The Finished Quilt

I can hardly believe I finally finished it. There were so many things that distracted me along the way and I must say that I finally see how much of a commitment there is to such an endeavor. There are so many stitches in this. And no there are no fancy stitches or perfectly lined up edges .. but it still manages to be a wonderful  quilt. The edge that I decided to go with was a recycled dyed t-shirt. The wonderful ochre/greenish color just seemed to be the perfect compliment to the black and grey and greens in the main parts of the quilt. It has an overall earthy feel to it and I just have to say .. I was really really pleased with the outcome.

Several of you have asked about the discharged leaves on the dark gray fabrics. Those were done using actual leaves in my yard. I either painted or sprayed the underside of a leaf where the veins are and then pressed onto the fabric and then the other images I simply used a branch of leaves as a stencil and sprayed the area around the leaves. This left a lovely impression of the leaf shapes. The center Leopard that you will see in the full finished quilt on the bottom was painted freehand by me with bleach also .. I have given some thought to creating an online class of my discharge techniques with more detail of my methods. Leave me a comment if you'd be interested in that.

Probably the most unexpected outcome of having done this quilt was the joy that I had in giving it away. I felt as though I learned a lesson. If you've never tried it .. you should!!

So here is the finished quilt. I had to climb up a ladder to see the whole thing. I suppose I could have put it up on a wall but I really don't have a good one for that. .. The very last thing that I had to do was wash it to make sure that everything stayed together and that any parts didn't shrink up and change everything. I was pleased that it washed up so nicely and it was even softer than before, a great cuddle blanket. I shipped it that same day and the owners have it and their son Royce loves it. And that made my day. Thanks everyone that came and posted on the previous blog post about this quilt. It's meant a lot to me to have your comments.
And please feel free to leave any for this one .. Goodness and light to all of you.

The evidence of Gratitude

I know it's been a while since I have posted. I have no logical reason for this except to say that I have just been trying to keep up with my life. Even though I haven't posted in a long while I just haven't stopped creating. Sometimes life just interjects so much that I needed to retract from spaces that have made me feel vulnerable in the past. I have participated in Magic Diaries last year and learned many good things about stitching and continuing.. I am sad that some have stopped following me but I understand. A while back I posted a few photos of a design I painted on fabric. It was using the discharge process. I created it for a quilt that I was planning for a friend and used it as my diaries project. This quilt is a thank you for Karen and her generosity and then as I continued it came to mean so much more. You see there was a time when I had been through painful and difficult events in my life and one person stood out in my life to show concern and give encouragement. Karen's brother is that person.  I realized near the end of this quilt that I have invested a great deal of time in each stitch. The hardest part has been continuing when it seemed that no end was in sight. Oddly enough I never met him face to face yet he taught me so many things. It seems strange to say that.  With his help I learned the very important value in loving my self in a very literal and concrete way. Every day on the tip of his tongue was this phrase, "you can not see in others what is not inside of you" or "when you love yourself you won't feel that way" and many other things. His teaching really changed my idea of what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. And so even though this quilt will go to his nephew for his new great nephew. And even though this was stitched in gratitude for the gifts of Karen, this quilt is every much a testimony to the love and care and especially the time that Karens brother gave me. His name is Jim. He died several years ago ... at the time I didn't think that I would survive his loss ... but I have and his memory and the things I learned from him have great value to me and he lives in my heart always. So while it may not seem like much to those that have stitched many quilts .. this is a first of this size for me. Jim always accepted me unconditionally .. and this quilt isn't perfect .. doesn't have perfect stitches and won't have a precise and perfect binding on the edges. And that's just the way he would have liked it. So I just can't tell you what it feels like to stitch love and gratitude into this cloth .. for Karen and her new grandson and for Jim. I will always love you and be grateful for what you have given me.

 I love this quilt with all my heart .. it's infused with so much love and gratitude. My heart is swelled with so much joy. Thank you Karen for your kindness and continuing to be just like your brother by helping me, this is for you, with all my love. Oh one more thing I have added the binding since these photos were taken and as soon as the weather clears up I will take more photos and share the completely finished piece then. THanks for stopping over!!!  The botanicals are my own discharged fabrics and the inbetween animal prints are recycled garment pieces.

