Design
Concept
Life in the Margins #7 is part of a series of small works in which my process is very much like doodling with fabric, i.e.. the design was developed spontaneously, working directly on a background, with bits of fabric and thread. Each part of the design grew out of the last, just as a doodle grows to fill a page, when the mind is engaged elsewhere.
The background fabric was hand painted with fiber reactive dye. Threads in various colors were arranged on the painted fabric. Small rectangles of fabric left over from other projects were laid on top of the threads in a wedge shaped pattern, and bits of thread were arranged over them. The layers of fabric bits and thread were then machine stitched with various colors of thread. Several layers were built up on the background before the design was complete. Shadows of the first layers can be seen through the spaces in the top layers.
A border of hand painted fabric surrounds the embroidered center panel. The entire composition was quilted in a freeform, organic design.
As a child, the margins of my school notebooks were filled with doodles. The title "Life in the Margins" refers to these margins. |
