Tag Archives: piecing

Five

iron-cloth-deemallonI understood why, working in the basement studio in the winter, standing on a heating pad, wearing Dickensian gloves, and a down vest, the iron’s heat proffered so much comfort. Well, it turns out, even upstairs in the glare of morning light, with a fire going and heat on, I love the feel of warm cloth.

This is square five. I have to tackle, earlier rather than later, what to do about my aversion to uniformity measuring. Three of the squares are roughly the same size. Two are a bit bigger, and by “a bit”, I mean enough to matter.

I am thinking of marking the top of the green bookcase in the living room to use as a template.  Turns out it is exactly as wide as the three same-sized squares.

Which leads me to this.  A couple of goals emerge as I piece: I want to avoid the use of rotary cutter and mat, and I would like to use fabrics already in my possession. The latter commitment may be difficult, because I am also going to be picky about keeping my blues and greens in the right value family.

Finn and I walked and made it back. It’s not so bad out. Growing up in Upstate New York, it was often this frigid. As kids we called it, “booger freezing weather”. Rarely happens around here.
tissue-trunk-duskBut don’t get me wrong – I am super grateful to have the luxury of spending the rest of the day inside, at home!

P.S. The above picture from Sketchbook Project efforts a couple years back, reminds me that I will NOT be participating again… it turns out that letting the booklet go at the end, even knowing that it is (sort of) circulating, is not satisfying.

Now there are four

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And if I just keep going, as some of us fiber folks like to say, at some point there will be 48 or 64 or however many I will need.

2015/01/img_7283.jpgNot a huge fan of jackets for dogs, especially for those canines bred to manage just fine in the Alps, but they are saying frost bite will be a risk after thirty minutes or less of exposure tomorrow, and Finn is very lean. So here he is, looking stylish in camo!

He did NOT fare well in his crate this morning for my much abbreviated run to Salem. Oh well. A little backsliding is not the same as failure!

Friday in between

IMG_6503Yesterday’s meal and company and fire were nice: delicious, warm, companionable. We had a couple of birthdays to celebrate, too.

IMG_6467.JPGIMG_6464.JPGIn the quiet aftermath, I have resumed work on the second Middle Passage quilt. In this one, the top band of cohesive and colorful culture is very narrow and grows increasingly fragmented as one works down toward the bottom, where the ocean resides.

IMG_6501.JPGThe pale green and white triangles are meant to signify the sails of the slave trading ships. The brown striped batik also signifies the slavers, but this time, the planking on the ships.

I forgot how much I like working this way.

deemallon, quilt, piecingIMG_6489Using photo apps to strip out color or intensify it can be a useful trick to find weaknesses in design.

I blogged about the first (and now complete) Middle Passage quilt here, but it occurs to me I have yet to post a good picture of it, finished and bound.

I’m afraid from now until the end of the year, my felt creatures will be hogging most of my time (not to mention Christmas), but in the New Year? Archives of everything! Binding and finishing at an amazing clip! With no significant writing time consumed!

 

Corn guy and Womb

IMG_5131.JPGFunny to be weaving “fall” when it got so sticky hot here today. This guy got his start on a napkin-basket-loom.  I was trying out some things from the weaving class with Jude Hill (Spirit Cloth, side bar), and sort of having fun.  The warp caught in the grooves of the basket edges and stayed put well enough, but I could only use tape to secure it on the back, so it got loose in places — sometimes to the point of near unworkability.
IMG_0009 IMG_4746Mostly today I pieced rectangles of cotton together, pressed the seams one way or the other, and enjoyed the cool of my basement.  I ran the fan all day to churn some of the mildew smell out the back door. That sounds awful but it wasn’t. It was a nice retreat after two very intense weeks of travel and settling the boys in.
IMG_0278In fact, the cool quiet of the cellar was perfect for my first ‘official’ day of the empty nest — a day that found me tired, disoriented, a little sick, and in real need of silence.IMG_0295 I stitched a linen frond to the woven island piece (above, left) and excavated some of the sections representing Africa from the Middle Passage series (above, right)IMG_0297In the little square above, I put some of the ‘Ghost House’ remnants next to fabrics being used to designate ‘Strange Fruit’ in the ‘White House of Privilege’ series. A panel with a moon stitched on it is being blown sideways by the fan.  I like that almost more than anything else!IMG_0302 IMG_0308 IMG_0310Middle Passage scraps partnered with Ghost House piecing (above). Reading the recent ‘Atlantic’ article, ‘The Case for Reparations’ (by Ta-Nehisi Coates) has got me thinking about all this again (as if the events in Ferguson, Missouri weren’t prompt enough)…IMG_0316And all these tiny little ‘doodles’ wanting a home. The grid has one inch squares, so you get the scale.
IMG_5030I’ll close with a few pix from Vermont.  We camped at a state park located on an island in Lake Champlain.  We did this to save money, but it was really wonderful!  So quiet. So pretty.

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IMG_0269The weather was perfect, and it was nice, as it turns out, to break up the drive and the border crossing over separate days. Since we’ve had some really nice visits to Montreal, including a few memorable dinners, there was no feel of a pauper’s compromise in this plan — none at all. IMG_5084IMG_5092Look at those skies!!

accepting today’s piecing

IMG_9202The cloth I pieced this morning makes me think the Road to Subtle is a long one for me. The pattern/color has a way of creeping in even when I intend otherwise. It looks paler without light shining from behind, but still….
IMG_9204I LIKE it and will enjoy continuing with it… but it’s funny how pale it started… how much I wanted to combine very subtle gradations of yellow, blue, green, and grey. Part of this not-so-subtle result might be a stash issue — as hard as it might be to believe that I don’t have enough fabric!!

The collage below ALSO departs from the original intention. I thought I might be on the road to creating a Tarot deck. Collected Fool and Joker images. Wanted to start with Zero and proceed through the Majors one by one. Flipped and fluttered through my papers.

What I got instead is a “Michelle Card”.  The trademarked SoulCollage process invites the maker to create archetypes, inner aspects of the self, and animal guides. But it ALSO suggests creating cards honoring people in one’s community.  Michelle in NYC has been looking out for a young pigeon this week (see her blog, Ms. Uncertainty Principles). Her actions and photos were the impetus behind this collage (not yet a card).
MichelleThe little open book in the corner is a reference to her being a writer.  That the marbled paper on the right looks like a series of hearts really pleased me, since her actions are so much from the heart. The veined lotus came from a Peabody Essex Museum brochure cover. Even IT seemed to reference Michelle and her Buddhist practice.  The map behind the dove is a ripped and re-arranged map of the Gulf, highlighting areas of concern after the Deep Well incident.