My thoughts and prayers are with the folks in NYC and NJ and elsewhere, suffering with clean up, destruction, and deprivation. I hope temperatures stay mild. It’s gotten a little cold here (outside of Boston) in the last couple of hours. Here is one of the Berkshire barns, as of this morning. It is a completed quilt top.
I’m not sure why it turned out to be such a struggle to assemble, but it was. It’s about 32″ wide and incorporates some of the more successful indigo cloths from this summer. The indigo worked particularly well for the mountains. I’m calling it, “Waiting for Snow”.
I created a ‘side bar’ quilt on the work table, taking little breaks from the Barn. It has a totally different feel, and therefore constituted a visual contrast. This was refreshing for some reason. In this one, the structure is merely hinted at, and the landscape has been granted license to be wild and dominant. Not a surprising choice, given the rampaging punches that Sandy delivered over the weekend, while I was safely working down in my cellar studio. This composition features some more of my indigo dips, as well as silk from my upholstery-design-contact, quilting cottons, batiks, and that Lonni Rossi broccoli/tree fabric that I so love. I am hand quilting this little composition today, as the sky greys and a cold rain starts to fall. Its working title is: “Long Island Blues” (Jude Hill online class project). In this case, the usual horizon line has been broken up (submerged?!!) by the wandering watery lines of shibori.
Here’s the apron I referenced the other day, back when it was just a bunch of woven strips attached to a rectangle of linen. I am wearing it now. It works.
For an apron to work for me, it MUST have strings long enough to tie in front, so that I can tuck a dish towel into it. Pockets unnecessary.
For the many quilters and fiber artists out there who make work as gifts or to sell, how do you know when something’s A KEEPER?
I knew I wanted this for myself, but sometimes I DON’T. One way to turn something I haven’t admitted I want to keep into a keeper is to price it too high. Ha!
P.S. This apron combines the learning from two Jude Hill classes (Spirit Cloth) — Cloth to Cloth and Contemporary Boro.
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.
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!)
