earlier post here. It’s a quilt that continues to give surprises: for example, it acted as a mimetic landscape to allow unexpected creatures to hide in between its seams: the following photos provide the proof.

Rest of the story is revealed in the video below. It’s in Italian, but you can still observe that this quilt is capable to travel across seasons and to move back in time.