My last blog post was about the fabric collage I created from Fran's fabrics, a memorial piece. Yesterday I finished another memorial piece. I started it two years ago when Dad was sick. Here is what I posted on Facebook at that time.
Feb 11th, 2021
Finding comfort in fiber art. Not sure what this will end up as but I am liking it. Thinking about the generations of women who created and saved these bits for some other use. I am finally giving them a place in the light, no longer do they need to wait in darkness to find purpose, stuffed in bags and boxes. It feels right.
Feb, 14th
I did a lot more stitching since my post on the 11th. I had started this on linen that was from a textile sample book. I can not remember where I acquired it but I had thought of stitching the rectangles together for a long time. I did a double row of stitching in the hopes that it will keep the linen from unraveling as I work on it. I love the idea of this piece being made up of scraps. I could have used a nice new whole piece of linen and saved myself time stitching but that would be missing the whole point of the piece. And so it grows.
And then on March 17th:
I have not posted in a long time because my father whom I live with is very ill. I started this stitching project in part because I knew I would need something portable and easy to stop and start to keep my hands busy. I find stitching very meditative and the feel of the different materials is very grounding for me. Being able to put to use some of the things that women in my family have saved feels so right at this time. One of the hospice aids asked what this thing I was stitching was for....I should have replied "my sanity"! This is an incredibly difficult and yet beautiful time. So much love is flowing though this house right now and I am finding so many things to be grateful for.
Dad died on the last day of March and the bag with all the threads and buttons and the incomplete project sat in the room untouched until November of 2022 when I heard about an upcoming fiber show near by. I used that as a push to finish the piece that never had a plan or end point. I decided to do just enough work to mount it as it was just for the ability to move on, to have something done, finished, complete, so I could put away the threads etc. and empty that bag and not have it adding to the clutter. I can not tell you how it feels to finish this piece just as the new year is beginning. This piece is not so much a memorial to my father as it is a memorial to all the women who like me were the care takers.
This is the handmade lace that was on the edge of a pillow case at some point. The case must have gotten stained but the edging was kept and has now finally found a use. I am in awe of those tiny and so even stitches and the cloth that was so tightly woven I had trouble getting my fat curved needle through it.
The finished piece. Nothing even here but the old stitches.
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