Technique of the Week – Week 21 – Slow Cloth/Torn Fabric

Here’s this week’s video about the Slow Cloth/Slow Stitching Movement

Skill Level:Beginner
Time Commitment: Weekend +
Cost: Whatever it takes to finish your project?

Back in 2010-2011, when I did this project, I came upon the Slow Cloth movement, and I loved the idea of the initial 10 principles it embodied, like being more in touch with the work, finding the joy in what you are doing, and through that connection becoming more skilled and mastering the work.  Now it’s not that I don’t like or appreciate these tenets, I just found them a little too highbrow for me.

More recently, Mark Lipinski has started the Slow Stitching Movement, and I find that it’s a much more approachable set of ideas.  You’re still slowing down and enjoying the process (who doesn’t have a part of the quilt process they like least? Like binding…) and you’re re-engaging with the work in a more connected way.  But it’s less of the “honoring our mothers” thing, and more about unleashing your inner creativity.  And that is something I can totally get behind!

This project was done on a vacation, and I took it with me and stitched on it in public at the various stops of the vacation route.  People asked me about it, and it connected me to the work and memories to the piece.  Is it my best work ever? Nope.  Is it a piece of significant high-brow art? Not really.  Does it mean something to me?  You bet your ass it does.

So to that end, starting in 2015, I’m going to be doing a little weekly fun stitching thing called “Sew-On-Wednesdays”.  It’s to show you what my recent projects are and a little about how I’m trying to connect more and master the work I’m stitching on in 2015.  I hope you will join me and check it out!