Meeting Deadlines, making the most of it

 Just a couple of days ago I entered a quilt I recently finished for the Brno Patchwork Meeting (formerly Prague Patchwork Meeting). Because the 20 Perspectives Group will be exhibiting there I figured it would make a lot of sense to enter a quilt in one of their challenges. The topic 'Zero Waste' spoke to me as it seemed a good way to finally work out an idea I had been having for a while. This idea included using red plastic tops from syringes I had been collecting at work, caused by a misunderstaning on my part.

Because these little parts had a little hole at the top I thought this would extend all the way through, and I had collected quite a few of these before I realized my mistake. I mean, it doesn't really make a lot of sense that syringe stoppers would have a hole all the way through, and I don't quite understand why I harbored the idea, except maybe that my 'green' or 'ecological' heart was suffering badly when seeing all the plastic, wrapping, gadgets and instruments that go to waste in a dialysis practice every single day. And especially these red tops... 

First stitches for this quilt began during the last summer already, and it was a long and laborious process. Somewhere along the line I also had the idea of including some more of the still relatively numerous embroideries by Afghan women in my stash (Guldusi Embroidery), and originally I had wanted to make it a rather turquoise/red quilt, for which I begged for turquoise scraps from my good quilting friend Bea @capricornquilts because I realized my abundance of turquiose scraps was low.

 

In the end the quilt turned out a lot less turquoise and red than I had envisioned. And the red tops needed a special kind of treatment to actually end up on the quilt top because, as I mentioned, the hole did not extend all the way and I could not stitch them onto the top.  But I finished on the time before the deadline (which is still a week away! so early!), and I stayed within the size restrictions relatively easily because I was so smart to outline the size cirumference on my design wall with string and pins and thus managed to keep within the boundaries. And I had it professionally photographed - and then happened to delete the file accidentally and had to ask for it being resent. By that time I had gone north again, did not have a printer available, could not print out the entry form for the challenge nor download a workable version of the pdf-reader that would let me fill in the form digitally. I had to ask at work whether I could print out the file from my private mail account... fill it in by hand, take a photo of it, turn it into a pdf and send it ... it was a thorny way indeed before I managed to get in that entry.

As I have also decided to try and enter it for SAQA's Europe/Middle East call for entry "Wide Horizons" (deadline end of this month) I am not showing any other pictures right now. The jury for Wide Horizons should have decided before the meeting in Brno, so I figure a double entry is not outside the  rules, which don't say 'must not have been shown anywhere before' anyway.

I also hope to have a second entry finished for Wide Horizons, perhaps, which, should it not get accepted, could be entered somewhere else. Give them many chances...

Current

 The national German Patchwork Guild has always been issuing annual challenges for members. During the first lockdown one of our web editors started a sew along project called 'stars of hope' and  published a star pattern every day for three weeks. The results of this are going to be presented in our next, upcoming exhibition in Meiningen (May 27 - 29), and during the recent workshop at Petersberg I persuaded 'my' graduated patchwork kid (she is turning 20 in May, not a kid anymore) to finish hers in time to send to Meiningen as well.

Basting on the floor, although we had a large table set up to avoid this...

Currently, a sew-along is on that is called "the online quilter". You can see photos of first completed blocks here. The blocks are all related to digital stuff that a quilter might need - self-drafted by our web editors, and published in a two-fold manner: each block is completely open for a week, and then for members in the members' area without limitation. I have contributed a few photos to the instructions, noting how I take the steps, but Barbara Lange did the write-up, as that is definitely not my strong point. But I am happy that I could contribute at least a bit to the entire project, even though I am not sewing an online quilter quilt for myself.