 Yes this was done on a fuzzy blanket. So the back stitches kind of disappear into the fuzz. It's been fun to stitch and keep myself warm this winter. I will miss this.

The Emptiness and Gratitude of Fall

I decided today to post here on my blog since it's been a while. I happened over to Jude Hill's blog Spiritcloth and felt led to add something new. Perhaps no one knows what people think in their heads .. i try to stay out of mine but often there is just too much in there ha ... and it's good (although at times scary) to have a place like this to put them. I still continue to find myself attracted to the little creatures that I run across on the property where I live. With this one there is a little story. I was out walking my dogs one morning and often I am looking where I am going and watching the dogs and just plodding along. This morning I guess I had my head down, it was cold and wind was brisk, my eyes were watering. As I walked a long I noticed this guy walking on the road. A long way away from water. My molly dog is mini dachshund and she is always finding something to get ahold of and for its fate I guess the little crustacean did not get seen by her. I'd say he was and she were lucky to have not run into each other as those pinchers there could really do some damage I'm afraid. So .. we walked past and I steered them clear on the way back home. I decided that this guy was so unusual to me that I would find my camera and go back to take some photos. So as you can see I did make it back and really searched for several minutes to find him. He stopped for a while and let me take some photos and when he realized that I posed no threat to him he continued his valiant effort to go somewhere. I know we have several streams that are nearby but he was far from any body of water. We had a few rainstorms during that previous few days but I didn't think we had any flowing streams by the road that would have somehow pushed him out into the expanse of this land. Nonetheless he was there .. in the middle of the road and i took several photos and just watched him going. I wanted to see where he was going and I knew that there was a stream up ahead. I think it may have taken hours to get there at the rate he was going and as the time passed he squeaked with every step. My lack of patience got the better of me and I decided to help him a long. With a piece of trash and a stick I carefully held him down and carefully walked him to the stream, which I am happy to say he is now in ... unless of course he decided to visit the neighbors up the road. And also you can see that the leaves have all gone now and there is little green left. Even the leaves on the ground have been crunched over and I have to hunt to find a whole leaf. I find myself more lonely with the grayness of these days.. so many gray days strung together, some rain and forced inside where the lights are low and the work is stifled with little room. But this day I was grateful to find this guy. I know he would have made it on his own. I didn't want to risk having a car drive over him. Silly ....i've grown attached to the creatures. More writing below. 

 

 

 

        I couldn't post about a crawdad with out wondering what it's showing up in my life now means. As with all things there is some lesson to learn here. Perhaps this seems odd but I take these events as wonderful gifts from the earth.....it's nice to have a conversation with the earth. I have been busy creating. I did want to also share some of that. I have been enjoying the process of discovery that pushing through things gives me. Here are some things I've been doing. Mind you .. this is just some of it. Thanks as always for stopping over and having a look .. I've got so many more things to say .. it just takes time away from painting and playing and making art. :) Stop by again soon! 

 This is discharged on the back of a garment. On the right is the close up of the eye. I read in Jude's blog today that they are talking about eyes there. I love eyes and always have.

Below is another discharged painting on fabric. Sometimes I wonder if it is a waste to do these since they will continue to eat the fabric.....maybe then I can just look at them as temporary works of art. As you can see .. the eyes just seem to peer through you. Next to that is more discharge just using leaves as a stencil. I love botanical designs.

 Below is rust on colored fabric. I have made several of these that I am going to be using in a few projects. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color combinations here. Did I tell you that I love these colors together????

More botanical and did you notice that the leaves sort of resemble feathers????  and another painting on fabric. I guess as I continue I care less and less about what someone would think .. and even though you may think that is not something you would do .. meaning that you do care .. i mean this in a way that .. for me .. if I decide that I want to try something I say to myself .. why not? Just do it...who cares? THere is no wrong way really. Who decides what is right. And yes saying that reminds me that there has been much time in my life when I strived to do things, make art, create, do what I want to do but by the rules by what the teacher says to do ... maybe it's taken me all my life to just do what ever I like . ... seems silly but still true.
 and again with the eyes. I love to paint eyes. They seem to say so many things ...they look into your gut with out your even knowing. They see all that is hidden without telling. They say the truth .. and what you see is in you ......

