Communication-Sally Neckvatal-"Talk To Me: a Brief History of Mechanical Communication"

When I am trying to develop a concept for a theme, the first thing I
create is a free association list. This includes any word, phrase or concept
that comes to mind. "Communications" made that list very long since it's
something we use pretty much every minute of every day.
We use it to survive!

Free Association

That list can be long, so I cross off
those words that don't immediately
generate a feeling or image or
identifiable relationship in my mind
that I could interpret.  I also cross
off those words that wont work for the
parameters of the challenge concept.  

Next I cross off those that I still like
but still aren't coming
together in my mind for my current
project. 

Once I've got a short list I look
through Pinterest, stock photo sites,
and the hundreds of calendars and
coffee table books i've collected over
the years for further inspiration on
how to interpret the elements I
want to include.  These provide a
jumping off point for items I need to
draw, color combinations, etc.
I'm not a talented sketcher so I
need to see something before I can
draw my version of it. For this challenge I
searched for vintage telephones.
 I often create a Pinterest board just for
the challenge. I snap photos of printed materials
too just so I can add them to my board. It
offers a quick way to check back on
my inspiration. 

Pinterest Board

Although I try to select fabric from 

my existing stash, I secretly love it
when I have to go to the quilt store!

I sketched and rejected may drawings
before I settled on these three.

The Communications theme presented
so many ideas for elements that I
wanted to use in this quilt, but size was 
a limiting factor. A lot of small
elements would not be as impactful
in telling my story as a few bold ones.
I had to edit. Editing is hard for me,
as is evidenced by the number of words
in my blog.  I had to think abstractly.
By the way there is a great Facebook
page called Abstract: The Art of Design.
They give brief glimpses of how successful
artists use abstraction to convey a
message.

The elements I decided to feature in
recognizable form were three
telephones spanning many decades: 
a candlestick style, a rotary style, and
thecell phone. 

Laurie Ceesay is one of our group's
members. I am captivated by her
signature  style of outlines of ladies
faces. They are very simple but very
expressive. She includes just enough
detail that you know what Laurie
wants you to see in her quilts.
I was determined to use this style
in my Communications quilt. I decided
to call it brush stroke outlines. And not
unusual for me, I over thought the
process.  

A couple of quick chats with
Laurie (thank you Laurie!) helped me escape from my bondage
and the rest was easy. I will definitely
use this technique again.

The 3D is pretty simple on this quilt--
the telephone cords. I used

black woven middy braid, 
tacking it occasionally to hold the
curls. 

I wanted a vintage style typewriter:
 too big, too detailed. Think abstractly. 
Did I really "need" a fairly literature 
typewriter? Or could I simply suggest 
a keyboard?  that would do and I had the
perfect fabric.  

I wanted a telegraph.  But even
if done literally, would viewers
recognize what it is? More abstraction
needed. Morse code, that wonderfully 
graphic set of dashes and dots, is the 
output of a telegraph, and including 
the name of the quilt on the front was 
perfect. The dots and dashes say 
Talk to Me.

I think backgrounds help carry the story
of the quilt,  They are foundational.
I had considered creating improvisational
piecing to suggest telephone lines, but
when I found a pre-printed fabric,
in a luscious dark coral, that already
had the telephone lines and in a scale
that I knew would work well.  The dashes
on the gold fabric suggest to me the
flow of communications around the world, and
the gray and white fabric suggests the
network that keeps the communications
from trampling each other. 

I really enjoyed this theme and could
easily create a series for it, considering
the number of ideas I had to dispense with.
Our next challenge, The Eyes Have It,
has also generated a lot of ideas in my
mind, three of which I hope
to finish in the next two months. 

Vision Board - Sally Neckvatal - Who Is The Real Me?  July 2016

When I first heard about this challenge I related it to the design boards -- a vision, really - that I had to create when I was studying Interior design at the U of M. But I wanted to make this challenge more personal. So what do I think, dream, envision?

WHO IS THE REAL ME?

