Nothing better than starting the year experiencing something new. I already confessed here how hard and demanding the last year was, for everything I set out to do plus a series of other personal and professional challenges outside the studio. Something I really missed was testing new things, outside of what I usually do and without concrete goals and timings to meet. This time, I got to work self-taught in a technique called Quilt.
This technique originated in medieval Europe and was brought to the Americas by European settlers. It was widely used by women in the United States during the Civil War as a way to save material by reusing fabric scraps, and since then it has become a popular art and craft all around the world.
Generally, it consists of putting together three layers of fabric (top, filling and bottom) to form a blanket or blanket, but it can also be used to create art/decoration pieces, dispensing with the filling and continuing to be an interesting way of giving use to fabric waste.
For our first “quilt”, we started by defining the total area it would occupy; then, inside it, we drew a layout with closed areas, to which we assigned a fabric / color. We transferred the design to another piece of paper (we should have used the reverse side so that the end result wouldn’t be reflected…) and then cut each piece out of fabric, adding the seam value. Then it’s just sewing, putting all the pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle.
It’s a laborious and time-consuming technique but rewarding in the end, when we see everything in its place. I can’t wait to try a new experience, maybe joining manual fabric printing!
