Off the floor I picked up a little knotted piece of metallic gold embroidery thread and noticed how the ends were frayed, making it look like a little tree. It reminded me of beautiful works by Maren Hassinger (currently on view at Berkeley Art Museum through November 29, 2026) and enchanting tree sculptures by Ruth Asawa. All in a little discarded thread. How would it play out in my own work? This.
I had several pieces of black cotton I had marked with deColourant; a loose crosshatch was my favorite, so I used it for the base and machine quilted it. A beginning. I added metallic gold embroidery thread by knotting and fraying the ends, then couching the strands with plain black thread. They seemed a little lost, so I gave them a border with more black cloth of sponge-marked deColourant. Still so dark.
The quilt was heading in a different direction than the simple one I had imagined. Variegated purple sashiko thread called for the French knots around the edges. Some hand-dyed purple and magenta cotton left from a long-ago gift from Velma Bolyard for the binding. Letting it continue into busy territory I added seed beads to highlight the grid I liked so much. Okay. Done. A field at night. Perhaps a dreaming field.
The Maren Hassinger exhibit is still at Berkeley Art Museum, a beautiful exhibit. Through November 29, 2026. This is one of Hassinger's that inspired me (taken at BAMPFA, July 2026).
And one of Ruth Asawa's that I was also thinking about (taken at SFMOMA, April 2025).
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