We were away and now we’re back. A summer rain releases the smell of the earth as I type. We need it, this rain.
The above patchwork panel is a ‘toss off’ from the Middle Passage series and I am afraid that the whole time I was quilting it last night I wondered what it is going ‘to be’. I don’t like to think that way, but it would not go away, this question: “What is this GOING TO BE?”
On the yellow-ish square, I experimented with the idea of creating a VISUAL WEAVING by treating striped fabric as a strung loom.
My earlier ACTUAL WEAVING (below) was left damp and pinned while we were gone, but it was still lumpy, so I used machine quilting and a stiff upholstery fabric for a backing to try and even it out. It’s not there yet, and it may not get there. The central cut-away may have been too big to be supported by the sides.
And now because of the stiff backing, it is pretty much ruined for hand stitching. I used to muscle my way through, but not anymore.
While we traveled there were moments where the WORLD struck me as a loom. In the tunnel, I was part of the warp. But when traveling along row after row of erect pine trees, I was the weft.
Lastly, before we left, I darned a big hole in a pair of my husband’s jeans. I had fun with it even if it is kind of a mess – particularly the vertical section, which to my mind looks like a badly stitched together wound.
I really like your wild mending and perhaps the Weaving/Patchwork can go forward by not going through all the layers or punching holes through with an awl & fitting in a few ties or French lots or thread beads
I like the idea of puncturing the layers… maybe new strings inserted that way could then be stretched to aid in flattening.
love that you wove yourself into the world, or let the world weave into you…such a
good feeling to your telling of it.
hi Grace. sometimes it is just good to get away from our routines, and it felt light to notice the IDEAs of weaving rather than trying to DO
oops ! that was meant to read French Knots not lots!
Hi Dee, feels like you weaving into life and life is weaving. Sometimes the path is straight and direct, other times meandering from one place to another. Wondering what the darned jeans feel like on? That’s alot of thread where before there was a hole for air.
I love the idea of the world as a loom…even though I’m not weaving, nor a weaver. But I will look at the loom-world with a different eye now. Thank you for that! xx