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Growing up as the son of a craft-loving English teacher, I spent many hours pursuing crafts and playing Scrabble. As I grew older, I believed that in order to fit in with my peers, I had to be in the closet about my crafting, eventually stopping my creative activities altogether. My Scrabble playing, however, continued and turned into a life-long love of the study of language intersecting with my current art practice.
In 1996, I signed up for a textiles class, thereby reawakening my dormant artistic side. I am attracted to textiles because textiles are like language – both are subtle, yet powerful. Also, both can protect, expose, reveal social position, and show affiliation. I later learned that the words textile and text are derived from the same root, and several of my earlier pieces are focused on this text-textile connection.
My focus has since expanded beyond this literal connection to the multi-layered texts or readings of the cloth. Recent themes that have emerged are the socialization of American men to be violent and conflicting views on sexuality/masculinity. My hope is that upon reading my work, viewers will engage in a dialogue about the confining nature of behavioural norms.
In the past, needlework served several purposes for girls/young women, including allowing girls who were denied a formal education a chance to learn the ABCs, as well as showing suitors that the girls were proficient stitchers (and thus marriageable material). I’ve appropriated the sampler form in my investigation of how I, as a Euroamerican gay white male born in 1964, have been educated to perform my gender.
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Bren Ahearn uses textile crafts as a medium to explore the contentious boundaries between straight and gay masculinity, homoeroticism in sports, and the violence that sometimes arises from men's adherence to societal behavioral norms.
Christmas Sampler in red, green & white. Assortment of rice crispy treats, oreos, pretzels, & graham crackers.
More fun with fussy cutting. I also liked playing the prints against eager other. The 'blue' fabric here is actually a really pretty royal purple.
Square 2 of 35
I really liked this pattern, once I figured out the bobbles. The two on the bottom half I only passed stitches 4, 3, and 2 as the pattern had "one" spelled out so I missed it. I had to compensate by k2tog on the next row above each one as I had an extra stitch for each. Those bobbles came out kind of flat, but I noticed my mistake for the other three and theyr'e much more...um, perky.
Pattern: Sampler Blanket, Vogue On The Go Knitting Baby Blankets Two
Knit on size 3 Brittany birch needles
Dale of Norway Baby Ull wool in color 010
(please forgive my crappy cell phone picture)
I used an interfacing applique method.
blogged: thecutelifesmiles.blogspot.com/2013/02/butterfly-blocks-s...
put together from different patterns (the sides were from a bookmark, the alphabet from a book I owned years ago also the wreaths and the little birds and the heart was from a magazine. The little sentiment is all mine!)
A sampler of feather stitch and variations. Read my blog for more information. therosejournal.blogspot.com/search/label/TAST
Christmas Sampler in red, green & white. Assortment of rice crispy treats, oreos, pretzels, & graham crackers.
I even thought about making some hexies for the first time after I stitched this together. I am still not ready yet though. ;-)
My wife and I had lunch at Denny's after church. I had a sampler with chicken fingers, cheese quesadilla and mozzarella sticks.
I finished the last of my Flunchtime Florals blocks, but decided to put it aside to not get too ahead of Schnookie who's working on the same pattern. Instead, I picked up something I was motoring on around Christmastime -- a self-designed big block sampler quilt made from all Anna Maria Horner prints. I was thinking a big, big block sampler would be a fun project for our friend who's very new to quilting, so this is the shop sample, as it were, to encourage her to give it a go. The fabrics are all from the Anna Maria Horner fat quarter of the month club. I laid these pieces all out and then Hegle hopped up and spread out. She hasn't showed any interest in sitting on my footstool in months but as soon as it would inconvenience me terribly, it was the only place in the house she wanted to be.
-- Pk.
This is one of the first paintingsI did in the childhood series and was painted over a few months when I was ill. I tried to do one little figure each day which gave me a real sense of having at least done something. The figures are all based on my childrens drawings.
This is a birth sampler pattern I stitched as a wedding sampler. "Heirloom Birth Sampler" from The Victoria Sampler, designed by Thea--an amazing designer! I stitched this band sampler on linen using a variety of stitch techniques in colors to match Val's wedding selection..
Materials included pearl cottons, silks, metallic threads, silk ribbon, and seed beads. Stitching included silk embroidery (leaves and roses), eyelets, hardanger, back stitching, an assortment of pulled stitches with and without cutting.
Long term new project that I am looking forward to start.
Blogged: lulubloom.wordpress.com/2011/06/09/project-golden-sampler