I've been working on some more imaginary textile landscapes using both traditional piecing and quilting but also slow stitch, and improvisational piecing and layering, with a variety of natural fabrics (cotton, silk, and linen) plus lots of embroidery, bits of lace, some tulle net, and a dose of crochet.
Solitude #1 started out as a purely abstract exercise in random stitching and piecing, about three years ago, but adding a small house recently gave it a mood and presence. I saw a small cottage on a cloudy Yorkshire Moor and wondered who lived there so quietly.
This was followed by choosing another abstract exercise done shortly afterwards, and adding another cottage, this one a little more defined and with richer colours.
Solitude #2
The next one was more deliberately planned to include a house, this one an obviously Southwestern style. I had cut up an old quilt top I was never going to finish, and added a small section of that along with some bridal lace I once bought for no real reason, but it was pretty.
Solitude #3
Solitude #4
Another Southwestern house, but a bit plainer and slightly more somber. Perhaps it's raining.
Solitude #5
This one is not even completed. I have yet to stitch the border (usually a tight zig zag) and it feels more like an abandoned farmhouse somewhere. Probably my least defined building, and it looks lonely.
update: now sold
Well, it's a start so I might document the process. Stay tuned.
P.S. the pale lavender silk above, that shows up in a few of these, was given to me by Glenn's grandmother, Grumpy, back in the late Seventies. She used to sew and tailor clothing for the wealthy people in town, some of whom went shopping for fabric in London and Paris. Grumpy gave me about two yards of it, pure silk with metallic embroidered paisley sections every few inches, which makes me believe it's a fine Indian sari silk. I've used about a yard of it already, but snip by snip it finds its way into some of my works.
