Marking Time with Fabric and Thread is published

There is a new book published this fall written by the American tapestry artist, Tommye McClure Scanlin.  The title is: Marking Time with Fabric and Thread: Calendars, Diaries, and Journals within your Fiber Craft.   

Judy Martin's stitched journal, Not to Know But To Go On, is one of the thirty diaries or journals featured.  

Judith E Martin lives and works on Manitoulin Island in Lake Huron.  She holds two BA degrees in fine art, from Lakehead University, Thunder Bay Ontario (1993) and Middlesex University, London, UK (2012).  She made her first quilt at the age of 20 , and in the 1990's she made hand-stitched story quilts using the poetic code she discovered in traditional quilt patterns and world embroidery.  Her work has been widely exhibited across Canada as well as internationally.  Judith's stitched artwork was featured in the book Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art by Claire Wellesley-Smith (2015) and is supported by the Ontario Arts Council.   

'I have kept journals since the mid-1980's when I was in my 30s.  Most of them are black hard-covered 8 and half by 11inch sketchbooks.  I continue to write down my ideas, record family events and stories, collect inspirational images, and make sketches of the work I want to make.  I have let my children draw in them over the years when they were bored, and now I encourage my grandchildren to draw in them with me when we visit.  I use a ballpoint pen for nearly everything."

"In 2010, I was inspired to create a stitched journal to record every day of the years before, during, and after my 60th birthday.  I began it on my birthday, July 10, 2010, and continued until July 10, 2013.  The project gathered up three years of time.  I was not interested in trying to represent what I did during each of the days or even what the weather was  I was just interested in the whirl of time and how fast it goes by and how beautiful life is."

"The process was to couch strips of fabric from  my stash of saved cloth onto artist canvas with a complete skein of cotton embroidery floss for each day.  Every day I would select a new skein and use it all up. the days are thus marked by bands of coloured thread, and are clearly differentiated on the back of the creaem-coloured canvas.  The cloth I chose was also used up, although it was never measured.  I used this project as a way to go through my fabric collection.  I discarded or gave away cloth I no longer cared about, and used only fabrics that had meaning or beauty for me in this project.

About the thread: Although I kept a wide variety of colours of embroidery floss on hand I did not look at them like I did the cloth. When it came time to choose one, I put my hand in the basket without looking and used whatever one came out, because we do not know what the day will bring, do we?  This idea of chance, of not knowing but continuing, changed the textile from a journal of days to a philosophical poem.  I worked with pieces of canvas approximately 13 x 22 inches until they were filled up, then attached them in order with a wide cotton tape.  I also embroidered the date of each panel on the back."  

The result of my three years of daily practice is a long strip of stitched cloth that resembles a Finnish rag rug, 220 feet long and 13 inches wide.  Its title, Not To Know But To Go On, comes from Agnes Martin's ideas that I found in the book of her collected writings published in 1992 by Hatje Cantz.

page 58 and 59

In the above photo of page 58 and 59 of Marking Time With Fabric and Thread are pictured Judith E Martin's mixed  media fabric construction, Not to Know But To Go On 2010 - 2013, 73 yards by 13 inches by 1.2 inch.  The photo on page 58 is of this piece installed in World of Threads Festival in 2014 is by Gareth Bate, curator of the festival.  The photo on page 59 is of the journal laid out in a forest path and was taken by the artist.   

There is a editorial press release of this new book on the publisher's website:  Schiffer publishing .

30 artists were profiled in the book: Besides Judith E Martin, the list includes Janet Austin, Ayesha Barlas, Kate Colwell, Geri Forkner, Rowen Haug, Natasha Khiev, Kay Lawrence, Mary Jane Lord, Kalliopi Monoyios, Heidi Parkes, Ellen Schiffman, Clare Danek, Jennifer Edwards, Emma Freeman, Jennifer McGregor, Rebecca Mezoff, Karen Turner, Val Vaganek, Carol Ward, Rebecca Cartwright, Jess Jones, Robin Lynde, Joan Sheldon, The Tempestry Project, Susan Martin Maffei, Michael Rohde,  Karen Schaller, and the author Tommye Scanlin.  

This book is available in book stores  now.