Textile work--Work with Words & Messages

It all began in Maine. I had visited my sister Lynne in Anson. An 'ANTIQUES' sign to a barn gave me my first purchased set of rubber letter stampers. New tools breed new possibilities. 

This was in the period leading up to Expo 86 in Vancouver. The original theme of Expo was to be Communication & Transportation. Bingo. The "God Truck" was the embodiment of both!

I carried my camera around under the seat of the car so I could catch Ernie Ruff, a Vancouver character who had made the panels for his truck.  (That's Ernie.)

It took me a long time to pull this off. Working in 3-D was new for me. 

In the end I called it Couver, the Proverbial Van.

I had to find proverbs I liked. And I wanted some international ones. 

I got help from the library & friends.

Some of the things I made with words came by other coincidences. This Mickey Mouse scarf I found in a children's clothing store. It's in the center with a pink border. 

I gave it more checkerboard border.

One stamper alphabet led to several more. 

This AIDS quilt for artist Stephen Denslow was made with his centerpiece painting & his poem about his earlier illness stamped around the edge.

I found a wonderful image from a book of American folk craft this Love Knot. So I made one in cloth. 

True to proverbial form, each saying on the border had the word 'not' or 'knot' in them.

The Montreal Massacre in 1989 inspired me to make Fourteen More.

       I put the names of the murdered women & year they were born.

These two cubes were an outgrowth of the proverb research.

   This proverb quilt I made for Judy MacIntosh.

Out of the Rain, a show to raise money for homeless people, inspired this work. It was also part of an umbrella theme I chose for a UBC print-making course with Nan Oliver. Proverbs appear again. The umbrella parts came from a "road kill" umbrella. 

The umbrella had been run over quite a few times.

I made an alphabet book that started with Alligator airplane, Butterfly banana,  & Calico caterpillar. I cut the stencil images for it. A long project: an alphabet book with denim rag paper & an alphabet quilt as well.

 

On this quilt, handwritten, is the story "The Meaning of Life" written by Robert Fulgum. It involves a in incident in WWII involving a broken mirror from a German motorcycle.

Near the end of my teaching career I made The School of Worries. 

In 6 rooms teachers speak their angst about teaching.

              This scarf I bought in Filene's Basement circa 1954. 
It was designed by the famous Vera. Mary Beecher was with me when I bought it. This is a letter of appreciation to her many years later.  I wrote on it when it wore plumb out & also added some transparent cloth squares.

This is my Dear Stephen Harper quilt which got mailed to him. 

This is how it looked before I got people to sign it.

I love the signatures below!!-- even Louis Riel signed!

I have often thought of making a new quilt Dear Justin Trudeau, with basically the same message!

That's it for now.