 Another leaf that reminds me of a feather. and below the sunset that I witnessed with that fiery blood red sky ... the furnace of the earth ending another day ....illuminating the sky with brillance. Such a lovely sunset. Such a lovely day. I miss the summer.

Fog, Frogs and Feathers

I seem to have less time these days and I find I miss the quiet of staying home for days at a time. We've had a lot of rain and with rain comes fog and frogs. I don't know why but it seems that I find some creatures in my yard just as they are about to have their last breath. I am always somehow overwhelmed and honored to have to be aware of this. My Molly dog who is a cute little Miniature Dachshund of a brindle coloring is born to hunt and seek out all living creatures ... can't imagine why she is this way but it's just her nature. I'd rescued a toad from her before but a week or so ago I was a bit too late. She suffered for it with a mouth full of foam, I wiped her mouth clear and put her inside and went to check on the toad. I can't tell you how sorry I felt that this toad seemed to have been fatally injured. There were no puncture wounds however he just seemed to have a look to him. I took him back to my back yard and explained to him that he might have better stayed back there where there were no dogs to find him or dig him out of his hiding spot. Molly will relentlessly dig to find something. I sprinkled rain water over his fat body and he would move but with great difficulty. I sang him a lullaby. Silly, a grown woman singing to a toad. And finally I had to walk away and hope that I was somehow just being too worried and hoping as I passed around the corner of my house that he would have miraculously recovered and hopped away .... but alas it was not so and he had passed.

It seems appropriate that some of the days were gloomy, I miss the toad.


And now to what I enjoy doing. Lately, it's stitching and following Magic Diaries and the Spirit Cloth blog of Jude Hill. Besides all the wonderful workshops that she teaches she is also doing a project called The Magic Feather project. She hopes to collect 1000 feathers. She is thinking of giving a creation with these to Wendy Golden-Levitt . Here is my feather that I have put many hours into. I guess I always think I have to be different. Everyone was stitching the actual feather so I thought I would stitch everything around the feather. I wanted the intent to give to somehow be evident. The cloth that is here is a baby bassinet sheet. One I used on a bassinet that was mine, and I'm certain that each one of my three babies lay on it at one time or another. My daughter had it and decided she wouldn't be using it because it just doesn't fit the new kinds of bassinets. So for some reason I couldn't discard it and instead I rust dyed it and ripped it into many cloths. I love the way that Jude will sometimes draw outlines or images to stitch and so I had intended to draw the feather first and see what I would do. I stitched the center of the feather and liked the drawing and thought maybe my stitching would take away the lightness of the way that feather appeared in the drawing. The pen is a black ink pen made for drawing on fabric that I have used and it won't wash out but even if it fades what will be left is all the shape of the feather. Either way I am sure it will imply feather. It was at this point that I had decided that the stitching would be outside the feather. I intended loving thoughts into each stitch. I carried this little piece of cloth in my purse with a needle and a thread and every time I had a moment to be still and quiet I would take this out and stitch. There are many hours in this and last night I was with friends, some that were hurting and some that were comforting the ones that hurt and I stitched and listened and made the last stitch. Later I was about to stitch my name somewhere on it and the needle fell to the floor. I was in a restaurant sitting in a booth. I felt around for the needle but couldnt find it. I guess I'll have to find another one... but i'd grown attached to it. Silly. I wonder if I did too much when she wanted something simple. I guess I wanted to give my best love into a feather stitching which is time and energy. mostly just to give.

So if you would like to add a feather to her collection please follow the link above on her name and click on the Magic Feather Project and find some wonderful words and magical inspiration and make a feather, any kind at all, so she can reach that goal. And be a part of something magical. :) Oh dear .. I almost forgot the back .. I love the way the back turned out too!!!  aaaaccckkkk. here it is: