Spirit Cloth

Stand Up Applique

video on Instagram

On so many edges...

Coating the edge of the other side of HEAL. To even out the layers.

link to video if you see no player above

I posted this video on Instagram a little while ago. Now I was able to put it here.

I am all over the place, here, there, everywhere. I need to make some decisions on how to continue. 

Where, how, this is all too chopped up. 

So I will. Soon.

How it's going...

Probably just pics this coming week. And comments off.

Big Stuff sucking Time.

But I'm working on this one.

I've posted about liquid applique before. Here, again, silk shibori by Glennis. I've many cloth stories to share about silk.

But a new thought caught this morning.

The process could be considered a form of kindness, not cutting a cloth to fit and leaving too tiny a scrap to be used. Keeping the cloth together and useful.

I'm creating a mailing list for Patchwork in Perspective Part 1 and I'll be testing that over the coming weeks. Thank you all for your warm response. I am setting up a PO Box so I can publish a mailing address for those who prefer to pay by check. That information will be in the next Feel Free Newsletter.

Invisibility

I'll say more about this later, just catching a thought and testing video again.

Mostly the Invisible Baste aka Glue Stitch approach is relaxed and the stitch shows on the other side.

But it doesn't have to...

I added a video to the Glue Stitch page over at Feel Free. But really I need a more detailed version. I'll get to it.

We can also consider this a form of applique. And blind stitching but I might even call it the Secret Stitch. I have no real reason to do it this way here because I've been really relaxed about the other side. But what is on the other side can be a choice. And well here I think I am just doing it to spend some time thinking about it again.

PS  I've sent out another issue of the Feel Free Newsletter. Getting there...

Last Cat

She changed through the day.

She might become so many things. She's on the edge of of uncertainty.

She flew away later in the day but I just wanted to say...

While stitching I used a little method I call Fringe Applique. Here and there.  It's kind of like ragged and turned at the same time. I added a little video to the applique section of Feel Free. And I will try to find some other examples I have here. Because there are many uses for this kind of edge. If you think about edges, where things meet, how one thing becomes another... well there are so many possibilities. And always another on the horizon.

 

 

Just letting it flow...

Working with silk bits mostly. I'm working on the sky.

She seems to rise from the scrap basket, surrounded by still unused scraps of self.

I added Liquid Applique to the Feel Free Applique menu. (if you need a password for the free protected content please use the contact form over there)

I'll have more to say abut this kind of working. I'm using the beautiful hand dyes by Glennis. Silk. Silk is liquid just as it is. Silk inspired Liquid Applique.

Right now I am moving stuff from the old Feel Free to the new site.

But a new term popped up. Because I'm focused on merging some paper techniques in to cloth.

Watercolor Applique.  I'll need a page for that. Soon.

It's greening here.

 

How it is sometimes

You probably have those days.

When you just feel emptied. Faceless. Light as air.

And it's ok. You've learned that.

The above is an example of sketch applique, a name I gave to a technique way back but that I've been playing with to give cloth the look of paper.  I want to get the Feel Free site opened before I post any more media or technique details, because I'm losing track of things and the whole idea is to build it as an index. I didn't sleep last night so it won't be today.

A is for Applique so I'll be starting there. Eventually.

Ideas are forming for the final class thingie. I will be calling it the Feel Free Workshop. That's a start. I expect a newsletter to form by April.

There was hardly any snow here. I simply imagined it.

 

How Real Heart Persists

Actually, I stumbled upon these.

Looking for a stack of stars I stashed to use on the Endless Wishing Cloth, the spring/summer project.

I found these. Hiding in a basket. Resting.

Old hearts. Simply stitched to cloth-woven nines (this method, three strips each way on a foundation, lightly tacked). Some old stitching project suspended in time. The cloth weave creates such a soft bed for stitch. Especially when the cloth is old and worn. Just turned, line guided applique, (I use rough cut scraps and draw the heart, the turning line) Ragged, once just lazy, tips have become a symbol over time. No heart is perfect.

And this one has one turned edge and one ragged edge. But what I love is the fade that came from what I call seam shibori. Light and wear resist. The cloth from a garment. The darker side was inside for years, the light side faded from wear and light. Newer technologies prevent fading so we don't see this as much anymore. Maybe folks don't even keep things that long. Too bad. To know these things softens life. So anyway, my heart hearts are here, but I have to be Away for a while.

Because.

Some old eye.  On the wall for so long now. A cloth woven block, cut to form a mask with a bit of patchwork underneath. Cropping, cloth style.  A kind of ragged reverse applique if you look at it generally.  Basic Ragged Mask applique is described in Spirit Cloth 101. (I'll have a lot more to say about that soon) The cut out was a circle. Pinched and folded on the sides to shape it like an eye.

Applique is a big category. I realize that it is bigger than I have ever expressed.  And more than that, Patchwork is much broader than  usually presented.  In my head anyway.

As I move toward the new Feel Free format, I will start from scratch in a way.  This blog will remain my day to day. The building of the site will roll along with reference here as it applies. I have a community gallery in mind if you are interested. We can talk about that.

I squint my eyes when ideas form. Looking is more wide eyed. Seeing is a cropping exercise. Refining, measuring focus, framing vision. Considering many angles.

I need about a week to get some stuff done. A roof repair, a doctor's appointment, a visit to Social Security, a small journey to see my boy. And some technical learning curve. I might be posting but let's see how it all goes.

Integration

How does it come together?

From Just Scrap.

Working with scrap has a freedom all its own. I think in my head, scraps, leftovers, cloth or thread,have less preciousness. In terms of the kind of value that makes you need to KEEP something. Instead they beg to be used. To re-become. Doesn't matter how. Although I enjoy building an image, I also enjoy the rebuilding into cloth. The Oneness. I love these stray cats for that, how they are patched from scraps of self. Scraps from other selves. How they get a life rising from the pile of who cares. How they are born again in their old age.

This one is really very freely collaged. Layers. Integrated with stitch. I often lay like colored teeny pieces on a like colored larger ground to add surface interest and depth to an large are of color. Then use lots of tiny stitch to glue it down. Blend the edges. The stitch might be visible or not. But with enough work, it all blends together and seems like one cloth. I talked a bit about that n the video below. It's a kind of visual mending. I call it Integrated Applique. And I've added it to the Feel Free Index in the sidebar.

 

video link if you see no player

But really even the most oddly mismatched bits of cloth can be merged as well. It's slow and intentional, you work at it. You find commonality somewhere or you create it. Let one scrap sympathize with another. Even if it is just to become stronger.

I always seem to work a lot on eyes. Vision takes work.

You can see where I folded back the edges to narrow the cloth. Crop it in a way. I will lay a thin lining over this side to bridge the gap. Or maybe not. That Deb Lacativa cloth...I didn't mean to hide so much of it. Maybe I'll cut through a bit on the front to expose more of it.

I am aware with some issues with commenting, but that is a TypePad issue, so who knows. I'll just keep going.