what is it YOU really stitch

I can't bring myself to put pen to paper and, therefore, I use post-it notes too.

For you youngsters, there was a time when post its weren't yet born so BP (before post-its) I used to just put a bookmark at that page, or a paper clip and a piece of scrap paper saying whatever I wanted to say. I think the guy who came up with the idea should be immortalized in bronze.

Lucille

Maureen has a copy of Philip Harben's cookery book which she bought in Ceylon in the late 1950s. It's now very, very battered and stained but it has some good recipes.

I remember him although my two all time favourites are Julia Child and Delia Smith.

I Repeat i never looked down on anyone , at one or two occasions i said that working on a bought Kit or a bought Pre printed Canvas, is not as artistic as starting from one`s own ideas, designing etc,,, This is a fact not a looking down matter. Pat designs her own Remarkable Xst Houses, her work interested me enough to look up the history of the houses she xst. There are manyu others here whose work i find interesting , good and well done. But if one works on a Ready made Canvas designed by some body else , Sorry it isn`t art ,, plain fact. But You are the one who thinks that craft is less than art NOT me , because you felt it was looked down , I find that all techniques in all fields of Craft & Art are equaly important. mirjam

Lucretia , first i try not to brag, but as anybody else here shares their Finnishing embroideries etc, i thought i could do it as well ... [had no idea the Dancing Drinking Shoting about finnished projects was restricted to certain people , whoile telling about one`s work methods was forbiden to others . As to the OLD laces i sometimes cut ,,,, i assure you that you would have chucked it into the dust bin !!! As those are were mostly remnants found in dust bins, dirty piles in a market etc,,,, I have restorated many laces for many people , and if i cut up a piece it is many times the parts cut out after i have restortated the whole piece ,,, but why not make up an unnice story if you can ?? I do use parts of my OWN OLD works as my own ready mades , but i have never destryed a piece of cloth or hand made lace in my life ,,, mirjam

Spent the whole day with a friend who is a marvelous Artist Quilter ,,, she said i can call her crafter any day i want ,,, because not all artists are good crafters as well .. And some crafters are good artists as well ,,, To be both is a Gift from Heaven .. mirjam

I have a very hard time to write in a book and suffer if i had to cut one ,, but one day i gave 10 artists a Volume each of a Book people stopped reading and they made wonderful art from it ,, have a look on my site

I would never `alter` a book in a language i can`t read, in case it is Holy to the people of that other language ,,, mirjam

The Galloping Gourmet

Mirjam wrote I would never `alter` a book in a language i can`t read, in case it is Holy to the people of that other language ,,,

That is a good point, but one benefit of buying library discards is that they are still tagged with their call numbers; it is easy to be sure one is picking up a work of fiction, as I did, rather than a book of philosophy or religion.

Dawne

Well, never a boring moment at rctn.

Arnhild

Spent the whole day with a friend who is a marvelous Artist Quilter ,,, she said i can call her crafter any day i want ,,, because not all artists are good crafters as well .. And some crafters are good artists as well ,,, To be both is a Gift from Heaven .. mirjam

Definitely. I suppose some confusion COULD arise by the fact that "crafters" can`t be called artists if they just follow a pattern created by an "artist". It`s rather splitting hairs though!

Pat

I do design most of my own work, and do my own finishing (which means it takes me much longer to complete a project than my friends who are happy not to bother with such things) but I don't consider myself an artist. I am proudly an artisan. This may be because there was a period in my life when I saw all kinds of sloppy work being accepted because it was "art". When this thread came up, I was reminded of Edith John's "New Stitches for Needlecraft" in which she says "....I have no time for the deliberately poor technique which is so often presented as a gesture of defiance at tradition, worked, one is solemnly assured, in the cause of freedom and self expression. I have no time for ill mounted or soiled work, and very little for embroidery, no matter how original, which is totally unsuitable for its purpose. Neither have I a great deal of sympathy for the experienced and clever needlewomen who are so narrow in their outlook that they condemn every serious effort to widen and enrich the field of embroidery."

I guess I agree with her.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

I can go with that but would also add that I do what pleases me and what makes me happy and satisfies my desires in needlework. What others believe is 'correct' 'appropriate' etc may not necessarily reflect my views. I would also add, no animals were hurt in the making of this lol

I'm sure there are others who like me, sometimes do a piece using a new to them technique. For example, I did a small hardanger piece purely and simply because I wanted to know what people on RCTN were talking about when they discussed hardanger. I didn't then, and still don't much like the look of hardanger, but I loved learning how to do it and seeing that I could master it.

Is that art, or craft, or school, or just plain enjoyment???

I would say "all of the above". I do not know of any artist or any craftwoman who does not try out new techniques on practice pieces.

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Most of the time, I like trying new things. For myself, I'd rather not practise on a doodle cloth. I prefer doing a piece that calls for a certain technique (as long as there's not counting ).

Absolutely. But then I frequently consider a pincushion, a Christmas ornament, a corner of a traycloth or other small items to be "practice pieces". I only use a doodle cloth if I am unsure whether or not I like a particular stitch in a particular place (or if I have forgotten precisely how to do it!!)

Olwyn Mary in New Orleans.

Dawne i am glad you agree with me on that point, I don`t see Libraries selling discards here , thus this wouldn`t help me in knowing what a book in another language, actually is about. But from experirnce in out of country libraries i found several times that they defined , a sacred book of some culture as fiction ... which really horrified me. mirjam .