Sunday - A Day Of Rest (a new experience....)

A very unusual thing has happened. A synergy if ever there was one between the weather and my family! They are all out for the day at a very noisy airshow and the weather is total perfection. I have discovered the perfect stitching location. In my hammock. In fact it hasn't seen the light of day for two years because last year it rained solidly for 12 months and the year before the weather was better but a pesky squirrel gnawed through the guy rope! Before that I couldn't sew anyway so hammock and needle have come together to form a haven of bliss.

Whilst I was in cloud cuckooland the birds continued to feed from the seed feeders hanging around me and I was treated to the sounds of their little voices and the fluttering of wings as they jostled for position.

I'm stitching a lovely print made by Kit Eastman that I received in a giveaway - lucky old me. I love the colours of this echinacea and am kantha stitching my way around it.

I adorethe purple variety of these flowers especially their orangey cones. I'll be adding a few seed beads I think.

I took a little time out to bake a lemon drizzle cake though which, incidentally, rose so well that it drizzled itself all over the Aga floor as it cooked. I simply scraped it off afterwards with a spatula and put it straight into my mouth! Et Voila! No-one can see what I do today! In fact I got to lick all the mixture off the spoon. No competition!

But can you believe it? The cheeky little squirrel was back licking his lips! Hmmmm tasty rope. I will probably land up on the floor next time I attempt a relaxing Sunday in a hammock.

Hanging By A Thread and Dyeing

Yesterday I went to a workshop organised by Wombourne Quilters' and lead by Jacqui Calladine. The remit was to make a wall hanging from recycled fabrics which we had dyed in the morning and then stitched using Kantha stitching in the afternoon.
In our little fabric packs were plain old soft worn cotton fabrics and a few bits of lace and doilies. We also had some plain cotton thread. We used Procion dyes and I was obviously having a purple day. (I have obviously grown old and can spit with compunction).
We had a slight hiatus mid-morning as we tried to dry our fabrics with irons because the fuse blew and left us in the cold. The heating was already off for some reason. A caretaker was duly summoned, the fuse box repaired and we were eventually able to continue.
After dyeing some threads we were able to arrange some of the fabric how we felt best and began to stitch in a Kantha running style.
Looking at mine now I think it is rather overcomplicated but I shall finish stitching and adding some embellishments as an exercise.

I do love Kantha work though as I have said before because of the undulating effect it brings to the fabric. I also like the idea of it's rustic appearance.

Today I my daughter, who is seven, did her first embroidery in a hoop. She's tried cross stitch before but I think she prefers this. She's doing a little stitchery that we designed together featuring her pet rabbit Henry. He has very long ears and looks like a cartoon even in real life!

It really felt like the first day of Spring today. We played football and cricket in the garden and tried not to knock over the hellebores! Even the bust looked quite nice!

Moon Series (February) and Crows Quilt

February's full moon is tomorrow, February 9th. In the Moon Series 2009 I have depicted this here. It's a very special full moon as it is a partial eclipse and is on my son's 10th birthday both of which deserve a stitch or two (hundred)!

This was my first attempt at needle turn applique and a stab at couching on the candle flame.

I do so enjoy the rhythm of Kantha stitching and the pleated effect on the fabric which it produces. This piece uses linen, cotton and silk and my favourite Sashiko needle!

I have enjoyed the idea of a nine patch becoming a ten, just like Tom.

He isn't having a party as he is in the cast of Evita at the theatre at the moment so he's extremely busy and I am very proud of him.

My daughter is also shaping up and can be seen here with her friend dancing along to Yul Brynner in "The King and I" yesterday! So much better than "High School Musical"!

Whilst they were so gainfully employed I finally finished the blanket stitch on the "As The Crow Flies" quilt - all it need is to be pieced together.

I do like all this snow because I can stitch and stitch ....

