"Celebration of the Arts" show at the First United Methodist Church

Fabric collage #1 by Jennifer Gould

I've finished two pieces of fabric collage that I'll put in for jurying at the "Celebration of the Arts" at the First United Methodist Church's annual spiritual art exhibit.  Get the pdf of the entry form and info at www.thecelebrationofthearts.com.  This is a wonderful show in the middle of winter and the reception is so well attended even if the weather is really bad (and it usually is).

I haven't worked out the right titles for each piece yet but the first one went together so quickly but the stitching was tortuous.  I wanted to do a lot more free-motion machine embroidery but, because it had been a while since I had done free-motion, I forgot what kind of stabilizer to use (this one has two layers of craft felt which was too soft and squishy for the machine).  If using machine stitching, I should have backed the entire piece with something like Timtex or Peltex, a very stiff backing through which machine stitching as well as hand stitching will work.  So I did a lot more hand stitching on both pieces.  I ended up loving both the way they turned out.  And I do love hand stitching.  The whip stitch that I often use reminds me so much of mending that I often incorporate that in the title.

Fabric collage #2 by Jennifer Gould

Each piece incorporates my hand printed fabric which means: textile painted, dyed, discharged, rubbings, monoprints from large plain surfaced stamps or plexiglass plates, stencil work, deconstructed screen printing, flour paste resists, indigo-dyed, shibori; and done on very diverse fabrics such as rayon, knits (every kind of knit you can think of from sheers, mesh, sweatshirt, jersey, acrylic/synthetic and more), cheesecloth, synthetic and natural sheers (organza, chiffon, metallics), and of course, quilt cottons and plain cotton (although I rarely start out with white fabric).

My second piece had the same problems with machine stitching as the first.  It made me do a lot more hand stitching but also a lot more thinking about the stitched marks I was making--- so that was a good thing!