Starting with a question not everyone reading this blog will relate too. For those familiar with the joy of collecting textiles, keeping them safe and pristine waiting for the moment the brain switches to sew mode, project in hand or to be planned. Paper hexagons ready to be covered with treasured or just purchased fabric. The moment needle punctures through layer of cloth and paper, thats the moment when the world disappears and immersion into another begins.
Its true to say that I am well qualified to confirm this transition. My first experience of covering a six sided hexagon with fabric occurred around 44 years ago. My mother encouraged knitting, crochet and even tatting but I found those crafts tedious and unrewarding. Tensions with wool, with loosing stitches and stitches of uneven size made frustrating creating. Perhaps impatience did not help, that gaping hole where a crochet stitch belonged meant ripping back to the point. I did not see the point.
It would be impossible to calculate how many hexagons I have sewn. More than 10 quilts with over 3000 hexagons each, plus too numerous to mention smaller projects and samples. A fair estimate would be heading for 100,000 - yes, one hundred thousand hexagons. One hundred thousand paper templates covered with 100,000 bits of fabric. Why, as I type now I wonder why!!
Concluding with the observation that sewing hexagons has shaped my life into contentment, creativity and a feeling of pride with the work created. The sadness is when I die, with no children to pass onto, I can only imagine that my lifetimes work will at best end up in a car boot sale, far grander than the worst scenario of being buried under piles of refuse in rotting away............and then there are the unsold waistcoats................... Should I care. Definitely not.
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| Fibonacci Elgin 1989 |
Just a four of my works.
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