I've been doing lots of slow stitching lately. It's my take along and evening crafting activity now that the carpel tunnel syndrome has reared it's ugly head again. I can't knit much, but I can sew! Above is one of my next book projects. The challenge for my book/quilt group, The Undercover Quilters, is to create a quilt based on the book, On the Divinity of Second Chances by Kaya McLaren. I had been thinking for a long time that I wanted to incorporate ideas from the classes I've been taking over the last year with Jude Hill. So, this one is woven, with some tricks thrown in. All of the fabric is indigo dyed, mostly by me though there are some pieces from Glennis in here too.
All of the vertical strips are from a vintage flour sack cloth. The horizontal strips are various things such as the lace table runner above, a thrift store shirt and pants (linen), Kona cotton crush, a very fine vintage cotton hankie, and more bits and bobs.
The two shibori pieces above are from Glennis and set into the cloth with mosaic weaving.
The strip above is from a piece of indigo fabric I got last summer at the Olympia, Washington Farmer's Market. It's just overlaid on another strip.
The double weaving is made with Japanese indigo fabric that I believe I ordered on Etsy
Now, I"m to the point where I get to add the focal points of this quilt story. I"m making a tree with a swing and the moon in the corner. Most of the other fabrics for this quilt are also hand dyed by me with synthetic dyes.
Moving on, there is another quilt/book challenge that I'm participating in. The truth is, I can't read a book now without thinking about how I would interpret it in cloth! This one is Kapitoil by Teddy Wayne. This is the new Novel Idea book for our county library system. Everyone in the area is encouraged to read the book. In April there will be many library events to celebrate and a lecture by the author. QuiltWorks has coordinated the quilt challenge to coincide with the author's visit. He's already been informed and is excited to see the quilts.
The main character in the book, Karim, is a computer engineer from Qatar working temporarily in New York City at the turn of the century. The book is a humorous account of his attempts to fit in to the culture, but always his good nature and integrity come through. I really enjoyed the book. Karim's life has been heavily influenced by the Beatles songs his mother used to play for him. I had many thoughts about what I'd like to do, but settled on depicting the song Imagine by John Lennon. This one is smaller and I will hopefully have plenty of time to finish it by the end of March. This quilt also has a lot of indigo and hand dyed fabrics as well has hand dyed embroidery floss.
Above, some of my indigo stash. I have a lot more fabric, but those are all the precious indigo threads I dyed last summer.
In other slow stitching news, the piece above is from Cloth to Cloth 2 last summer. I finally got around to adding some of Jude's trees and the pre embroidered sun fabric given to me by a friend. This is a doodle cloth. I have been adding stitch to it without any real plan. I"m not sure where it will end up. Below are two very small postcard size pieces I made just to try them out. I will give these to the Wendy's Wish program at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. They are in the middle of binding.
Well that's it for now. I'm still making the string blocks even though there will be a limit to the amount of postage to Australia I can afford. Extra blocks will go to my quilt guild. Later!