Leah Evans and Rosa Pomar

I don't know where or how I found out about Leah Evans but her work is fantastic. I am not patient enough to be a quilter or a knitter in any formal sense and, in all honestly, the creations I imagine seem to be either impossible or laborious or just plain ridiculous for an amateur in either of this fields of "making".

Still, Leah Evans textile pieces really ring my bell. As she describes in her own words "My current work combines aerial photography, maps, and satellite imagery. I also find myself drawn to the more minute systems of the microbial world. I enjoy the play in scale between magnified microbial life forms and remote sensing images of huge tracts of land. Both scales deal with the translation of scientific information into a visual form." These pieces are each detailed renderings of various studies in the physical world through the use of applique, machine quilting, scissors, chalk, but never a computer. Super cool. Check out more here.

Nine Patch, Possibly made in New Jersey, United States, Circa 1900-1920 (image of International Quilt Study Center & Museum).

Also, to put an end (or maybe a new beginning) to all of this ridiculous textile and quilting fascination I will send you over to Rosa Pomar for one of her most recent posts on abstract design in American quilts. Rosa shows pictures from the catalog of this exhibit held in 1971 at the Whitney Museum in New York in which American quilts were hung and exhibited as if they were paintings.

Rosa is a Portuguese artists and writer who keeps a blog filled to the brim with inspiring stories, pictures, history, etc. One of my favorites and definitely worth visiting. She also has a shop that specializes in Portuguese textiles and her own handmade pieces. She is cool. Go check her out.

**all images courtesy of leahevanstextile.com and http://aervilhacorderosa.com.

aervilhacorderosa.com.