I did join the challenge of the Guild, when I found out that a few of the fabric kits were still available a few days after they had gone online. This is a challenge that was planned as a support for guldusi, the embroidery project by the Afghan German Initiative, which I have written about before. The plan was drawn up early last year, and published in the fall issue - after the situation in Afghanistan had changed dramatically and when the possibilities and options for the initiative were completely unclear. The original plan had been to support the project, as one requirement of the challenge was to  include a piece of guldusi embroidery in the quilt that was based on the fabric/thread kit received by each participant. Because I have a number of embroideries from Afghan women in my stash I decided I would include a few of them in this piece, and instead of buying new ones I will make a monetary contribution when I am finished. After all, I did support the initiative when I bought these pieces I already own. 

The topic of the challenge is 'pathways'. I had once bought a piece that shows a soccer situation - for my son, when he was still playing soccer. (He has since become an avid basketballer.) A famous quote from one of the legendary national soccer coaches translates as "the round thing must go into the cornered thing", and I figured that is a description of a pathway, so the original German quote is the title. I am including a few more embroidered pieces, three round and two square ones, the kit fabric,

and a piece of embroidery (signed!) by my then probably 7 or 8 year old son, when he was still playing soccer, and which I have kept since he made it.

Right now I am debating whether I should attach these silk cases.

And of course, while I am stitching, there are the terrible news about Ukraine. Yet another war situation that leaves you speechless and heartbroken. I don't think posting blue and yellow pictures on social media is a good way to show compassion or support. However, these arranged blocks I have found on my table in a way symbolize the broken feeling that is overwhelming right now.

 

The entire situation and how it came up  'reminds' me of something similar - although I was not there in 1938. How could the politicians not see this coming? How could they not understand that the most extreme measures were necessary instead of this economical-thinking-driven appeasement of a guy who has repeatedly shown that he will go to the extreme? How could Germany be such a hesitator in negotiations? I am ahsamed at the 'offer of help' of 5,000 helmets which the Ukrainians were then supposed to come and pick up in Poland. What a sad sad joke. At least the chancellor has changed line of action now, but isn't it way too late? I am completely at loss right now.

"Here comes the sun!"

 It is my turn today to be featured as the week's supplyer of the SAQA Europe and Middle East's group picture on facebook and Instagram. 

I had been scheduled for this date for a long time, and for almost that whole time I had thought I would be posting the picture of my quilt that is in the Forced to Flee exhibit, currently traveling with SAQA (and which will next be shown at Bedford Gallery @ the Lesher Center for the Arts, Walnut Creek, California: February 26 - June 19, 2022). But on the past Monday, when I joined the SAQA regional zoom meeting after not having been able to for a couple of times, and they were talking about music in quilts, how music affects us in our quilting, the importance of music for our quilting, I realized that I had a rather musical quilt in the backdrop. It has relatively recently come home from traveling with an exhibition organized by France Patchwork, and I realized that it would be a perfect candidate for the group picture. So I changed my mind, and because I hadn't sent anything to Birgit Schüller yet, it was easy. Then I realized that I had not even posted anything about this quilt on the blog either, although it is part of my series text messages (which currently gives me a headache because I have lost count of how many quilts I have made, but that is another story). This must have happened because I made it in a very brief period of time, just before the deadline. Then it was accepted quickly, gone right away, and I had not even had time to get a proper photo. 

So here is a little bit of introduction to the quilt. It got started by coincicdence. I saw France Patchwork's challenge fabric at Ste. Marie-aux-Mines: a piece of linen, with a good amount of yellow. Any kind of yellow gets me hooked, and this was very fine linen. But when I asked whether I could buy a piece Catherine Bonte just gave it to me, between EQA representatives, I guess, and said "but you do have to enter!" Title of the challenge: Do Ré Mi Lin. Part of the musical scale, with a slur into fabric, should be easy. Plenty of time, the winter passes, spring rolls around, and here I am, haven't even started on the piece. But suddenly it all came together. I had this cut out sun lying around, 

 

which came from some other piece I was making, and definitely did not want it to go to waste. Sun always goes with yellow, I have this thing with light, I love music, and when you talk about sun and music you just have to think about the Beatles' song "Here comes the sun" (composed by George Harrison), wouldn't you agree? I know other poems and lyrics on the topic of the sun, one of my absolute favorite songs is a Swedish folk song about a sunset on Kajsa's bank on the lake, 

 

a few lines from Ingeborg Bachmann, something Spanish, 

 

and a French chancon. A couple of Afghanistan embroideries from the Guldusi project went in as well,

 

and it all just came together as text messages 20.

