(As always, you can click on the images to enlarge them. And click again for even larger.)
This little 4 X 6 inch card was made for my long-time pen pal, Gina. She first wrote to me in 1998, after learning that I, too, was housebound and disabled. Gina became ill while she was a college art student and has never recovered. She’s now 52. In addition to ME-CFS, she also has Multiple Chemical Sensitivities and cannot tolerate being near computers. Thus, our correspondence has been entirely by USPS. Alone, she lives in a rented room with a make-shift kitchen and just barely manages to take care of her own basic needs.
For a while, though, she was making paper collages. At irregular intervals, over the years, she sent me scans of her work. I had a hard time choosing which ones to show you, but I want you to see some of her work. Here are a few of them.
Extraordinary, aren’t they? She also made this applique hanging that’s outside our apartment door. It was made before we met and before she became too ill to do such work. I don’t know what prompted her to give it to me, but I treasure it.
Now she is not even able to make anything and I get only brief messages on note cards once or twice a year.
If you leave a comment for her, I’ll print and send it to her.
The card I made for Gina is based on a letter from the book Embroidered Alphabets by Gail Lawlor. This is a handy book for any stitcher who wants to put words on her work. Besides a variety of alphabets, she offers lots of interesting and innovative ways to stitch letters.
Here’s the letter G I used.
Using this initial, I created a design and transferred it to cotton fabric I had backed with fusible HTWC for greater stability. I put the fabric on my light table, over the design, and traced it with a white, water-soluble ink pen. This was the tedious part, but I’ve learned from experience that it’s the only way to get the threads spaced correctly.
Even though this is a very small piece, I like working on fabric mounted on a stretcher-bar frame, especially for something like the matrix filling. The fabric must be tight and stable. I began stitching with the salmon-colored flowers, then just kept adding, using silk ribbon, fine wool, #8 perle cotton, and cotton floss. I must have shot this with flash, which washed out the colors.
Also, I should have put the frame on a different colored background, not my red desk-chair seat.
The outline of the G is three rows of couched metallic threads with some gold check purl chips at the points. The matrix filling is DMC metallic thread, tied down with the same thread.
Here it is almost finished.
After couching a border of Rajamahal gold Rajcord and removing the fabric from the frame, I folded the worked area over a piece of Timtex, which I understand is no longer being sold. It was a gift from Kathy. Then I made a backing for it of the same red cotton with a label that I printed on fusible cotton. To the back, I also fused Pellon fleece. Then I stitched the back to the front. Why is it not perfectly rectangular? Beats me. I measured and re-measured.
Here’s the back.
As you may know, a great many of my needlework pieces have been made as gifts. After I was forced to stop working and go into seclusion, my income dropped from six figures to zero . My husband was already retired and our only income was his retirement income. We couldn’t afford gifts for all our children and grandchildren, so I began making things for them. You may have read about that in my little story with pictures of some of the gifts I made years ago.
It is a great joy to be able to make things with personal meaning for my loved ones. And now to get this card ready for the USPS.
What a beautiful, beautiful card (I especially love the matrix effect) for what I’m sure is a beautiful person. Please pass on my very best wishes and support.
What a loss that Gina can’t keep on with her art!
Her collages are not only beautiful, but also very sensitive.
Give her my best wishes and tell her to hang in there.
As for your card you are amazing.
i can’t believe you stitched all those flowers,
only on a closer look did i realized they were stitched. They are so perfect they looked as if they were printed on fabric!!!
i’m sure your card will make Gina very happy.
neki desu
Your card for Gina is a treasure. Colorful, delicate, expertly stitched. And it is a revelation to see Gina’s artwork. The pieces are so carefully designed and beautifully executed. I love her use of color. What an inspiration they are! Please tell her how much I enjoyed seeing her work.
JoWynn, your piece for Gina is beautiful. The love with which you made it really shows.
Gina, your artwork is so moving. I love its dream-like feeling. I feel privileged to have seen your work.
Gina’s collages are so intriguing and beautiful. Thanks so much for showing them to us, JoWynn.
And your “G” card is amazing. I truly love it.
[…] to look at on her website. Lately, she made a card for her friend Gina, and it’s stunning! On Gina’s card, JoWynn laid down a background of gold lattice, and then, in the monogram “G”, she […]