Sally reports back from the last Craft Snippets event at Upper Riccarton Library. The next event on Wednesday 24 September will feature Wendy Batt talking about scrapbooking, cardmaking, and papercrafting.
It is not about ‘oh no I can’t, it is all about ‘oh yes you can’
It was wonderful to see so many gather to listen to Catherine McDonald talk about her quilting journey.
Catherine started sewing when she was a child. Growing up the only girl in the house she was taught to sew and crochet, and made her own clothes. Catherine remembers coming home with a magazine with a picture of a quilt on the front and telling her family she was going to make it. Right from the get-go people said, "oh no, dear, start with a cushion first", but Catherine said no, she was going to start with a big quilt. Catherine’s catch phrase for the evening was “it is not about ‘oh no I can’t’, it is about ‘oh yes you can”.
Custom fabric designs
In around 2008 Catherine started to print her own fabric. All the quilts she brought along to show us were made using her own fabric. She also sells her handmade fabric. Catherine quilts on a Bernina sewing machine and many of her quilts are a combination of machine and hand stitched.
Catherine starts with white or black fabric that is 100% cotton poplin and creates her own unique pieces using stamps, stencil, Gelli plates, discharge technique (using bleach), sun printing, and even roasting in the oven. The fabric doesn’t fray, and Catherine always washes it first. You can buy fabric prewashed, or sized as they call it, but it is more expensive. You can never know how the fabric will turn out - every time you produce something different. Catherine usually buys around 100 metres at a time. Then when she customises the fabric she will have a decent amount of the design.
Catherine ran through a series of her quilts talking about the inspiration behind the designs, the fabric used and how it was created, and the style of the quilt.
Catherine has attended many classes and symposiums and one of the early ones was by Nancy Crow in 2002. This course worked with black and white fabrics only. For the class you had to bring 100 metres of fabric, and from this you built your stash.
Military quilts
Catherine has a strong association with the military and the service they provide. Her father was in WW2, her son in the NZ Army, and her daughter in law a doctor in the Air Force. Due to this Catherine has made a military series of quilts. One quilt is titled “I’m Coming Home” and is based on copies of telegrams sent to her grandmother by the NZ Defence Force when her father was injured. Catherine transferred the paper telegrams onto fabric by treating the fabric with fabric softener and then putting the fabric through an ink jet printer to transfer the words to the fabric. As Catherine hand quilted this work she thought about her grandmother waiting to receive a telegram. It is a special piece to her.
One of Catherine’s military quilt series was selected to tour with Brenda Gel Smith’s ‘Beneath the Southern Stars’ exhibition. This quilt tilted “Thank You” was made using wholecloth discharged black and machine quilted. Another quilt from this series “The Power of Weapons” toured with the SAQA Oceania Exhibition.
Techniques: From stitching to "roasting"
Catherine originally machine stitched but this changed in 2015 when she made a piece that sold at its first exhibition. Since then, a good proportion of Catherine’s work has been a combination of machine and hand stitching. Combining machine and hand sewing gives the quilt texture. Catherine machine stitches the quilt first through all of the layers and then hand stitches through the top two layers.
Catherine showed a number of her beautiful quilts and passed them around so that we could look at her amazing works of art.
Someone asked Catherine how she hangs her quilts. They are hung using hook sided Velcro attached to the quilt and then attached to command hooks on the walls. They are not heavy so a command hook will work fine.
Another piece, “Migration”, uses fabric that had been roasted. This is as easy as cooking a leg of lamb. You put the fabric, wet or dry, into a roasting dish with tea bags. Bake at 200 degrees Celsius. Choose the cheapest tea bags, they bleed better. The longer you cook the fabric the darker it gets. Plus, the crevasses are darker, just like a leg of lamb. If you leave it in too long, you might get holes, but you can use that in your quilt.
Creative quilting - Letting the fabric decide
Catherine doesn’t use a pattern, she dreams up ideas. Often the fabric helps in the creative process. Your quilting journey evolves. Some people only use patterns but get to a point where they want to change something. At that point you start to make your own designs - you are creating and evolving. If you think you can’t do that, you can. Give it a try, it is very satisfying.
Catherine’s most recent work titled “Viral” is made with wholecloth black discharged fabric. Catherine used rubber bands to make a more traditional style of tie dye creating circles. The quilt is then machine and hand stitched. The meaning behind the quilt is the impact of social media posts and how they instantly radiate around the world. In this piece the fabric drove the art. Catherine felt that the finished fabric looked angry, so drew on that as her inspiration.
Quilting groups/events
Catherine belongs to several groups including Cloth in Common, a group of 12 artists making 12 quilts in 24 months.
Catherine promoted other groups she is a part of, including,
- Christchurch Quilters and their upcoming Thread Connexions Exhibition
- Aotearoa Quilters
And promoted next year’s Threads of Time Quilt Symposium which will be held in Christchurch.
Latest crafting titles
Angela shared the lastest book list of new books and mags and those we had on display on the night. You can pop a hold on any of these.
View Full List
What’s On
Sally did a round up of what is on around Ōtautahi including:
- Stash Swaps coming up at the various Libraries around the city.
- The Goode Christmas Market
- Fabric -a-brac
- Canterbury Embroiderer’s Guild
Our next Craft Snippets will be on 24 September with Wendy Batt talking about scrapbooking, cardmaking, and papercrafting. See you there!
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