finally got back here...

i've been busy these past 2 weeks but didn't have much to show you. we are playing with 'white' over at Jude's What If forum so i did some experimenting. click on images for a better view.

with a prism...

playing with the light coming through the kitchen window

love the curved rainbow up above

turned a dyed piece into black and white and printed it on cotton cloth...

cut out the center and added some white lace. planned on stitching on this but the cotton was too tough for the needle so i gave up on that.

 here is the actual dyed piece that will become the top part of a hassock/stool i am covering.

not too much stitching ...maybe just a little bit more needed around the center circle.

and there has been some knitting happening as well.

a pinwheel purse with some sewing equipment within to carry for emergencies. i made 8 of these for my quilting friends.

the pinwheel purse opens up origami style and the pattern is here on Ravelry, if you want to try it.

and i also started knitting a purse that will be felted when finished...

this yarn is a wonderfully soft wool

i was thinking this week how lucky i am to be doing exactly what i love doing every day. it took some planning through the years to get here but it was so well worth some of the struggles. wishing the same for all of you.

looking back and forward...

There's been lots of talk about Weaving (with a big W) on Jude's blog here. I would love to be able to Weave on such a loom but there is no time to do all the things that are already on my list. So I will stick to weaving (with a small w), on small home made looms, to still get the wonderful feeling of the under/over motion that is extremely satisfying to the soul. More than 35 years ago, when still living in NYC, I did a weaving on a wooden frame using my grandma's angora yarns. I went and searched for it this morning and here it is. It needs a good washing and I really should do something with it. Any ideas?  It is soooo... soft to the touch. Click on images for closer views.

woven on a wooden frame---7" x 5"

grandma's angora yarns

This is one of my favorite cloth weavings that I did in one of Jude's classes.

 While searching for the weaving, I pulled out some older stitched pieces. All the pieces I've done by hand,  in the past,  have been small so working on my magic cloth is a very new experience. A large cloth is not as easy to handle and takes ever so much longer. One really forms a relationship with a large cloth. I'm constantly thinking about what to do next and ideas that pop into my head are written down immediately so that I will not forget. Here is a small piece that I did about 5 years ago. It is mostly hand stitched but there is some machine stitching as well. It measures 12½" x 15½".

that orange color that I do not like always shows up anyway

I just love that cow.

And while looking back, I discovered that I have done a portal in a quilt before the ones on my magic cloth. It was back in one of Jude's classes, I believe, during the terrible oil spill in April of 2010. That portal was an escape hatch for all the fish and sea life that were in such danger.

an escape hatch...piece measures about 12" x 12"

Looking to the future, after my magic cloth is finished, or maybe, nearly finished, I think this piece will be the beginnings of my moon cloth. I have lots of moon pieces but I'm going to stick with colors I really like this time so many of the moon pieces already made will not be used. There is lots more incentive to continue working on a piece when you love the colors you are looking at.

a piece made in Jude's 'sun, moon and stars' class

Jude's classes are very inspiring, even if you are an experienced stitcher, and they give a different point of view in hand stitching cloth. They have been a constant motivation for me to continue stitching on a daily basis. Her classes are still available and you can read about them here.

creating a softer edge...

I've been working on the portal (not porthole, as I previously posted) that will be on the front side of the magic cloth (The Play Ground). I tried several different things but I think I will settle on this one. I wanted this portal to have a softer edge to provide a soft, gentle entry to the other side where the harsh realities of life are experienced in a more linear fashion. Click on the images for a closer view.

the spiral is on a hand dyed silk and the edge is a sari silk strip.

This is the beginning of the portal on the back. If you missed that post, you can find it here. The portals will be placed back to back.

portal on the back. center is japanese silk stitched into a hand dyed silk cloth.

I'm so anxious to start putting the front and back together but I have lots more stitching to do on the front before that can happen. Things are moving quite slowly but progress is being made. I like having different areas to move to on the cloth when I run out of ideas of how to proceed. I have never worked this way before. Jude has been the inspiration for this new method of putting it all together.

bits and pieces of this and that...

It was time to do some yard work this morning even if I was just mowing weeds. The front yard looks better now and another day I will work on the back. Amazing that there are already some flowers appearing here and there. The poor trees and flowers are so confused these days. I think clicking on these images will give you a closer view.

Spring is on its way

Started some work for the back of my magic cloth...The Play Ground. Its story is about the concept of time which has been a kind of obsession with me since childhood. More about that another time and more of an explanation of the cloth's story as it progresses. The last cloth I double dyed seemed like a kind of porthole to me so that is what it has become...a porthole to the front of the magic cloth where there are no boundaries, no order, a kind of timelessness. The front of the cloth will also have a porthole to the back.

just the beginnings of stitch...

Several years ago, I made a small quilt whose story was also about time...music taking you to another time and place. That one was called An Other View. It is quite small...just 12" x 14".

mostly machine stitched

a little mirror is stitched in...you can see my hand holding the camera here

the back...this little one was made in 2007