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.