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.

Make It Do


1. Lucille, 2. Quilting Arts Gifts 2010 - 2011 - cover 3. Make-Do - view 1, 4. Argyle Make-Do, 5. Hep Cat, 6. Make-Do - view 2, 7. Make It Do 8. Purple Bird, 9. Hep Cat - reverse, 10. Big Dots Make-Do - view 2, 11. Lucille - detail, 12. Quilting Arts Gifts 2010 - 2011 - article 13. Big Dots Make-Do - view 1

 
I love getting mail. Even though it is so often filled with bills and advertisements, I still approach the mailbox with anticipation - always believing that today is the day I'll get something good. And today I was rewarded with something really special! It's the 2010-2011 edition of Quilting Arts Gifts and I'm so excited because my Make-do Pincushions article is in it! They did such a beautiful job of photographing it and the layout is fabulous. Thank You, Pokey Bolton and Pippa Eccles!

I also posted about my make-do pincushions HERE, if you'd like to know a little bit more.