Frankly and perhaps unfortunately, every part of some day for as long as I can remember is something to do with "weight". What would it be like to be slender always? What would it be like to never have a doctor, mother, father, brother, friend or anyone else (my husband has always told me I'm beautiful everyday at any weight)  tell you that you should lose some weight? What would it be like to pull a pair of jeans out of the dryer, ones that you wore just last week, and not worry if they would fit today? What would it be like to just try to eat healthily most of the the but still enjoy a glass of wine, a brownie, or a hamburger every few days (and NOT be able to hear their siren call every day, all day), exercise moderately, and never again worry about WHAT THE SCALE SAYS!

But alas, we are bombarded daily with messages about fatness as well as what the media tells us is the ideal vision of beauty, and thus value.



I have a hard time with my own "fat acceptance."  I don't want to be fat, but I am bombarded by messages that hint that I AM fat.  This was confirmed, as it always is, today by my mother.  We don't get a long well, but I went to her 90th birthday. The first thing she says  is, "well you still look fiarly thin." "No mom," I say, "I'm overweight, let's be honest." "Well, you're right, you're not thin but at least you've kept a lot of the weight off and that's better than you were."  Every conversation I have with her starts off about my weight--MY WEIGHT.  She spent a lot of years telling me about my weight and what I should do about it (she's always battled weight too). No wonder I'm still wondering who the real me is. But to be fair to myself, I lost another person in weight 14 years ago, and I've kept all but a  toddler off.

In this quilt I show a fairly good representation of what I look like for real, and what I'd like to look like always. What I dream and envision I want to look like. Even at my normal weight I'm not sure I ever looked slim though in my mind.  So, I've tried to show that the real me has to wear clothing that covers more and is  built for lots more support.  The slim woman, however, can wear more stylish articles that don't require all that support.

I've also put some messages on the quilt, messages that we get all the time, negative, positive, and in between.  I could have put on 500 more, but it's a quilt, and is representative only!

I used commercial cottons, Steam-A-Seam II and Sulky threads, Quilters Dream and Hobbs Wool battings. The bodies and heads and faces were drawn by me.  Drawn about 90 times until I was satisfied because I'm really not a figure artist.  I'd like to be, but I just don't have time to truly work at the art.

Kitschy Quilt, May 2016, Well I have to do something while my hair and nails are drying.

Ok, here's my first blog.  Of any kind.  Amazing since I spent decades writing to earn my living!


The first challenge as a member of this august creative group was to create a "Kitschy" quilt.  That term has many meanings and so can be broadly interpreted. However, to me, mid-century design and lifestyles scream kitschy. Fresh and lively, and over the top glamour!

So my Kitschy quilt depicts preparing oneself for the glamour of the 1950s: Hair set in pink rollers, a big scarf tied around the rollers (so we could go out while the hair was setting and still look good--maybe), matching red nail polish and lips, something turquoise (the table), lots of eyeliner, jewelry, and a sonic style wallpaper.  But all of that takes time, so what is a girl to do?  Drink wine, of course! So here is "Well I have to do something while my hair and nails are drying."

Detail of "hair" as wrapped around the "rollers".

The rollers are made from empty Sulky thread spools painted pink, wrapped with a thin layer of plastic bubble wrap and wrapped again with a mottled pink cotton that reminds me  of the foam rollers we used to have.

Her hair was made by first creating a skull cap of a multi-brown and gold streaked fabric and fusing it to the head.  Then I took strips about 2.25" wide and 6" long and and cut 1/8" wide slashes through the 6" length, leaving a 1/2" on one end. I stitched in the intact end of the slashed pieces to the skull cap, RST, and rolled the "hair" around the roller. I glued the bottom side to the skull.  There are five rollers in this cutie's hair.

Detail of scarf stitch to back of head.

The scarf is a piece of dressy fabric that was also featured in an underwater fantasy quilt I made a few years ago.  I'm always looking for fun fabrics to use in my art quilts.  Sometimes I regret that I didn't buy a lot of more of certain fabrics when I discover all the ways I can use them.  I simply cut two strips about 5" wide, RST sewed one end along the base of the scalp, trimmed closely, and then wrapped it up.  I took a few stitches along the top back of the head to secure the edges

To detail her face I used Derwent color pencils, some fabric ink pens, and good old 21st century blush makeup. Her nails have about 10 coats of clear polish on them.  Fabric really absorbs that stuff!

This was a fun project.  I created so many ideas while coming up with this one that I hope I can find the time to create a series of my version of Kitschy.