A-musing

I went into the studio yesterday eager to get back to more felting - except that is not what my muse had planned for me. Sometimes I am caught in a creative whirlwind that I just spin along with, for the ride. A sweatshirt is what caught my eye - one that has sat waiting to be personalized for a long time. I auditioned all manner of fabrics, with candidates from eco printing, chenille, silk shibori, velvets, hand dyes, sunprints, snow dyes - I went through them all. But in the end this little piece dyed by Elin Noble felt right. Since it was too small, I added a strip of purple cotton and extended the design as well.

I mixed handstitch and machine because I wanted to see what each look like on a sweatshirt, side by side. You can see there is quite a difference. I had not expected the spring green of the lines on the far right to show up as much as they do.

Do you see the orb in the upper left corner? I had planned to put a circle of stitch around the fabric square and the orb seems like a confirmation.

And a little playing around from a few days ago - taking the Notan concept into colour and fabric. One of the flowers is missing - I just laid them out roughly to get the idea and satisfy my curiosity before filing it away for some future time. Maybe I will felt today... but I never really know!

Altered Weaving

Weaving a weaving of woven fabrics into a weaving - if you can get your head around that! And I am now wearing my heart on my sleeve.

Heart Wear

I finished stitching this today and suddenly had an idea... What if I put it onto the sweatshirt I was wearing?

I am so pleased with this - as it feels really 'me'. I also made a patch for one of the sleeves -

to cover a bit of existing design - so I will be wearing my heart on my sleeve!

Over Dyeing a Sweatshirt

I found this cotton sweatshirt for 4 dollars in a thrift shop and I bought it because I thought it was the perfect candidate for a makeover. I decided to dye it first to try to get a green and brown from the original orangey rust, which did not look very attractive. I immersed it in a turquoise dye bath and did end up with green and brown with some leftover rust. Now comes the fun of auditioning fabrics and creating a design! I also finished pinning the scalloped edges of my watermelon quilt and I handsewed one side and quilted that border in the ditch.

What's Growing in My Creative Garden

Sometimes between larger projects, I find doing something simple and straight forward helps to tide me over and can respark my creative fire. A few days ago I decided to make a table runner after attending the Westshore Quilt Show and finding an Easter coloured fabric. I had seen some amazing quilts brought by Montana art quilter extraordinaire Barbara Olsen, who dropped into the show for a surprise visit after taping an instructional DVD here on Vancouver Island. Her colourful machine appliqued florals led to me imagining doing a collaged floral table runner (and a quilt), yet when I actually went to sew, I decided I liked the fabric as it is and I wondered why make it so complicated? So I kept it a simple oval shape and one fabric without further embellishment. Then, a day later, I decided I wanted to expand and improve my technical skills and with that end in mind, I headed to the studio with a paper piecing book in hand, planning to make one simple block. Somehow, enroute, my eye was caught by an old pink sweatshirt I had decided to one day make over into a jacket. I suddenly found myself auditioning fabrics to collage to the front of it - and I never even cracked open that book! I love how this seems to just 'happen' - some new creation is born when I listen and follow what wants to arrive. The seed was probably planted a few years ago when I first thought of making over this sweatshirt and with sun from the recent quilt show inspiration and a little fertilizer from the table runner, it began to grow. I've used two fabrics I cut into pieces and then free motion sewed onto the shirt. Bias tape, a fancy stitch and a frog completed it - and I laundered it to fray the raw edges. I did have some technical challenges when I came to overlapping the bias tape and there were suddenly multiple layers to get through while using a fancy stitch. I substituted a jeans needle, which I imagine helped somewhat, although there are still a few brief places that the stitch distorted. I noticed that when I would start sewing on a flatter piece next, the stitch would remain distorted for awhile, so next time I was going to stitch after a thicker part, I turned my Pfaff off and then on again and voila, the stitch had reset and came out as it's supposed to. I wonder what I'll make next?