The versatility of the classic herringbone motif is evident in the many different ways current designers and craftspeople have incorporated it in their work. Originally designed as a V-shaped weaving pattern, it has been reinterpreted across numerous forms.
Over the past couple of months, I have had the pleasure of creating a set of two memorial quilts for a woman whose mother, Genevieve, passed away in 2013. Genevieve was known for her lively sense of humor and her dedication to nursing. Taking seven of Genevieve’s garments together with a solid ivory linen, I constructed the two quilts using my Eclipse quilt pattern.
The process began with deconstructing the garments.
Following the death of my 100 year old grandfather, I find myself, a few months later, helping my mother and my aunt packing up my grandparents’ house. A hundred years of stored memories, papers, photographs, furniture, and most of my grandmother’s life work as an artist. It has been an amazing process of unearthing a century of my legacy.
Among the items packed away in the basement was this beautiful zither and this leather-bound set of Goethe’s works in German.
I just took in a great show at the Disjecta Gallery, here in Portland, Oregon. The show is called “Constructs” and features the work of talented artists, Laura Vandenburgh, Nathan Green, and Pablo Rasgado. I found their use and appreciation of pattern and texture quite inspiring. Vandenburgh creates large, net-like structures out of cut paper that reminded me of contours on maps.
I had the pleasure of visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art this week and seeing an exhibit of early C.F. Martin guitars. The surface design on his instruments was incredible – I wish we could have heard someone playing each one!
