Buttons&Beads&Quilts!

Don’t get me wrong; I love my Bernina 1630 sewing machine. It was one of the first seriously computerized models, and I bought it because it had additional software where you could draw simple, linear designs on your computer and then send it over to the machine to stitch them. The machine is sort of portable, although that terms gets redefined for me every time I have to pick it up and move it. The motor on it keeps on going and going, yet for the most part I choose to do my work by hand.

When I was starting out as a professional art quilter  in the 80s, I investigated commercial machines that were used for sewing clothes. At the time, they were one function /sewing machine, as the production of clothing was done one section at a time and then passed on to the next station for what ever comes next in the process. There, a different sewing machine would be used. As for sewing on buttons, I may use hundreds in a large piece. From what I’ve seen, there are commercial machines that will just sew on buttons in evenly spaced increments, such as shirt buttons down the front placket or placard. I’ve also visited some professional local quilters who have dedicated the top floor of their home to two commercial quilting machines. Their wide beds and easily pushed sewing head were marvels to behold, but the space required is way more than my single room studio could accommodate. (Photo above is a detail of “Circles of Black, Circles of White V”)

At an exhibition, when someone comes up to talk to me about my work on display, one of the first questions is usually if I did it by hand. Many of my buttons have shanks on the back, especially my favorite glass buttons from Czechoslovakia, and the beads go in all directions, so I point out how impossible if wold be to have a machine do that kind of work. The next question is then usually “How long does it take for you to do one of those?” I point out that an area of intensely beaded, size 10 seed beads progresses at the blazing speed of one inch/hour, and they walk away shaking their heads. (Photo left is a detail of “Elements – Fire”

 We are becoming more and more dependent on machines to do the work for us. I finally broke down and bought a GPS system for my car, but I am still grateful for my ability to read printed maps. I would also have never have met some of the interesting people that I have while sewing on a small quilt, sitting on my suitcase, in train stations all over the world if I had been dependent on a sewing machine. Even though we may not have spoken the same language, we still managed to share some ideas with gestures when they came over to see what I was doing.

I had a friend once who called my work “Needlework Obsessive” in that I use a LOT of diverse materials in the construction of my art quilts. Yes, I do. It brings me great pride to think, “I made that” and “Look at all the clever combinations of items I arranged!”. So stitch by stitch, my work progresses from my heart, to the connection I have to the piece, and then out to my hands to give the work life and form. It’s an art form that I enjoy perpetuating.