Where Have all the Sheep Gone?

A comment on changing lifestyle patterns in New Zealand and the decimated sheep numbers that are still around. There are many old and unused woolsheds around the country - many falling into disrepair. This local woolshed was part of my practice of documenting disused farm buildings. When I was working on the zero waste stitching project and made the zero waste book I had decided to make something on a larger scale and this wall quilt became that project. I took the left over eco dyed fabric (originally from the eco coat Sense of Identity) and cut them into 2.5 inch strips. I randomly joined these and then took the woolshed photos which I had printed onto foil butter papers coated with Golden fibre paste and inserted them into the strip piecing. The quilting was random back and forth to try and replicate the sense of peeling paint. I added the antique lace surrounds as some of the photos had small gaps of nothing on some edges and the vintage lace seemed appropriate for the theme. It is not my best piece of work but it covers several issues for me as an artist.

Zero Waste Stitching

Each year Kate Ward organisers a free taster summit called Making Zen. It is a bit of a marathon effort if you try to watch all the tutorials as there are around 5 half hour sessions each days for 7 days. This year I was taken by Karen Turner’s offering of zero waste stitching. The idea is you take left over fragments of fabric from projects and using progressively smaller pieces of fabric to create stitched art from the left overs. If you have followed along in my blogs you will have seen the eco coat I made at the beginning of this year. There were quite a few bits of eco dyed fabric that just weren’t quite good enough (or leaves that weren’t clearly defined) so I thought I would give this a go using this fabric. The fabric was reclaimed cotton sheeting so it has been quite a story in the making. I ended up making a little sampler book with the ideas I created and I have used this process as my presentation for the Advanced Diploma of Art and Creativity through the Learning Connexion Distance Delivery. A lot of my work focuses on foraged or reclaimed materials so it fitted beautifully with my ethos. The cover of the book is part of a printing session done quite some time ago and ver the next few days I will introduce you to the processes of each page. Going full circle, it has lead to the design of a larger wall art quilt that I will work on in the coming weeks.