swirl and fish batik

This is one of the hand-sewn chunks that will be added to the large Global Warming quilt — of course, I say “large”, but the last time I was designing a large Global Warming quilt, it ended up as two smaller quilts (or was it three?). This could happen with this one, too.  Especially since I have laid out the top third of the quilt on one side of my table, leaving the lower two-thirds on the other side. Hard to relate them visually this way.

I have appliqued on top of pieced sections before, but never slowly and by hand like this.  If each little section is a landscape or story unto itself, does it render the entirety, once re-inserted, richer?  More interesting?  I hope so.  The temptation is to keep this aside, as its own thing.

But then, it may go where my foot is.

I can thank Jude Hill for introducing me to the idea of ‘slow cloth’… normally at this stage in a quilt’s life, I would want to gallop full tilt to the finish.   As long as I can bear to tred on the fabric laid out now in two sections on the floor for weeks on end,  it seems I will relish taking my time.

6 thoughts on “swirl and fish batik”

  1. jude

    leaving things around to brew works wonders if you lose the stress. it is a great way to ferment idea. i often sleep under partially constructed quilts. just to get the feel of the cloth and let it speak to me.

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  2. deemallon

    agreed… looking while passing often reveals the next move, as opposed to ‘studying’ — love the idea of sleeping with a work in progress.

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  3. Dee

    thanks, arlee… it is refreshing to stitch with just two layers of fabric — instead of three, four, six, one of which is upholstery weight!

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  4. Dee

    thank you Victoria — the batik is one of the last shreds of an Indonesian shirt I found at “Clothes by the Pound” — it is incredible to me how much pleasure and artistic mileage one man’s short sleeve shirt gave me!

    The black rayon spiral is from a NEW find!

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