Cloth Weaving Workshop Progress

Jude Hill's  workshop on making cloth from cloth has been fascinating. I love watching her process and also seeing the work of the others in the class.  This has opened an entirely new area of fiber work for me and I am pretty sure I will be experimenting with it for a long time.

This is a cloth made by weaving many pieces of other cloth together. The pieces include scraps from several old skirts; vintage kimono silks sent to me by Jody Mellenthin, a cyber-fiber-friend who blogs HERE; pieces of ribbons which I purchased from Tinsel Trading a few years ago -  it can take a very long time for something to get used, I have a hard time with letting go; the backing of an antique quilt which had fallen apart (I would never do harm to a salvageable quilt); a piece of upholstery fabric; and various other textiles. 

I plan to add much kantha stitching to this piece. It is possible that I will also add even more layers. Once I start with something like that, I tend to get obsessive about it - wanting to fill every space. Every time I add a piece to fill a space, a newly created space appears.

Below is  the beginning of a star, styled in true Jude fashion.  It is a "double weave" with the top layer entirely from a pair of Flax pants which I loved but I love even better that they became way too big for me (and no, that does not mean they stretched). The under layer is entirely from Jody's kimono silks.

I am still fiddling with it. Not sure what I might do with the center and want to do "right" with stitching.

Stay tuned. 

Cloth To Cloth

This is an example of strip weaving and shape shifting.

I'm participating in Jude Hill's Cloth To Cloth (2) Workshop and I am loving it! I wasn't sure about signing up. I wondered, would it be worth the commitment of time and money. The answer is an unequivocal yes. And I've barely just begun. So, I will be very happy the next few weeks.

Lace Love

I have ironed a lot of lace in the last two days. I mean tons.

Believe it or not, this is only about half my collection of laces. It was actually quite fun to iron it, because it was like discovering it anew. Some really very precious items in those piles. I'm hoping to photograph some of the special pieces to share with you all.
 
What am I going to do with it? Good question! Some of it is too beautiful or too scarce to use - I just can't bear the thought of losing it. And I don't mean that just in terms of personal loss; I mean I want it saved for posterity, not cannibalized to add flourish to a cuff or edging to a little quilt. I'll save it, at least for now. As for the rest, there is just way more than I can ever use and I'm losing my taste for saving things. I am truly surrounded by too much stuff and I periodically make a brave attempt to downsize. It's really not good for the soul to have a cluttered life and it is deadly for the creative spirit - at least it is for mine. I need to have some scarcity in order to create, to make something from nothing. If I have an overabundance of the something, then my muse says, Why bother?
 
The lace will be wonderful for embellishments, but I'd have to be embellishing things for an awfully long time before I could plow through it all. I am pondering what I might make from it on a larger scale. And, maybe I'll put some up for sale on Etsy.

Feeling a Little Lost

I have been fooling around with weaving strips of cloth, a la Jude Hill and Heike Gerbig.  And I'm hoping to take Jude's upcoming Cloth to Cloth 2 class, unless I get locked out. So this may be a bit of subconscience preparation for that.

I'm not at all sure what I'm doing with the stitching on this piece. I started out thinking I wanted all the stitches to be in the white-cream-taupe range. Lately I've thought maybe it would be interesting to add some very pale pink and icy blue. And every time I look at it, I think about how I actually really like the big, red basting stitches!

I haven't worked on it much yet and some of what little I've done is no more. For example, I've done some stitching and then ripped it all out - twice! This is because I am  having a hard time choosing the right thread weight. The piece sits in the family room - I like to sew while watching TV, so I don't feel like I'm wasting my time.  I keep whatever I'm working on and all the associated supplies on a nice big bread board which sits on my lap and becomes my work table.


I'll be glad when I finally get cracking and do some meaningful work on this little baby. Right at the moment, it seems so lost.

 

Echoes

Spent the last two hours sewing silks and laces, listening to Echoes, on NPR ... magical ... meditative ... perfect accompaniment for creation .....

C'est finis

That's my feeble attempt at French. What I mean to say is that Comfort is finished. And, I am pleased with how it turned out. :-)


It is made from recycled vintage textiles: silk, linen (discharged), wool (overdyed); antique French metallic ribbon, metallic thread, linen thread, and pearl and glass beads. About 5.5" x 5.5"

UPDATE: Comfort is now for sale at my Etsy shop.