The Corner. This is where I use the computer now. Mostly when the sun is gone. It just so happens, so far, there is no sun today.
So the corner. I softened it to make it look more romantic.
I'll hang some cloth there.
Today is a dark day. The sun seems blue. I picked up this old fling fragment while looking for something else. This was created using a technique I call Cut Away Applique(I've added that to the Feel Free Index). Which really turns applique into patchwork. A great way to get a curved piecing effect. Somewhere, sometime, I dipped it into a fading indigo vat. which gave it a nice tonal effect. It is pinned to the perpetual grid cloth which has become my design wall. I am going to stitch on this one over the weekend. Cut Away Applique, it rhymes like a small song poem.
Yesterday I came across a piece of my work posted on someone's Facebook page. As if it wasn't mine. Why would you do that? (I probably know the answer to that) I guess that is why folks don't post their work on Facebook. Or around much. Well I'll be damned if selfish folks will ruin my heart. Here I stand, Feeling Free. Undeterred. So there. Fooey on You-ey. I am not like you.
Outside my window I swear I hear a small bird singing... Bernie... Ber-nie.
It's not politics, just an impression.
I'm thinking more about blogging lately. It should be a document of who you are. Not a marketing scheme. A website can be that. This is not that.
Yesterday. I posted a picture of this pillow on Facebook.
Because a late October stray showed up here.
And probably this one will wander right into November.
Today. I just thought I would put the instructional video from Contemporary Boro here, since folks over at Facebook liked this so much. Of course I am in the embellishment stage on this side at this point (somehow it needed to become more), but the other side is still quite rough and I will be working on this in the coming months, out in the open. So just a quick look at the basic cloth weaving, 3D style. I will also add this to Feel Free as a sub page to cloth weaving later today.
Cloth weaving is a way to form a patchwork somewhat seamlessly. The basic method is described as the woven base over at Spirit Cloth 101.
This piece is about 16" x 9". I've further developed the 3d weaving idea, but that could be for another time.
I worked on this pillow a bit more, tucking and weaving and even extending the strips as I progressed by sewing more scrap together. The ends can be folded and tucked in as you go. It is easy to work on such a soft surface and I love the results. Pillows are a great way to use cloth, to recycle scrap and create comfort in the home. Or just something to hug. (I made the heart pillow when Dad was in the hospital, Mom used it a lot.)
I am having a bit of trouble loading pictures in Typepad. I have reduced the size of some of them, that helps sometimes.
I am focused on patchwork for the time being. Because of it's traditional history, and my own, it is a perfect candidate for redefinition. I hope you will join me in that. Looking at it with new eyes. Oftentimes when you research patchwork, you find the details of a single technique. But patchwork to me is just making something from nothing. Rescuing small pieces and making them useful again. Creating a home for stray cloth. Stray thoughts.
I've also been making a lot of these cornered patches just to play with. Patchwork blocks are components for pieced quilt designs. As scraps are components for blocks. I am also planning on using them as a cloth language system. So they might speak for me. As patchwork. About patchwork.
I started working with variations of this idea in What if Dairies, In a segment on color, they emerged as a concept I called little bits of color. I will be pulling excepts from all my Dairy teachings for Feel Free as I go. Because they were sort of rambling day to day wanderings, there were a lot of seeds planted and now they are growing. Becoming.
A Patchwork of corner ideas then, excerpt from What If Diaries 1-Whispering Color.
Quick indigo dip. This has possibilities. Yes? Some clamped some just dipped. I call the soft edge approach marshmallow shibori. Let me find some old videos as I keep going with this.
Please note, I will not be teaching Indigo Dyeing here. Glennis has an online class for that if you are interested. I learned it from her. Here I will only present ideas on how I might use it in my work. Talk about my relationship to the Magic Blue.
I have had inquiries about hosting a forum where folks can post their work. No, I will not be doing that. But Feel Free to post links to any work you want to share in the comment section of any lesson.
