Spirit Cloth

no stitching

today was a confusing day. ghosts. pencil on paper. no thread.

quilting-stitching ghost style

i am using the ghost method again to soften the area between the blocks, to keep the lava theme flowing. i had tested this method on the reverse velvet forest area to enhance the ancient and botanical feel of the  forest and it worked well. this crossover the edge theme has now become a dominant one then, for this project. i am drawing the lines that carry one block to another, letting the individual fabrics and motifs guide me. some basic embroidery will be done to create the path and details will be added later.

example 2 

example 3

stitching over the edge

the focus is on the edges.  the tail of the phoenix is changing to a peacock. each edge will be treated with care and a slow needle.

stitching slow and steady

the ceremony of slow.

a tribute to my hero, the snail. this was a gift, a little snail from bali, usually hanging out in my rosemary planter.. i pulled him out and washed him off and let him remind me to slow down and stop being impatient. and i switched to detailing for a while, some tiny embroidery , hardly noticed but heart felt.

the firefly perhaps. or a bee with a magic mission. glowing. i tried some copper metallic thread for the trail. hard to photo and a little scratchy so not too much.

treasure hunt quilting

the cloth is a unit, and although i am continuing the stitching to hold it all together, the main themes are in place. now i take some time to renew my inspiration by sitting in the middle of my favorite scrap pile and sorting through all the precious little bits and pieces i have saved over the years. and i just think about the little house and the cloth and walter and pick out things i think i might use for the final stage of appliqué. the puzzle pieces that will pull the story together. and i have my notebook close at hand to catch the little thoughts they inspire.

quilt spirits

today i am still playing with fire, trying to get all the base lava appliqués in place by this weekend so i can take a break and hang out in the velvet forest for a change. the lava section is the center, the beating heart, the chaos, the drowning flow of passion and fear and change....and the symbol for creative potential. i used the square grid for the base blocks, always my symbol for desired order, here as it turns out a perfect point of reference for crossing the line. a phoenix was added today. a firefly tomorrow.

quilt origami

TIP for commuter sewing... where there is a will there is a way. i have been experimenting with folding the quilt different ways in order to maximize the work area and minimize the spread on the train. today i will work on some corner edges and this method seems to work fine. i can get at all 4 on both sides. this, of course, gets folded again and rolled and tied for carrying. an i have clothes pins and clips to keep the folds in place as i work.

even the red lion is easy to reach. i only need the surface here for embroidery, i am not going all the way through.

quilt beast

there is always a lion.  they appear out of nowhere. i even dream about them. this one has formed from the lava and i will call him kirmizi aslan. turkish for the red lion,  based on a tibetan lion rug design, he will take on the hidden personality traits of walter and protect him from harm ...and he will be a long time in the making. just a close up showing the drawn and painted details on the applique body base placed to guide me through  the embellishment which will be totally spontaneous from here on in.  i did the eyes first so he could be watching out for walter right away.

quilt weaving

just as a note to myself... i will switch back over to investigating the quilt weaving process again after this project. this quilt is starting to be too unruly on the train. it's winter and with all the heavy clothing, people are much wider and it is hard enough just trying to fit in the seat and sewing can only be handled for smaller pieces. i'll do some studies for the next project and give everyone around me a break.

quilting like a river

the initial patchwork included special fabric pieces that were inserted as a variation to the blue basic blocks in the nine patch pieced front .  the flowing pattern is from the indonesian batik megamendung (translates to "storm clouds"). ..and gives the block a nice liquid feeling which goes along with the river theme but also creates an unexpected variation on a theme. a planned imperfection in the pattern.

these liquid blocks were placed against the lava,  images of cloudy steam, so the hard edge between the sections is softened forming a  transition and a sense of transformation.

in the spirit of going with the flow, "making do" is required, as there is a newly discovered wound in this fabric piece that needs to be utilized. some sort of  applique is in order here, i guess. i am also using up odds and ends of embroidery thread, in this case, creams and yellows that i have saved as leftovers from other projects. ..so the color of the quilting randomly flows as well.