Bare Bones

Alot can happen in a few days, and when I don't blog about it fairly promptly, my impetus to record it, fizzles, as I have moved on. Since my last entry, I have thread painted Tried Itajime shibori on wool and photo collaged it with this swan I met

Tried Mokume shibori on wool twice without getting a well defined pattern - perhaps felt's pile doesn't allow for the stitch lines to show well - or maybe there is something else I could try. I do love the look of resist dyed felt, though, and think it has alot of promise.

And here I was trying an overall shibori pattern on silk divided into six squares - three with blossoms and three with twelve lines of horizontal and vertical stitch. No clear pattern again, which was disappointing after all the stitching and knotting.

This last photo is from the Westshore Quilt Guild's show and is a machine from 1885 - love the curvy shape!

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?