Stitching and Patching in Greece.

Anyone following my Facebook page lately will have noticed that I am a bit obsessed with the Greek Islands! This Spring I was fortunate enough to spend three weeks in total on the beautiful Ionian Islands of Kefalonia and Zakynthos  This was my second visit to both islands, in fact my husband and I were married at the theatre in Argostoli, Kefalonia in 2005 so it was wonderful to return.

Since I have become interested in exploring the themes of strength through repair in my work, I really felt that I wanted to start on a project themed around the effects of the 1953 earthquakes on the Ionian Islands.   It took no time at all to find inspiration just from opening my eyes to the tiny details left on the landscape from ruined buildings and olive terraces that still sit amongst the indestructible trees.  Early in our stay on Kefalonia we took some lovely donkeys up into the hills above Sami  from the village of Grizata  guided by Katharina, owner of Donkey TrekkingKefalonia. Katharina's in laws are from Grizata and she showed us the remains of her Mother in Law's house and the white lilies she'd planted still growing in the garden there. I saw several more gardens with the same lilies as we explored over the fortnight, sad but beautiful reminders of the way of life that was lost.

Many of the themes I already explore in my work were fed here .  I try to express fragmentation and Sometimes letting the repair remain visible reminds us that the thing was fragile but will be much harder to break next time. This is true both physically and socially here, not only did the buildings shatter and fall but the people scattered too, out into the world to make the money to send back to the tiny remaining population so that they could rebuild their lives. Fragmented in one sense, but pulling so hard together in another.reassembly through my patchwork pieces and the comfort that results from putting something that was broken back together again. Things gain strength when they are repaired, like broken bones that thicken as they mend.


Post earthquake buildings on the Ionian Islands are now squat and resilient, no more than three storeys high and with deep foundations. Hunkered down and ready to take whatever nature throws at them, if they fall they will get back up. Duplications of the originals, repaired, rendered, painted and brand new again. I have every confidence that the Greek people will do the same in the aftermath of the current crisis they face as they have done so many times before.

So the work I am producing is once again utilising patchwork and I'm using colours and textures I've collected on my travels. The old is buttery cream walls, crumbling, bleached by the sun and revealing stone and render underneath.  Shutters and doors were green, now all peeling and faded to reveal  hardened grey wood under the paint.  Roofs were barrel tiled using traditional handmade, curved tiles rumoured to be shaped on the thigh of the maker...but probably not! Arranged first up then down and with a yellow ochre shade to them that would have been so bright once.  Grander buildings in the Venetian style remain preserved at Fiskardo and show off fancy iron balconies and shuttered windows floor to ceiling.

The new is smooth, plastered, and the colours are bright and warm.  Shades like the fruits on the market, mangos and peaches! Roof tiles now terracotta and in the imbrex and teqular roman style, doors and Windows now white and plastic.  Not so romantic, but durable and in keeping with the prefabricated, repetitive nature of building that has put these islands back together so successfully and provided their population with the opportunity to accommodate mass tourism and continue the ongoing process of repair.

The colours that are constant on the islands no matter what happens are obvious...blue and white, sea and sky. The exquisite blue lake at Melissani rediscovered in 1951 was revealed when the earthquake caused the roof to fall and allow the sun to stream in, like a big, blue eye opening from under the rocks.   The other constant that I am keen to thread through my work is the skills of the people, in particular the women of the islands.  Economics and progress drive away traditional craft from places everywhere in the world, so connecting myself to the needlewomen of the old life on the islands is really important. 

In Argostoli can be found The Harokopio Foundation, established in 1911 by Panagis Harokopos.   Regarded as unique in Greece,  the foundation began as a non profit organisation providing education and vocational training for unemployed women. The foundation is still active and concentrates on the preservation of the embroidery, lace and needlework tradition in Greece and more specific in Kefalonia through workshops and exhibitions.    

Unfortunately I discovered the Harokopio Foundation too late in my stay to actually visit but it’s first on my list for next time.  The Corgialeneion Historical and Folk Art Museum at Argostoli is a treasure trove of lace and needlework and several pieces of traditional cross stitch have really appealed  to me.   I have recreated the patterns and am including section in my patchwork pieces.

It's cold and damp in the UK today and I reckon some work inspired by the Ionian Islands might bring a bit of Greek sunshine to my afternoon while I wait for my next opportunity to return. 

