Spirit Cloth

a face in the flower

pre-dawn stitching.

recording a dream before it slipped away.

velvet works nicely for sunflower centers.

and faces.
centered faces.

forming out of spirals.

quilting a garden view

...the kitchen window was placed in the spring when the rains came and the sunflowers are certainly growing.

it is always nice to be able to see the garden from inside and i have an idea now that a view of the sunflowers should be added in that window, a hint of what is on the other side. a meeting point.

...and there is that wrap around corner appliqué that is now the sunflower corner's corner and it could easily be a sunflower too. and some of these flowers will need faces.

quilt inspiration

rarely am i so amazed i need to jump up and down.

i love this quilt. the theme, the careful color arrangement and surface variation, those black and white squares. the exquisite workmanship. the HAND STITCHING. 

isa  has made an amazing quilt. another view.

i am jumping up and down.

New Links

Well, iI am still configuring new link pages because they are getting out of hand. I just added a few new ones thanks to Kristin , who was nice enough to include me.....  I have more but i need to get organized first.  I have soooo many new readers I haven't been very attentive to reviewing new links and  new neighbors and i feel maybe that is a bit rude. so i am working on it. and everybody knows how slow i can be.

wishful quilting

returning a favor. long overdue.

for a beautiful poem for the velvet forest.

two newborn wishing stars, hovering, practicing making dreams come true.

the reasons for finishing things are not always the same. this unfinished mini jumped up out of the basket as a what if yesterday and its smallness fit into my busy day and filled it with lightness.

free form applique

over time i have discarded most of the rules for quilting and appliqué and embroidery. i like to pick out fabrics that fit to the moment and just start cutting and layering and piecing and stitching as i go. since i often use a combination of ragged edge and turned edge, i just rough cut and decide later how to handle the sewing. it helps to have a fabric marker nearby(i use micron pens) to refine the shapes and provide a turn line if necessary.

i pin first and then loosely baste. since i often sew on a commuter train, i will sometimes do supplemetary basting in specific colors, which i pull out and reuse to do the actual stitching.
the little dotted sunflower was turned classic style. the big dried sunflower head will be a combo of turned and ragged. there is a lot of work for this section so it will carry over into my work week.

oh happy day

the sun is out and so are the sunflowers. the only thing better than growing them might be sewing them. planning and basting in progress. unplugged till sunday night. have a good weekend.

quilting a sunny garden corner

while the bread is baking i am also thinking again about the corner of the garden that lies behind the kitchen section of the quilt. 

this was to be "sunflower corner" which i was planning a while back. surrounded by the garden gate.
i'm reviewing my notes and  planning a variety of sunflower motifs, a little like a sunflower sampler.

there are so many ideas to work from.
there was that suzani  design, the wooden sunflower tile that came all the way back back from bali, the real sunflower grown and photographed by walter himself...

and now a few new ones to add to the inspiration.

. ..a tiny sunflower print fragment from my curtains in the room i grew up in at home.... which goes so nicely with a print sent as a gift all the way from india.

(i am thinking of using this technique for one of the flowers)

fabrics with stories....fabrics with stories....fabric with stories....

and a new chapter....yesterday i received yet another treat from Kim , a print from which i extracted this lovely flower which is just a perfect addition to the sunflower garden. 

of course there was more in that little package, including some amazing pink silk and i will be getting back to those pink minis soon so i can experiment with it.

the sunflower corner is this weekend's project, and the bread should be ready too.

quilting order and baking bread

just spending so much time on side trips, gotta get back and listen to the river a bit. i am working in the house part now, near the kitchen section while  walter is in idaho simultaneously renovating the little house by that river. i decided to number the house blocks, to create some order to this crazy thing.  i am up to 14, and i decided to write out the sixes and nines because they are very easy to confuse, and i am confused enough already.

... some new readers here so if you don't know the story behind this quilt, you can go here.

i think i said i would be done with this by summer's end but i think NOT.

I forgot about that little detachable quilt-let that will cover the lava...sometimes.

and that little quilt-let, which is the river itself. will be SILK!  All SILK. I can feel it flowing already.

meanwhile, i am baking bread. this is hilarious. a piece of textured flocked polyester, bonded to some kind of knit backing. once one ugly fabric, soon to be a beautiful slice of wholegrain bread. needs crust. and a recipe.

quilt for a pink fairy

sometimes all the what-ifs just come together like pieces in a puzzle. this has turned out to be a miniature quilt... for a special pink fairy. it started out as a way to try to use some special silk shibori in patchwork. (#15 )

then it became part of an experiment with recycled silk scarf fringe (#19)

the beads were added at the end because it just needed some moonlight.

the catnip is from the garden where i took the picture

.

the back just happened today when i grabbed another little shibori scrap and got caught up in another what-if.

this is a thank-you to friend for special silk presents and tons of support.

it is almost finished. :-)