one of my favorite things

someone unknown to me cross-stitched twelve eagles and quilted them. eleven eagles face one way, and the bottom left one is the mirror image. the quilt needs some tlc. it has many small tears and some staining. but overall it's quite strong, and lovely.

i love india's post today.

always something to stitch

wondering what to work on, and then looked down..




starting a bit today, and more tomorrow, i'm moving my studio back to the hotel... i haven't been working there this summer for lots of reasons - there was a storm that blew off the roof, then there was the heat, then sarah hosted a show. slowly all my projects moved home. but now there's more space, and we have a new plan to expand and inhabit the whole space, just the two of us.

i'll miss the gentleness and comfort of working at home, but i was happier when i was at the hotel. less isolated. more productive, more creative. more able to find what i'm looking for and be inspired by materials (and protect them from moths and mice). and the kitty-energy, it's completely different from the dog love at home. the new environment will enable a different sort of continuing... i'm excited to get set up and unearth my stash, and see everything again with new eyes.

a new heirloom

a yard sale find.






at first i thought it was knitted, but now i think it's crochet. anyone recognize the stitch? and then at first i thought the colourwork was intarsia, but all the designs are actually cross-stitched on top! so much work, P.S.D. i'll mend the holes, and be a good caretaker in this lifetime.

elements of elders

after the elation of dyeing the cloth for what i had envisioned as my elder cloth background, i've hit another wall. i can't get past the need to have an overall design before i start stitching. but i don't think i want to do it that way. i want it to evolve slowly, a bit at a time.



i've been planning to position the old quilt in the center, like a saddle blanket, and then have an equine shape coming out from above and beneath it, stretched out something like a bear rug. this shape would be of woven pieces collaged together, and the background would be the leaf-dyed cloth patched together but without the raggedy edges. so that it would be her laying peacefully on a bed of leaves.





then after looking at second skin, i was thinking of using the handwoven wool blanket i showed you awhile ago (pics toward the bottom of that post) as a foundation and batting, but could also be dyed and exposed in places. it would also be great for needle-felting some knit pieces. but it is only as wide as a double bed, plus i want to limit the thickness, which means i need to disassemble it along that central seam and position it on either side of the saddle blanket. and then i would need a different background above and below the saddle blanket.

i think this is all begging the question of whether i'm going to take apart the saddle blanket, or just build around it. extending it on each side without taking it apart seems interesting to me. it would be a blanket within a blanket, and reversible. and in looking at all the elements, i'm not sure i want this sort of large, literal equine image, mostly because then i can't build it slowly. each piece would have to be part of a larger plan. but i also don't just want a hoof here, a tail there, dismembered. how do i move back and forth between details and the larger design?



i am longing to start stitching. and see where it leads. but i've rarely been happy with the results when i've stitched that way. i like experimental stitching but within a larger overall plan. there is a lot of pressure with this elder cloth concept. i need to lighten this burden somehow. she only worked the grand canyon as a young mule, not when i knew her. i guess heaviness and lightness are part of her story too.

sweet jungle

vintage runner bundled with elderberry leaves and sitting in cast iron for the last week.


i love how it's turned out and will be stitching on it after it dries.

ghosts are converging

elderberry and rust-dyed yarns. i just love the odd shades of these. i do have a grey sheep, so maybe they are not all that incredible, but still, it's different.

the yarns contain the ghost of the sheep and also of the elderberry bush (both happily living down the road, but the sheep is elderly). and the ghost of the horse-shoe that one skein was wrapped around in the dyebath. or no, actually this one was wrapped around a rusty car part. well, maybe a less romantic ghost. but that brings up this question about plant and animal fibers that i'm working through... are these ghosts, traces, remnants - are they works of imagination? or is the fact that the sheep or plant or horseshoe or car part was really There, how much does that matter?


the fiber is There, and it is marked. it has qualities specific to its ghosts. so even though someone who ends up with this yarn (or the yarn made into mittens) may not see the ghosts, they were, are There.


everyone is talking about ghosts. or i'm just noticing the ones talking about ghosts. jude's concept of ghosting from magic diaries. also this chapter by carla freccero on queer spectrality. and last night, sarah seeing in my eco-prints their ghostly potential for quilting. working through how these are related.. this is my task.

baby bird batts

all carded up and ready to hatch in the shop..

elderberry on muslin

well, i didn't have quite the success that grace did with just leaving elderberry bundles out in pots for a week, the results then were really light. but the time in the pots pre-mordanted them for hot-bundling on the stove. yesterday i let the fabric and leaf roll-ups steam on a rack in a pot of boiling water for about an hour.

all of these were sitting in the copper pot all week, and then hot bundled on the stove:

these were sitting in the cast iron pot, and then hot bundled on the stove.

the striations are from the twine. i think this one's my fave.

this one had some pokeberry leaves in it too.

this one had no pre-mordant, but a soak in an elderberry bath that was sitting in the crock pot after i dyed some yarn (which made the background much pink-er), and then hot-bundled with elderberry leaves and some pokeberry leaves.

what i'm imagining now is using these to create blocks to surround the saddle blanket, as if elderberry's resting in a bed of leaves. i've got some muslin soaking in ash water, and i'll see how the same leaves print a second time. i'll also try some dahlia and purple basil leaves from the garden.

everything is better with dinosaurs

i was paging through a vintage knitting magazine the other night ... this was from a collection inspired by the new york state fair!

happenings

i spent a nice afternoon cuddling the kitty and devouring india's new book (long awaited and even better than imagined... i'll probably be obsessively huddled with it for a few days). and in other news..

one of the feathers from my flock floated off to jude today...


it seems our last show at the Hadley made the Greensboro paper!


dear miss hadley is showing off her lovely figure..


and here's a block i stitched for the elder cloth with the paperless piecing method..

i have a general design plan now using the old quilt as a center, and i was planning to use this fabric from a thrifted dress for part of it. i like the pattern in this fabric, but now after stitching it, i'm not sure how it'll work with the other fabrics. i thought it was all linen but there's some rayon lurking in there skewing things. it's just so bendy. anyone have thoughts on rayon??

and i am actually, finally working on my proposal for school with an actual plan. and yes, it involves cloth making. it's gobbledygook right now but it is coming along, which is a relief. hope with me that i can persuade them!

bubble bubble

so much is percolating these days..



the elderberry leaves are bundled tightly inside the muslin... but now that i've added yarn, do i need more leaves floating?

the dye garden is flourishing.


and back indoors.