Bright Spots

This morning when I basted another block for Palace of the Soul, I included a bright spot of red, which is not really as bright as in this photo, but echoes the colour of another part of the cloth. And then I went to get the mail and experienced another bright spot in my day: the arrival of a bobbin lace pouch from Deanna that I won last month on her blog at: http://eclectic-meanderings.blogspot.com/. Thank you Deanna! I love the fine lace and the colour

matched the ocean today

where I saw more bright spots like this arbutus bark and a chartreuse golf ball in the sea froth

and then there was this creature buried and emerging from the sand,

which I missed at first, as I walked by, because it was covered with water, but then I went back for a look when several seagulls circled above me and one dived to inspect what it may have thought were crab legs but are actually rope. I was fooled, too.

Building Blocks

Have you ever noticed that when something is on your mind, you notice it everywhere? I am noticing blocks and this pattern is one I've decided to put into fabric.

Here are some of the blocks not yet attached to each other so that once I have as many as I want completed, I can play with the design. I've used a few natural dyed fabrics and some of the snow dyes from my last batch, as I chose the dye colours hoping to get a match. I'm enjoying how the softness and variety of fabrics and the ripples created as I hand baste bring a more organic feel to the geometrics - a kind of shape blending. I have lots of ideas I want to try and these blocks will be perfect because I can get the variety in that I love, yet still create a unified whole through the consistency of some of the same fabrics and the overall block pattern.

I have also been buying silks in preparation for an online Shibori silk dyeing class with Glennis Dolce in a few weeks... I periodically dabble in shibori but want to take it further and learn more.

And I got out to the opening of the 'Turning The Tide' textile art show at the Martin Batchelor Gallery put on by Victoria Grandmothers for Africa that has been touring across Canada and whose pieces will be auctioned off to raise funds for the Stephen Lewis foundation and the Grandmothers to Grandmothers campaign in a few weeks. Some heart warming and lovely work there!

Trial and Error

There is new growth in my yard and it seems to bloom into beauty so effortlessly. Whereas the growth in my studio today is a beginning bearing dubious results out of very focused effort . I finished sewing four curved pieced blocks yesterday, and tried arranging them in every possible manner and decided this one was the best, albeit still not to my liking. The brown shapes are too bulky and I had envisioned lovely flowing curves and an interesting design. Maybe that is why some people plan designs out first on paper!

So I decided to try again, still winging it and sewing four curved pieced blocks, but with less of any one colour so that large dominant, awkward looking shapes would not occur when I put them together, hopefully. Well - I cut and pieced and auditioned this or that and I still had awkward shapes with some of them too dominant - only they were smaller and mostly different from each other. When I cut and resewed, I realized how important similiar shapes are for unity and this is what I have now - whittled down to about a third of the fabric I began with.

I will improve with practice - and - I am enjoying pushing my growth edge.

Pastel Patches

I felt inspired to combine the two fat quarters I bought at the sewing show (pink and blue) with some of my other fabrics to create a pastel spring table runner top. I haven't sewn anything with my machine for months, as I've been doing only hand work, and I noticed that while the sewing goes more quickly, the room for error is higher - at least, for me. I somehow mixed up the design I'd put together and ended up having to make last minute changes with a less satisfying result. It does have a fresh feel, though. I am interested to work with blocks rather then adding single pieces one at at time and I imagine I'll get an opportunity in the Nancy Crow class.