Category Archives: online learning

Wrapped in mother-love

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This LL Bean sweater was my mother’s.  I am using it as my first exercise in Jude Hill‘s Contemporary Boro 2 class.  As a starting point, it has to fit better.  I had already cut the too-long sleeves to wrist-length awhile back.  They’ll need binding.   The shoulders droop unattractively and I want to fix that.  Today I cut the ugly buttons off and unpicked the threads holding in the tags, then created a muslin tag (rubber stamped with coffee pot) and an inner pocket featuring a lion, to reference my very Leonine mother.

I want to add a lower section that will bring the garment below the hip, and also add some weight to it.

Right now, I plan to bring that cocoa-colored Indian trim fabric right down the front, and for the wrists as well.  Not sure what I’ll use for the lower peplum.  Not the beautifully-embroidered indigo shown here, but something else.

And closure is up in the air now, too.

This was the sash I constructed back when I was thinking about running with this idea:

I plan to add thin red ties, so that the ‘waistlit’ as it has been dubbed by deanna, will wrap twice and tie in front, but with narrower ties.

The Tortoise and the Hare

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bleached-strings by dee at clothcompany

Yesterday was the last Improv Quilting class until September. It is nice to feel the approach of summer, and a different pace and set of concerns on the horizon, and it was hard to say goodbye. I will miss the weekly dialogue about cloth, along with the more personal notes about trips, children, grandchildren, former occupations, and so much more.

And, the house will miss the weekly call to clean up. In a fit of pre-class kitchen clean up, I bleached the strings to our Roman blinds — and look at the result!! I have been meaning to do this for ages. It is ALWAYS satisfying to do something you’ve been meaning to do for ages.

I am signed up for three online classes this spring, which will very much mark the turning toward summer. So excited. Karen Ruane (Contemporary Embroidery), Glennis Dolce (blog – “Shibori Girl”; class – Indigo Dyeing), and Jude Hill (blog – “Spirit Cloth”; class – Contemporary Boro). Pretty great, right?

Here is a turtle cloth that I made yesterday.  It was to practice needle-turned applique, which I used for the critter’s feet, head, and tail.  I used a cloth weaving from another Jude Hill class as the shell.  This was a first in many ways.  I used Jude’s method of invisible basting prior to attaching the turtle.  I cannot believe the difference it made in terms of stabilizing the layers and making it POSSIBLE to enjoy the subsequent handwork.  I may be slow, says the turtle, but I’ll get there.

The dark green was a little too dark on the red, so I lightened it with a white oil pastel.  I’m not 100% happy with that result, but it’s better than the untouched green.

I may be slow, but I’ll get there!

(It wasn’t until re-titling this post that I noticed the rabbit above!)

weekend work

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I might be finished piecing “Middle Passage I” – shown here.  An African ritual beaded belt helped me ‘see’ the bottom edge.  Maybe tomorrow I’ll be daring and violate copyright laws to show you.

I finished this felt house today by adding satin cording and a bottom and closing it up into a 3-D structure.  Need to find bead for closure.

Did first “Whispering Hearts”‘ online class with Jude Hill yesterday – signed up, whaaa? – last year sometime – only now going through the entire class (I signed up at a time when I was working full-time — it was an act of hope more than anything).  I love her idea of keeping things simple and getting to know the subject before departing from it.  On American Idol, they’d say – ‘more melody’ or ‘stick to the tune’.

I like the way Arlee Barr’s beautiful ecru silk is imprinted with leaf shapes that almost look like ribs.

While piecing “Middle Passage II” today, this little piece emerged – just for fun!

Cleaning out paper boxes, found the heart doilies… once you investigate a theme, it starts showing up everywhere (but, I have to announce for the record, that I’ve been sewing hearts of one kind or for more than a decade!)

Tonight, after WISHING for curtains for our back sliders for years – honest to god – and puzzling over the nine foot expanse, wondering about support for the rod, brackets (do they match others in the room, or not?), where to place the fullness of cloth and still move in and out the door readily – I JUST DID IT!!  Had the spring rods.  Dug up the curtains.

Maybe it’s the NIKE track poster of C’s that I just hung on the other wall that spurred this long over-due act!!

Whatever the reason, it is heavenly to have the room completely enclosed at night – especially when the leaves are still not out.