Wouna le Roux

It has been a few months since my last post. (Haha – that sounded much like a confession.) Lots have happened and life just got away on me a little. We started painting the house, yet to be finished, weather and other commitments permitting. I also wrote a proposal for a solo exhibition at a local gallery (more on this later) and I enrolled into a Masters of Design (and Art) degree at Te Pukenga – UCOL, which will likely consume a lot of my future blog posts. On top of that, we have a lifestyle section, an olive grove, and some poultry and fowl that constantly need attention. And to top it off, this time of year all the fruit ripens which needs processing.

But back to the quilt. My sister got otherwise occupied and lost some of her enthusiasm for the project. The upholstery fabric remnants she used, turned into an arduous task, and physically very challenging to work with. Hand-stitching everything turned into a chore, instead of being relaxing. She will still continue with the upholstery fabric, but on a smaller scale, to be applied for something other than a quilt.

I managed to finish stitching all the pieces of fabric together and onto a backing, and started on the quilting. Then it was this, that, the other, and the festive season, and things ground to a halt. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that I didn’t know where I was going with it, or what to do with it. It wasn’t art, and it seemed a bit silly to spent a vast amount of time on something I didn’t know what to do with.

So I parked it.

And as is often the case, when you take a step back and just leave things be for a while, some form of clarity will come. My dining room chairs are in need of new covers, and I have decided to cut up the quilt and use it for the chairs. I am yet to do that, as I want to finish the quilting first, and also, getting myself to cut up something like this, takes a bit of mind-gymnastics. I realise that while it feels like I’m are ‘destroying’ hard work, it will in the end be a far more useful outcome.

However, with the studies and upcoming exhibition (in September 2023), it might take a while before I can get back to this. Unless the current chair covers come undone completely.