Showing posts with label Moon Patches. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moon Patches. Show all posts

Monday, 5 October 2009

Sewing and Harvesting!

Look at this! I bought this piece in a moment of joy from Jude Hill of Spiritcloth and it has arrived from the U.S. in the post. It is now probably one of my most treasured possessions (apart from my children and I definitely don't own them). It's so soft, being made from washed and worn fabrics, and is all handsewn. I have got a bit of an obsession with pumpkins so this fits in totally with our household decorations at this time of year!

Meanwhile I had started my own version for inclusion in my very slowcloth of moon patches..
More bounty...


Posted by PicasaMy inlaws have just been on a fabulous trip to India and brought me back some colourful goodies...tomatoes from my greenhouse...

...oh yes and a bit more pumpkiness in a sketch with a black background of acrylic paint - may experiment with this further methinks....

Tuesday, 14 April 2009

Springtime Capers and Ripping Yarns


Bank Holiday Weekend: an invigorating time spent with jolly good friends in Cornwall, lashings of ginger cake and bracing jolly japes on the beach.



Wholesome activities were interrupted briefly whilst I tore a calf muscle in a mad cap game of rounders on the sands. I could only hobble sideways afterwards as everyone else tittered at my predicament.

Husband practised his first aid bandaging skills so that my leg looked like a version of Pudsey Bear's bad ear. Nice try luv.

Still managed to enjoy plenty of Easter Sunday champagne and Puilly Fumee. They go well with Neurofen!

Watched a little black lamb born one afternoon - miracle of emerging life always moving.


Finished another Moon Patch for the monthly Lunar Quilt. This one signifies the signs of the Zodiac as I have been planting my seeds according to the biodynamic calendar this year. The moon in the middle is a nice piece of wild silk which has a shot of purple through it although this is impossible to photograph!
Have excuse to stitch for a change with leg elevated whenever possible. Hah!

MOON GARDENING & BIODYNAMICS
Humankind started farming in the Nile valley over 10,000 years ago. Our ancestors watched the rhythms of the heavens, and made connections between the patterns in the night-sky and the effects of the moon, planets, and stars on their bodies, the oceans, and on their gardens. Over the centuries as farming spread, they determined the best times to plant and harvest their crops, as well as for animal husbandry, beekeeping, and timber felling. This knowledge was handed down through the generations in oral and written tradition. With the development of chemical fertilisers in the 20th century, these principles were largely forgotten or ignored; Rudolf Steiner helped to revive and consolidate some of these Lunar Gardening traditions by developing his Biodynamic farming techniques.

Lunar Effects
The Moon reflects light and has a gravitational effect on the Earth. Steiner proposed that this affects plant growth. The Moon has a roughly elliptical orbit so the gravitational pull varies throughout its 28 day cycle. Root growth is improved when Moon moves further out causing a decreased pull on the Earth and vice versa - this force also causes the ocean tides.
- Planting of flower, fruit and vegetable seeds is best done 2 days before a new Moon because light and gravitational forces are more favourable in the seven days that follow.
- During the next seven days the Moon appears larger each night approaching a full Moon. The increased light stimulates foliage growth, but the gravitational pull increases so root growth is less favoured - young shoots thrive and the roots rest.
- For the seven days following the full Moon the light decreases slowing foliage growth, but so does the gravitational pull and the roots can develop. This is a good time to transplant seedlings as it gives the roots better conditions to flourish.
- In the last seven days of the lunar cycle the light continues to decrease, but the gravitational pull increases so both foliage and roots rest in the run up to the new Moon of the next lunar cycle.

Bleeding Heart awaited in the garden when we came home.




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Tuesday, 24 February 2009

The Pancake and The Moon (What a great title for a children's book that might make)....


Yes I know I'm a little bonkers but today is pancake day (Shrove Tuesday to posh folk) and also a New Moon. To make up for the lack of lunar presence in the sky I made a Loony Pancake. The Sea of Sugar is on the top left and the Ocean of Lemon Juice bottom right.
I told you the moon phases has an effect on this already addled brain.
Ok and where is the stitching I hear you cry! Yes well I am binding the crow quilt at a snail's pace and am too embarrassed to show you quite how slow so you'll have to keep hanging on to the edge of your seats ha, ha, as if....
Mind you normally I give up hope for Lent but this time I am not having any alcohol so I may be stitching until 3am for forty days and forty nights you never know!
Looking forward to making some felt on Friday and some hand dying on Saturday so it may be worth coming back!!

Sunday, 8 February 2009

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 ....

Friday, 30 January 2009

Blue Chair



Today I have quickly finished the little Blue Chair postcard before taking the children to school.


The reason behind this little piece is a challenge set by Suzanne at Heb Art which is simply a title a month - do what you will with it. See http://todaystitle.blogspot.com/


I have used a Lutrador background with watercolour paint and felt pen background, a cotton chair and cushion and a stamp for a picture hanging on the wall. The stamp and chair are appliqued on and sewn.

My chair is an imaginary comfy chair, rather kitch and overstuffed in a slightly "camp" room. Note the stamp has Little Britain "Ladies" on it. Why I have done a camp background ?- hmmmmm I just don't know - but the instructions were for the first thing that came in to our heads.

More blue here - none of my house is blue really (except the laundry) but I'm very keen on indigos and sludgy blues in 2009. I have made the background for my next Moon series (see earlier posts).

I have a cunning (and very silly idea) for the Moon on this... but you have to wait for that!!


Sunday, 25 January 2009

Moon Series, Tulles and Sheers

I went on a fabulous workshop with Ineke Berlyn yesterday and made this scene with some of my hand-dyed fabrics, some shared fabrics and some sheers. It is on a base of white organza with some pink very fine grade tulle over the top machine-stitched in purple and gold threads. I am very pleased with the result and want to do more utilising this technique.


Here is a picture which shows the layers better, but I am waiting for some sun to come out. The picture is in an acrylic frame and can stand on the window sill to get the full effect of the sun shining through (some day soon please!). Here is the class in action - we are the Embroiderers' Guild.






...and here is my new Bernina (pride and joy) in action at 6.30 this morning because I couldn't wait to finish it!













I have also been working at the Moon Series and have posted a picture of the first patch of 12 monthly Lunar influenced pictures for the following year's slow cloth. The moon is shining above the Pitons which are two very magnificent mountains which rise abruptly out of the sea in Lucia where we were in January (see last posts). I have put the Pitons in cotton velvet which feels lovely and the moon is discharged with bleach on a cotton woven fabric background.








This year I am collecting various patterns in photo and sketch for future use. This is a photo of our Victorian hall tiles which would be a patchworker's dream!










Here is the window of our front door. You don't need to go far for inspiration!

Then if you've got a moment click on this link to watch a heart warming video set to music by Tonya Davis with art by Andrea Dorfman :)

Tuesday, 20 January 2009

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.

























Monday, 19 January 2009

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.