Paula x

PS Many MANY thanks and more later about Karen Fozzard of Down the Rabbit Hole who has been a wonderful help in finding the museums of Argostoli and giving me a wonderful insight into how a lass from Wakefield is running a wonderful handmade business in Greece.  Thanks for the inspiration ♥ px

Unpicking

After the little antique quilt project in my last post, I realised that one of the things I enjoyed the most was the actual unpicking of the fabric.  Discovering what was going on within the seams where the cloth was unchanged by light but still had the wear and tear of repeated washing and drying.  The old cotton had become very crisp and it was possible to even notice the different levels of wear on the warp and weft ... the warp lasts longer it seems.

I also really loved working with a finite amount of material and with someone else's stitches.  The quilt was long gone and the rest of it may well be in other projects scattered far and wide, but what I had was a little framed snapshot of the original seamstress's work.  This made me work consciously with more care and reverence than I would've done with a new fat quarter.  I followed the fabric's lead as I worked,  if it tore, I mended it and that became part of the piece.  I didn't discard worn cloth and incorporated seams and damage into my own, tiny patchwork.

I don't know why I find using up the last scrap of something so delightfully comforting, It's something I've done all my life. I hate waste but if I reuse or 'upcycle' something I've never really allowed the object's previous life to show before,  believing that it should be a miraculous transformation...something new, especially with fabric.  So I would cut around the buttonholes and discard the seams and my eyes would automatically seek out the big areas of fabric in a garment that could be recut and look like new.  Oh I'll tell people that I made a range of pincushions from a charity shop skirt because upcycling is cool right? BUT I don't want people to be able to tell that from looking, so I only pick the best bits of cloth and chuck out the worn bits so the skirt someone once made, loved and wore is now gone forever.

Maybe it's an age thing but the processes of wear and tear, mending and keeping are becoming more valuable to me the older I get. I've been unpicked and put back together more times than I can count and I absolutely did not emerge as a crisp,  fresh new me every time! (I wish! ).  I'm stuck with all my metaphorical expanded seams,  darned tears, stitch holes and fancily embroidered patches and they are actually alk Ok! 

This in mind, I'll most likely be exploring and musing on about my wrinkles,  emotional scars, stretch marks and cellulite through the metaphor of old cloth for a goodly while yet...that might well be a trigger warning for some of us but let's try and muscle past it!

This is a piece of loosely woven cotton that came from a second hand, commercially made blouse.  The blouse only had embroidery around the bottom and the actual garment got cut down into Dick Turpin's big shirt for my son last Halloween.  This left me with an eight inch band of cloth, white with a floral design couched on to it in the bottom of my sewing box.  I have actually no idea yet where the rest of the big lady's shirt will end up yet but here's what happened to it so far!  

Hem, seams and embroidery all unpicked over a fab couple of hours in the garden, darned and half tea dyed.  I love the patterns of holes left by the unpicking that all but disappeared on the piece that went into the tea bath. This may well embroider beautifully under a magnifier as a teeny sampler or pincushion. ...how about ...

"As ye rip, So shall ye sew"?

Paula xxx

Mending

Recently, I have become a member of a secret underground coven of like-minded women whose main aims are to rid the world of holes, rips, worn areas, oh... and gin!  The holes are dispatched by mending and the gin in a different way!

We have taken to meeting up at undisclosed locations (each other's houses mainly!) imbibing gin and practicing the art of stitching things by hand in a million different ways.  Mending, darning, patching, embroidering and generally celebrating the happiness that ensues from making something not only whole again but more beautiful in the process. 

A while ago - quite a while actually, I bought a piece of an antique quilt at a vintage fair to make into a cushion for my daughter, for some reason I never got around to it and just left it in one of my fabric trays.  Not only has the cushion finally appeared but I've used up the extra scraps too! I've made a fabric button necklace (as I tend to do with tiny bits of fabric) , but I've also made some tiny patchwork from the torn scraps of disintegrating old cotton.  I've mended some of the hexagons while they were still separate on the papers and others once I had pieced them all together, I've done yet more mending on top once I'd appliqued the patches on to a piece of hand embroidery I did reading 'Sewing Mends the Soul'.    The whole thing has now become a pincushion in a 3" embroidery hoop which will hang rather nicely on the wall! 

You can find more joyous mending in the following places :
http://tomofholland.com/
http://uk.pinterest.com/cwellesleysmith/mending/
http://mymakedoandmendyear.wordpress.com/
http://katebowles.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/more-darned-books.html
http://hannahlamb.co.uk/Site/Visible_Mending.html

Happy stitching!  pxxxxx