stopping

If anyone knows of a class on knowing when to stop, let me know. I still don't know what's going on here but I can't bring myself to call it done because ....well, just because. Part of the problem is the pleasure in the process. Just the act of sitting and stitching on cloth is it's own reward, whether something comes of the effort is always a crapshoot.

 

stitching on something with an end in mind is no less satisfying...here's another feather bound for Jude. The base cloth is a vintage linen napkin with a stamped design that someone left unfinished and Grace found abandoned in a second hand store that was going out of business . Once headed for oblivion, it's going to keep on working a while longer...the threaded needle was still in it and still incredibly sharp. I'm using it to work the feathers.

lazy Sundays...not

This household does not have that kind of Sunday. Jimmy gets me the NY Sunday Times and I'm lucky if I open it before Wednesday!  I take the time to do the housework I should have been getting after during the week . In a while, I'll make a point of getting outside and get some fresh air, sunshine and exercise.

First I'm doing some marketing experimentation...I can't sanction another dyefest until I move out some of the creations I already have! Thinking that the Magic Cloth Burritos may be too much cloth for people who are working "smaller" these days, I put together a new offering called "tatters"...more about it here...

shop updates

As promised, some new burritos have been posted to the store..more to come
later today and tomorrow, so hold off ordering until Monday!

until then, ponder this incredible photo take by my friend Lynn in California. Doesn't it look like a Turner painting ? What is that little tiny fire?
This staggers me.

Sunny Jim gives direction...

I've been thinking about the creative dichotomy I work in with fabric, swinging from making art cloth that, (ostensibly) winds up in art quilts and making traditional bedwear. "Sunny Jim" above and "Big Muddy" below have reminded how both approaches meet in the middle with satisfying results - putting my art to work while soothing my frugal Yankee work ethic. I work...so does my art.

Somehow, in my morning blog slogging I came across Amy Ellis' Bloggers Quilt Festival. With only hours to participate I'm linking up Sunny Jim. Did I mention there are Prizes to win? And later spend some time rummaging around here too.


Winter looms long and dreary so I plan on working out ways to incorporate many of the fabrics I have been dyeing over the recent months. Stabilizing "tender" cloth with be part of the that challenge- don't want my blankets falling apart in the first round of wash and dry! 

kitchenworx - day two

I remembered to cover the kitchen table with a rescued white cotton blanket first thing instead of a stack of newpapers...good stuff will come of it eventually.

These pieces have just come steaming from the oven after having my own soywax/dye blocks shaved over them. They have to cool and dry completely before the next step and there may not be time today to move to the next step.Grrr.


Grace wrote to me about the difficulty of cutting into a piece of cloth that has been dyed or otherwise changed and become (in her eyes) a unique and beautiful piece of art, no further manipulation called for.

I know what she means. I have a small stack of good sized pieces that I just can't bring myself to force or otherwise organize or incorporate into something else.
What to do?
What do you do?