stitch. print. repeat.

"I think your self emerges more clearly over time"

                                                        MERYL STREEP

Regardless of age and all histrionics aside, this quote is perfectly applicable to any stage of personal and professional growth. It seems even more pertinent after participating in a five-day intensive  workshop with visiting fibre artist Maxine Sutton (my second workshop this summer). The class was offered in late June to CTS Co-op members as part of our annual professional development practice. It was accompanied by a lovely lecture at the Textile Museum  of Canada, open to all interested in Maxine's work.

Left: Maxine Sutton during demo at CTS.
Right: Image on the cover of EMBROIDERY magazine, September/October 2008.

Skills wise, the workshop delved mostly in cloth embellishment, manipulation processes and printing. Concept wise, it presented our immediate environment as the muse. We created pages for our hand-stitched sketchbook which we were encouraged to continue building as part of our creative endeavours. I'm truly enjoying this particular process.

One of my pages (channeling Morandi), still a work in progress.

Besides our individual work, Maxine had us involved in two collaborative projects. The first one required us to hand over one of our pages so one of our colleagues could finish it up. This exercise rendered beautiful results.

Cathy finished this piece for me. What she originally received was the background cloth with the white square, red rectangle and French knots on the right. The end result is so very quiet and beautiful, the perfect memory.

A more detailed view of Cathy's lovely embroidery and superb quote.

This is what I'm finishing up for Cathy. So far, my contribution is the appliqué of the lower piece and the filling of the bird's body, plus the red French knots which will eventually to become the horizon.

I find the back extremely engaging.

The second collaboration was more ambitious. We created a still life at the centre of (half) the table and proceeded to "react" to it by picking some items to sketch on cloth. We would then incorporate our objects to a larger piece of linen to complete the group effort.

Work in progress. Each of us contributed to an area of the piece.

My selections: White sea urchin, coral and driftwood.

My interpretation of the urchin. Paper template, natural dyed fabrics and sewing thread.

I don't remember when was the last time I did appliqué.

Sea urchin with coral, drift wood and polka dot. The authorized palette: Blue, orange and yellow

We all continued to embellish and print over different areas of the piece.

Text stencils are positioned. A lot of editing takes place (in the picture, CTS members Fionna, Kerry and Cathy).

Work in progress over a small portion (this segment represents about a third of the piece). Text stencils are now in place and waiting to be printed (which still needs to happen). I'll be sure to update this last step once it is completed.

In the end, two things became apparent. One: unequivocally, we all experienced very significant and powerful moments of discernment. Two: the sense of community that was already in place at our  studio was most definitely nourished and strengthened by these collaborative projects.

On a very personal level, the impact was of seismic proportions (hence the opening quote). Besides providing invaluable feedback, Maxine's workshop helped inject vitality and freshness to  work that seemed to have plateaued due to some serious over-thinking. It offered the much needed nudge to propel what was ready to be put back into motion with full clarity of purpose. What a privilege it is to enunciate such words.

Y'all, thank you.