My husband’s paternal grandmother made a table cloth and an apron from these cement sacks. On our last trip to see my father-in-law, I was allowed to take them both, as well as this scrap, which has already been incorporated into this poppy quilt (below). It wasn’t until I was viewing the cement sack as a photograph that I noticed how nasty this particular devil is — playing with his pitchfork, as it were. “Devil’s Slide”, indeed!
You can see the bottom arc of the grey and white logo. Since this photo was taken, I machine stitched in the rest of the words “Devil’s Slide” in white thread. This quilt continues with the use of words from journals that I kept in the 80’s. Some of the splotchy grey/green textures in the middle are second iron-offs of transferred words from two quilts made earlier this year. The torn pages come from the previous piece I did on innocence (with the figure of the boy? — it is now finished, by the way). The lighter brown rectangles were dyed with onion skins, gessoed and written on — again with words from old journals. Although the words are of some mild interest to me, and I’ve begun to think of this grouping’s title as, “What Was I Thinking?” — part of the point of choosing words from old journals was to de-emphasize the business of articulation and expression… I wanted the shapes and sounds and even the meaning of words to be central, without making any attempt whatsoever to describe any part of my inner or outer states as I see them now.
This quilt got quite puffy and uneven in its surface when I went to integrate it all. Even layering tulle and machine stitching did not quite bring things to order. One of the problems is the green upholstery-weight cotton that comprises the first of two ‘matts’. It is very dense and almost rubbery and not at all receptive to a needle or iron.
My plan is to work on this one tomorrow. I had made a smaller fabric version of the cement sack by photographing it and then printing it on cotton fed through my inkjet, but the watery-blue-grey is a bad match with the warmer neutrals of the quilt. At the library this week (they have the machines that make copies that will transfer with eucalyptus oil), I made a copy of a vintage etching of a trombone. I will transfer it to muslin, like the french horn already on the quilt — to continue the play with the word ‘slide’.
"What do you really need to know to live"
could you sepia tone the photo before you print it?
i REALLY really REALLY am quite taken with this one–and like you, love the play on words
yes, that occurred to me after posting. Not sure I will for this one though b/c after I slide the trombone in and a trident (which happened to be on the same page of images!), there might not be ‘under tulle’ spaces left…. but who knows, b/c I just appliqued another poppy on TOP, so I could do same with devil… otherwise, the reference is completely ‘off quilt’.
hope you have a good day!
love the poppy quilt! to beautiful flowers made of different fabrics……and the soft colours and pieces of fabric
really lovely
__a
Thanks, anne… just hopped over to your blog — it looks like we follow a lot of the same fiber artists… and yes! plants DO make you giggle and smile! adding you to my reader.