Stitching The Moon

Stitching the moon is very contemplative. In doing so I was considering how the whole moon is always there but it is not always visible. The only part we see is the reflected sun. Thus it is with people - the more of our light we can shine on those in need, the more they glow and reflect. Teachers and therapists can work on shining their light into the nooks and crannies of others and bring out the best. Parents the same.

This moon is discharged with bleach on to woven turban cotton and linen on a muslin backing with running Kantha style stitching.

I read this fascinating book on holiday which started these cogs rolling - "The Almost Moon" by Alice Sebold - a fiction set within the first 24 hours of a woman murdering her mother. It was distasteful and gruesome at first but became a compulsive read quite quickly.

Weaving and the Moon

“We sleep, but the loom of life never stops, and the pattern which was weaving when the sun went down is weaving when it comes up in the morning.”
Henry Ward Beecher (Liberal US Congregational minister, 1813-1887).

Sometimes I have a spell of sleeping really badly and I have noticed of late that this occurs around the full moon but I suspect also at the New Moon too. I have a gadget on my Google Homepage now which shows the phase of the moon each day and I am trying to check this out without assuming that I will be hit with insomnia at certain moon phases. I have decided that this year I will make a patch of fabric every month which relates to the moon in some way.

I am also fascinated by the lie of fabric, especially in sunlight, after it has been woven, and so have experimented. My first patch was in denim and was made from some old jeans (I am recycling this year) but when I came to embroider it yesterday I couldn't get the needle through without a lot of pain and foul language and so today I used linen and turban cotton on a base of quilters muslin - I like the lightness of this and am looking forward to some Kantha style stitching on it.

I am combining the moon theme with the weaving and am going to bleach the moon in St. Lucia last week on to this patch and then stitch it. Interestingly the moon was lying on it's back over there - presumably because we were close to the equator. Here in Britain the moon crescent is more upright.

Each month in 2009 I am going to make a patch which relates to my life and some aspect of the moon and then put it together into a slow growing cloth.

Out Of The East

We have just returned from a lovely holiday in the Pelaponese area of mainland Greece.

Whilst the rest of my brood were taking sailing / windsurfing / bodyboarding / kayaking lessons and generally being over-active I was doing "extreme sewing" and Olympic reading. I managed to finish this little sample of Kantha embroidery and read The Kite Runner (amongst other books) which was tremendous.

This was a fabulously relaxing holiday with great food and marvellous weather. Just what we need to carry us over the winter months.
Today I have been to learn a little about Sashiko Quilting from Japan with Stevie Walker. It's very mathematical / grid based and very different in that sense from Kantha but the running stitch idea is the same thing. The stitches are meant to be like grains of rice. The ones in the books look like Arborio rice - nice and small - mine were a bit more along the Uncle Ben's Long Grain variety! It is sashiko thread in white and denim on to indigo dyed fabric from Cotton Patch in Birmingham.

Also I have crammed in making a few little Christmas decorations for a craft fair at Bilston Art Gallery this weekend.
Time is marching on but I couldn't wait until Christmas to open my new Bernina sewing machine. It was too much to bear so I have had a brief play with it and look forward to doing more with it tomorrow. It simply purrs along.

Kantha Quilting

I've been on a workshop which was an introduction to Kantha Quilting with Stevie Walker. Kantha embroidery hails from India and Bangladesh and was a way of joining old saris together in layers to make quilts / blankets etc. In this rocky economic time perhaps the idea of re-using old fabrics is a good one. I am eying my wardrobe scissors in hand!

The stitching is a basic running stitch with lots of variations. This is all I achieved in the day because it's a slow process and I'm a lousy hand-stitcher who is now inspired to practise!

This fabric is turban cotton and it's sewn with thin Perle and a rayon around the edge. It will eventually be heavily quilted all over.

The location of the workshop was just near Wenlock Edge in Shropshire (England) so the journey was beautiful and the weather marvellous!

We're off to Greece on holiday next week. I shall be armed with camera and sketchbook to note interesting patterns etc. No blogging for a week - I know I'll miss that facility. It's strange really but it's a lovely way to keep a diary anyway.