Can't believe I didn't write about this one - it was such a happy making, so easy and flow like. If all quilt making was like this, and the sun were out ...

Thinking of Nasrin

 We never learned a whole lot of history about Asian states in school. Before the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan in 1979 I might not have known this country existed, but the following discussions about a boycott of Olympic Games in Moscow certainly showed that this was not a country without significance. I still don’t know enough about Afghan history before, during or after the World Wars, or about developments that led to the war-torn situation we have now, and trying to find out something about it with the help of a traditional encyclopedia is not helping me in this. I don’t think I will try, either. But yesterday’s picture of advancement of Taliban control of the country in the paper, the news we have been hearing ever since the US decided to pull out, and other NATO troops followed suit, and the stories I have heard told by my refugee friends from Afghanistan are heart breaking.

 

Graphics taken from front page of Süddeutsche Zeitung,
Saturday, August 14, 2021 edition.

I have made two quilts with Afghanistan as a topic. One is called “Imagined Dialogue” and was the quilt I would have entered at Ste. Marie-aux-Mines if I had managed to keep track of entry deadlines. As I checked back through my blog on the entries with ‘text messages’ it seems I have never shown it here, although I had notecards printed with it. It is a combined text, based on a few lines from John Lennon’s song “Imagine”, and a few lines from a poem by German playwriter and poet Bertold Brecht. I edited the lines slightly, and juxtaposed them, turning it into a kind of dialogue between the two voices. Brechts’s famous poem starts with the line “Imagine there is a war and nobody goes there”, and was frequently and wrongly cited by peace demonstrations in Germany in the Eighties. Cited wrongly, because the second line continues as “then war will come to you”. In fact, the whole poem is a call to action, though not necessarily to military action – if you don’t do anything about a situation, that situation will manifest itself and take control, instead of you taking control.

 

Imagined Dialogue

The second quilt with Afghanistan as a topic is called “Thinking of Nasrin”. It is based on a piece of cloth I had bought from Pascale Goldenberg which she had brought back from Afghanistan on one of her trips there to keep the Guldusi project going, and three of the embroidered squares that Afghan women in a particular village embroider. All three of these squares were made by a woman called Nasrin, which led to the title.

 

Thinking of Nasrin

Of course, I never met Nasrin, or saw a picture of her, as she is not mentioned in the book that Pascale Goldenberg published about the project. But I was thinking about her a lot while making the quilt. And I am thinking about her, and all the other women in that project, and the mothers and sisters of my Afghan refugee friends here who stayed behind – what will happen to them now? How will their life change?

For a while I had thought that these quilts had been left behind by history, they did not seem of current interest anymore. That has changed significantly.

I don’t understand what is going on there – but somehow it seems that the Western troops have deeply wronged the people whose country they were supposedly liberating for the last 20 years. I never thought it was right the way it was happening, but certainly this recent deal in the whole story seems even more wrong than anything that went on before. The troops are leaving behind many helpers who worked for them during the past 20 years, and they will not be protected. Germany even still deported Afghan refugees until a couple of weeks ago – it was only last week that deportations to Afghanistan were stopped. Perhaps another quilt with an Afghan topic may be brewing. I still have some eye-formed embroideries by Guldusi women, hanging on my design wall, biding their time.

