New work

 Several years ago I received a large shoe box packed full of cotton Damask table napkins.  Some appeared to have never been used, others appeared well used.  They were not all the same pattern, nor the same size.  They had come from the estate of an elderly lady--well into her nineties when she died.  I know little about her other than her last name, and that she liked to collect salt and pepper shakers.  Her Daughter-in-law, knowing that I sometimes liked to experiment with dyeing cotton Damask, gave them to me.  One of my most recent dyeing experiments produced a very beautiful blue-grey, and I have matched it with a red-orange of a very similar value, in this piece.  I'm calling it "Remembering", thinking, not only of this anonymous woman who obviously treasured her napkins, but also of the many of her generation who equally treasured their cloth napkins, wedding silver ( usually silver plate), and good china--all things that now appear to have lost any value in today's society.  I have aimed at a fairly peaceful mood, in using the muted colours, as I  think life was more peaceful and more slowly paced for much of her lifetime, especially for women.  ( I have not forgotten that many of these women lived through both the Depression and the Second World War, I'm thinking more of their lives as wives and mothers.)

Here is the full view.  The piece is 20" by 20", and "gallery wrapped.

Here is a close-up.  Working with cotton Damask in this scale is very tricky, because of the very loose weave of the fabric, so every piece had to be interfaced for control. Trying to do the satin stitch, around the tear drops, by machine, was a horror.  Just not feasible. So I did them separately, then cut them out and fused them.  

The back is enclosed, and labelled.  The edges had to be sewn, by hand, using a curved needle.  That job took about 3 hours.

I plan to link this with the Needle and Thread Network, and Off the Wall Fridays with Nina Marie Saryre