My first thoughts were, life is ‘Uncharted’, but an artistic representation of my life would not be that interesting to other people. Start again. Then, when driving to Southwold, I saw signs for a Maize Maze. Eureka! That will work – the twists and turns of a maze will surely never stick to any predictable plan, so it must be ‘Uncharted’. My inspiration at last! Then, checking the required size, a single maze did not seem to work, so I decided to make six mazes in 30 x 30 cm squares joined together using beads.
White cotton, 60% pre-reduced indigo vat dye, mercerised cotton thread for hand stitching, ribbon yarn, cotton batting, African recycled plastic and glass beads. Before dyeing, the design was drawn onto the fabric and folded along the lines. Then it was stitched close to the fold with temporary running stitches (ori-nui shibori). The thread was pulled very tight and stitched securely. After dyeing, washing, drying and ironing, a ‘quilt sandwich’ was formed with a shibori backing. The pieces were embellished with hand stitching, the ribbon yarn was machine stitched along the ‘paths’. Beads were used to join the individual pieces together.