“Each day I got stronger and realised that if you are unwanted, then you are also free.” Annabel Rainbow
The wallpaper stripes are free machined with text and say:
Mood swings: chocolate, cats, wine, Black cohosh, divorce
Weight gain: diet, exercise, bigger clothes
Hot Flushes: fan, soya, exercise, light clothes, HRT, diet, evening primrose oil
Insomnia: Remove clocks, no caffeine
Depression: clonidine, gabapentin, toy boy, acupuncture, venlafaxine
Low self-esteem: testosterone
Irritability: diet, cannabis, citalopram
Loss of libido: HRT, champagne, abstinence, testosterone
Tearfulness: friends, food, sleep
The words stitched on the body are:
Keep young and beautiful
It’s your duty to be beautiful
Keep young and beautiful
If you want to be loved.
And also in stitch on the body is the following story:
Ah sod off. So what if I’m on the shelf, I’m very happy here. Last year the man I’d lived with for over 20 years told me he wanted a divorce because he didn’t love me any more. The truth was that he’d found someone younger to flatter his ego. He didn’t like the way I’d started to sag and pucker, and grow moles and hair . He said I was grey and miserable. I was desperate and cried so hard but I couldn’t stop him. I was so lonely, dependent, insecure, ageing and invisible.
But slowly, slowly, I began to feel better. Each day I got stronger and realised that if you are unwanted, then you are also free. I guess I took stock and evaluated my life. I was frightened at first to go out on my own and make friends. When I was younger I used to trade on my appearance and get attention because of the way I looked, but suddenly everyone just stopped looking. A friend told me I needed a make over, with a new hair do, and visits to the gym, maybe get my nose straightened at last, but they were wrong. Over 17 million cosmetic procedures were done in the world in 2011 but It’s silly to pretend that I can be young forever like those stupid celebrities. 17% of the UK population are women over the age of 50 but they seem faceless and without a defined role. Why? Getting old is interesting. I think I care less about things than I used to but I have more power and serenity. I may not be an attractive young woman any more, but I don’t need men to make me feel good about myself. I’ve adjusted, and do you know, I think I’m ok. Do you know, life is good and I like my shelf.
In situ on the far right is Life 7 On The Shelf at Festival of Quilts.
(Above) The quilt underneath the model is pieced fabric done over papers in the English Paper Piecing style. You need to photograph a quilt as you want it to appear in a piece, with all the folds and strange shapes, then print it onto paper and use it to cut up as your base shapes which you then hand sew together to make a separate little quilt and then applique the whole thing into place. In this case, my model kindly lay on the quilt on a bed so that I could photograph both of them at the same time.
Once the finished quilt bit has been appliqued into it’s place, I find it helps to add a little bit of paint to darken the areas of shadow slightly. In this photo you can see the fabric darkens as it goes over the edge of the shelf, and is highlighted with white acrylic where the sun is supposed to be catching it.
This photo (above) was taken at an exhibition so isn’t too clear, but shows you the things on the table. Lots of metaphores for the menopause, (Germaine Greer, tablets, hand held fan), fertility, (eggs) and ageing (skull, dying rose).
Below, close up of stitching. All these items were applique, which has then been free machined, and tones added using acrylic paint to emphasize the shape, as you would if you were painting it. The book was appliqued as a piece of cream fabric and the image and text pencilled in, then stitched, then painted. The sketchbook is one of my own and I really enjoyed doing the pages!