Double the Pleasure

In choosing a backing fabric for the tablerunner, I was challenged to find a coordinating fabric large enough amongst my stash, but I did. I considered piecing together a backing from a few chunks of various fabrics, but I decided that I wanted it to be reversible and a single fabric would be nice. I didn't put a middle layer in because I want the runner to be flat and not puffy. It's finished like a pillow case and top-stitched around the edge, which you can just make out in the close up photo.

Seasonal Shift

As the days get colder and darker, I find myself turning to simple sewing and a slower pace - a postcard is now complete and this table runner is in the making. I enjoyed arranging the squares of fabric, trying to vary the colours, values and prints while only having a limited amount of precut squares that I bought a few years ago at my quilt guild's garage sale. I've begun sewing them together.

No 'Couch' Potato

I've nearly completed this gift - just part of the sleeve left to sew on. I added two border strips instead of four because four seemed to box the horses in and they want to be able to roam! It's quilted minimally, with stitch in the ditch, because I want to keep the focus on the fabric (and I do have more gifts to make:). I tried my couching foot out for the first time today and it worked very well. If you're a keen observer, you may have noticed that the yarn in the photo that's being couched down is not surrounding the horses as a highlight, but is sewn onto the wrong spot. Oops - I had a little unpicking to do!

Gift

This is a gift I'm making that I will probably add dark borders to, sandwich and quilt. I've been wanting to play with stripes and this was my opportunity! At first I had planned to alternate directions of stripe consistently, but I found instead that varying the directions and size of the striped patches was more interesting. I also have deliberately not matched stripes while sewing or cut them so that they are perfectly straight. To me, this feels more alive and creates a bit of movement and unpredictability.

Navigating the Depths

I'm calling this 'Navigating the Depths' and this speaks to how the seas of life can be sometimes - chaotic on the surface but the still calm waters are there deep down, holding everything afloat. I've included meaningful symbols for me and the possibility of buttoning the two ends together speaks to how every ending brings a new beginning - life continues or arises in a new form.

One By One

The stitches and colours are adding up...

Fun and Fungi

While on a walk in the woods today, I tried taking photographs while purposely moving my camera to see what kind of blurred effects I could get. I think the top photo looks like the painted page of a sketchbook. I saw many kinds of mushrooms and in the photo just above this text, I was drawn to how transparent the leaf is to allow some of the mushroom's colour to show through. I was thinking about how chiffon or organza might be used to show that effect. In the photo of the maple leaves, I saw how they created a line on the pavement and then I combined that photo with another blurred photo I took to add a rainbow of colour. Photo play is a quick way to capture an idea and a blog can be like a sketchbook that records experiences, techniques and photos.