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.