Lapstrake, Ticking, and Rachel Carey George/Gee's Bend quilt

                                 



Lapstrake
- Gap jeans c.2000, early 20th c velvet, 1970s velour pants, silk, wool, cheesecloth, burlap

                                                                                                                                                                 














Ticking
- early 20th c mattress ticking, wood toothpicks, cotton string, tea-dyed burlap

                                         








Ticking removed from cotton boll stuffed mattress.

Gee's Bend/ Rachel Carey George quilt

The use of old clothing and household items in my work is directly inspired by the Gee's Bend quilt makers, a group of African American women living in close-knit geographically isolated communities of Alabama.  Their work, originally made of whatever salvageable materials were available, represents an important cultural and visual contribution to the history of 20th c African American art.  In need of warmth, and with no time to fuss over intricate patterns and piecework, the Gee's Bend artists created a non-traditional aesthetic vision which incorporates the idiosyncrasies and past lives of recycled goods.  In this quilt by Rachel Carey George (1909-2011)--made of wool trousers, jeans, and mattress ticking--the faded ghost prints of pockets become compositional elements in the overall design.

Pants pillow

                                       



                                                                                      Pillow made from 1960's? cotton corduroy pants that belonged to my brother-in-law's grandfather, 1920's (or earlier) wool tapestry , 1960's cotton curtain fabric, assorted silk, linen, and cotton scraps, a vintage tape measure, and catfish line (a nod to the time his grandfather spent in the Louisiana bayous.)

construction project

interior of pillow front showing applique stitching on old sheet, and white cotton pants pockets at bottom

                                                         



.. plaid lining of the pillow back... I resorted to hand-stitching in places at the side seams where my machine couldn't sew over the thick pocket-seams in the pants.  One aspect of working with a garment-- something I've been wanting to try-- is working around bulky seams. Using the pants was an opportunity for me to do that and to make something for my brother-in-law and sister that has personal meaning, but the process was cumbersome, so I think I'll call this experiment a one-off.






no-label pants

                                                                                The corduroys used in the pillow were one among several "no-label" pairs of pants, including these chinos, which appear to be professionally made.  The quality of construction details, while beyond  amateur sewing, is nowhere near the finish level of fine tailoring.  A guess is that his grandfather regularly ordered up sturdy and serviceable pants from his tailor and said  "make it fast".

thinking of...

       
     
Peruvian artist Jorge Eielson who made art with old clothes-- this is Camicia 1964--  came to mind.

 Also the Gee's Bend work-clothes quilts, like this one by Lutisha Pettway    The dark spots indicate pockets that were removed prior to sewing, possibly to avoid sewing over bulky seams?

post-notes

....the return of Tillycat 

Old clothes and fabric scraps-- a summer spread (in progress) made of linen and cotton

Here's a bedspread I'm working on with a little more than half the pieces sewn together in random blocks.
It's made of old slip covers, old clothes, vintage tea towels... to name just a few. I want it to be fun and beautiful, but it's also important to me that it be durable and washable, not so precious that I can't flop on it to nap or read.  Cargo pants scraps-yes, silks-no.
I didn't start with any plan-- just threw together a color palette I liked and started cutting shapes and sewing strips together.

Trapezoids kept popping out-- Macchu Picchu seems to be buried somewhere in the linen roses.

also thoughts of Richard Diebenkorn's "Ocean Park" paintings .




and Gee's Bend quilts haven't been far from my mind.

I used the strips between the puckered woven stripes of this shirt.

and here's the tea-dyed cotton shower curtain that just keeps giving.

Old cargo pants

and tea towels with a little window-pane pizazz.