What a sad sad situation. (Not to even start thinking about the many people who will flee the country, increasing the numbers of refugees whom the EU didn't want to have...)

freed up

It is amazing what a declaration of 'finished' can do. When returning from my vacation, after I declared A Scrap a Day as finished (even though it still needs the final finishing touches such as back cover and tunnels for hanging) I also took it off the design wall. Knowing that there were still lots of other projects hidden behind that piece. I had not been aware of how much it had tied me up in my thinking. Luckily, my creative sub-conscience had been working nevertheless.
Because, lo and behold, below the scraps appeared a piece of yellow linen. That had been sold by France Patchwork at Ste. Marie-aux-Mines last September as a Concours for 'Members Only', and when it caught my eye and I almost shied back because I am not a member of the French Organisation, Catherine Bonte, the president whom I know from our meetings as International Representatives, gave me one packet for free. Adding "But you must enter!" Now, that is an obligation for sure!
Rules for the competition include that it must not have been posted about on a blog, or published in a magazine, or shown anywhere. So I am not posting about it, I am not showing photos, only a glimpse at that backside as it is right now.

I whipped this piece out in just over a week. Besides the piece of linen I had a lot of other yellow stuff lyeing around (yes, I do like yellow, and I am very glad that I am back to working in yellow after what seemed a bit of an extended phase of working in rather dark greys!) and it was a whole lot of fun throwing those pieces together.
As I said, I am not showing anything, but one of the things lyeing around was the opposite piece of my Murcat-interpretation for the 12 by the dozen challenge shown here. A few other things, such as two pieces from the Guldusi embroidery project, leftovers from trying out the narrow line technique of Kathleen Loomis and bits and pieces. Add some lyrics from music, a bit of poetry from different languages, and voilà, it is finished.
Feels like I am ready to go back to a bit of improvisational piecing. Some ideas floating around in my head, so all I need to do is make (or find) time!

"Stuff for Thought" in Nuremberg

On Friday the exhibition „Stuff for Thought“ will open in Nuremberg. 

This is a joint effort by the Bureau for Human Rights Nuremberg and textile artist Heidi Drahota und dem Büro für Menschenrechte. (This is a German press release.  )

In the call for entries it had said that the city of Nuremberg, because of its history, feels a high responsibility towards the observation of human rights. Last September Mr Amirul Haque Amin from Bangladesh was awarded the Nuremberg International Prize for Human Rights. He is the President of the National Textile Union in his country and has been actively campaigning for improvements of working conditions in textile industry for many years. He will be attending the Nuremberg Peace Meal, and to celebrate this occasion the city of Nurember is calling for a Textile Exhibition in which works will be presented that deal with the topic of human rights.

I had entered several quilts in answer to this call, and it was „Thinking of Nasrin“ that was selected. This quilt was made for one of our challenges for International Threads and uses not only three hand-embroidered squares from the Guldusi initiatve, but I also included a piece of fabric that women in Afghanistan use to make their garments, hiding their faces and bodies.

"Thinking of Nasrin", Detail

The opening reception will take place on Friday, September 9th, 2016, at 7 p.m. at the Rathaus in Nuremberg (address: Wolffscher Bau, Rathausplatz 2). Should you be in the area, please come and join us for the reception. The exhibition will be on display until September 25th, 2016.

Getting out of and still dealing with the refugee crisis

Yesterday I was featured on the TAFA blog with an entry I had written on my experiences with the refugees and how that has affected my art. Yesterday was also the day when I handed over the volunteer network’s e-mail account to my successor in that function, thus ending my involvement with the network in an ‘official’ position. That does not mean I am withdrawing completely, as today I started German lessons with another refugee from Afghanistan, who had not come to me for lessons before. Only now I am not acting as a representative or spokesperson towards the city anymore. I am being completely selfish in that I take my pick - I chose the refugees with whom I want to work. Happy to be involved with them, and helping where possible, but only for people whom I like, and where I have the feeling that they’re not taking advantage of me and my time. Who are appreciating what I am doing for them, and where I have the impression that I am making an impact. I really felt good during the German lesson today, very relieved.

Before that I had already spent an undisturbed few hours this morning stitching, concentrating on my quilts. The blog post for TAFA closes with a statement that at present I am not consciously planning any more quilts that deal with the topic of refugees, but in fact I am presently still working on finishing two that are somehow related to that topic.

