Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Traveller's Blanket





Thanks for your concern for my thumb- it is recovering rather quickly ( I usually heal quite quickly) and I don't think there is any permanent damage - just some inconvenience. I am trying to avoid getting it wet at all costs.

Anyway I have been handsewing- picking up the traveller's blanket I was working on and which I put aside because I wasn't sure I found it interesting enough. I picked it up a again after I found the little green stitched piece I started when travelling in Egypt and Syria at the beginning of 2006 ( was it that long ago??). Anyway I thought there is place for a traveller's blanket in what I am planning for my exhibition, the theme and inspiration for which has come out of my travels. I am also imagining a traveller who would have travelled across the desert inn the great silk route caravans, finding precious scraps,and making a kind of memory blanket to record his journeys. It is important that it is textural as well, hence the french knots- to run your hands over to recall the stories and starry nights of faraway lands. The spaces between the motifs will also be filled by stitching , which will hopefully come to me as I work- I am thinking subdued at the moment. It actually reminds me a little of a Dear Jane quilts- and perhaps it is my version of it- pattern and repetition built from the scraps of my reds and darks.Anyway the stitching is soothing somehow.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love your traveller's blanket, Dijanne! It's rich and intriguing, especially with your words emphasizing the textural experience "to run your hands over to recall the stories and starry nights of faraway lands." This is one of the things I most love about textile art, that it not only speaks to the visual sense but to the tactile sense as well... even if we often don't allow our viewers the experience of touching the work when it's exhibited. For me, my own experience of the tactile during the creation process is essential. I look forward to seeing how your traveller's blanket progresses. Thanks for sharing it.

Anonymous said...

it's a chance you've found your little green stitched piece; I like the texture very much. And the idea of a traveller's blanket appeals to me
Monique

Julie said...

I agree completely with Leslie's comment. What a wonderful idea to incorporate textiles from your travels into a memory piece. I love the handstitching too.