My Grandmother's Garden

Having recently attended a 2 day history of patchwork and quilting course, I am developing ways to integrate these techniques within my work.

The patchwork is bringing together a collaboration of previous work and ideas. Layers of fabrics, texts, paper, and stitching creating a palimpsest containing 'clues within the calico'.
I am using fragments from found letters, photographs and diaries as the templates. These will be left inside the fabric, allowing the work to be viewed from both sides.

Traditional American blocks all have distinctive names. Blocks were named after people, e.g. LeMoyne Star, which is named after the brothers who founded New Orleans. Other blocks were named after historical events, e.g. Rocky Road to Kansas, Whig Rose, Queen Charlotte’s Crown. Biblical names were also common, e.g. Golgotha, Crowned Cross, Hosanna. Equally popular were domestic names such as Sister’s Choice, Swing in the Corner, Grandmother’s Fan. It is possible to have the same block with different names, e.g. a block that was named Duck Foot in the Mud on Long Island was called Hand of friendship by the Quakers in Philadelphia and Bear’s Paw in Ohio (Gutcheon, 1973). The same block can also have different names according to the way it is pieced, e.g. the class Drunkard’s Path block becomes a number of other blocks, such as Millwheel or Illinois Rose, when the configuration of the piecing is changed. Interestingly each variation of Drunkard’s Path also has multiple names, e.g. Snake Trail, Falling Timbers, Diagonal Strips, Vine of Friendship, Chain are all the same variation (Cory, 1991).

Imagine a vast sheet of paper on which straight Lines, Triangles, Squares, Pentagons, Hexagons, and other figures, instead of remaining fixed in their places, move freely about, on or in the surface, but without the power of rising above or sinking below it, very much like shadows--only hard with luminous edges--and you will then have a pretty correct notion of my country and countrymen. Alas, a few years ago, I should have said "my universe:" but now my mind has been opened to higher views of things."

Flatland
by Edwin A. Abbott
1884