One is one of my very late contributions to the International Threads challenge which was born last year when Kathy Loomis and I were in Prague, bought a set of eight embroidered Afghanistan squares from the Guldusi initiative, and challenged the group to make quilts that included these squares. All of the squares were stitched by the same woman, Nasrin. Most of the resulting quilts are finished already, and you can see them on the group’sblog. Mine – the only one still missing – finally is in the process of being finished, but there may still be a few more stitches that need to be added. I am really feeling what Gillian Travis immediately complained about when we were debating a change in size, that was to begin with this challenge. This is so much bigger than the size we were working in originally! The changed size has since then been totally revoked, back to the original size, but I had dedicated myself to working in the larger new size for this one so that Kathy Loomis’ quilt would not be the only one. For various reasons that I won’t go into detail about here I ended up using three of the embroidered squares, not only the one I picked out at first. 

And I wanted to use them in combination with a piece of fabric for an Afghanistan head dress I had hand-dyed.  I also put the top on the longarm to add some glitter through the quilting thread that I can't use on my sewing machine, and now I am adding a lot of hand stitching to tune down the presence of the stitches on the head dress fabric. 

I am not quite certain how many more stitches will still need to be added, but I did make good progress this morning.

The second quilt still related to that topic is my first finished Journal Quilt for the year, and it resulted from a remnant of the head dress fabric, with a piece of purple and a few other additions. (Only the binding needs to be finalized on the back.) And it’s not really a refugee quilt, it’s just back to playing around with fabrics, threads, composition.

Journal Quilt: The Purple Piece 1

This was a happy stitching day! 

Scrappy hibernation

Although that little burst of snow wwe had a few days ago was rather short-lived and the next one predicted  is taking a long time actually showing up, I seem to have gone into a bit of a hibernating stage.

I have been in the studio, doing things, but it’s been  (and felt) more like this.

Scrappy.

I feel emotionally paralyzed from the awful things that happened during the celebrations in Cologne on New Year’s Eve, and even more so from the the frightful discussions that have been going on since. I’m afraid that Germany’s recent wave of welcoming towards migrants has completely dissipated into thin air, and I am feeling very uncomfortable with all the anti-tones that are suddenly appearing in many of the politician’s statements who had been rather moderate during the last few months. 

I am sewing together a Jacob’s Ladder top made from entirely my own hand-dyed fabrics which I want to display on the back of my stall when vending, to show more traditionally oriented quilters that hand-dyed fabrics work fantastically for traditional patterns. 

And, being the person I am, of course this is an ambitionally large piece, blanket size, so it’s taking time, as I am using pins, nothing rotary cut, but every single square and triangle was hand-drawn and cut with scissors, hoping to add interest to the design.

I’ve been trying out various lace knitting patterns from a couple of English/American knitting books because I want to develop a knit-along, translating these patterns into German, so I’ve been making samples to check out how understandable these patterns are. 

I’ve already decided on four or five patterns, discarded one (because it kept being short of one stitch regularly for no perceivable reason, and that did not seem a good omen), and am planning to launch the knit-along in May. Every three weeks participants will receive a pdf with the pattern, and it’ll be finished by Christmas. I hope to raise some money that way which I want to donate for organizations and projects that help children in need.

And I have done a bit of actually creative piecing, working on my next challenge for the International Threads, for which I am only about five months late. This one was supposed to include an embroidered square from the Afghanistan project of Pascale Goldenberg. But I did not want to turn too traditional about it, and had a long gestation period, until I finally had the idea of including the piece of tchador that I have had for a while. 

Since taking the picture I have actually started adding some hand-stitching, and I am also planning to put it on the longarm. After all, that machine is not only meant to do swirls on blankets, I want to use it in my own work, too.

Good that my order of new threads arrived today.

Perhaps hibernation is coming to a close and entering a really creative phase again.