Stitching Hands Studio

Tea is done!

I just finished this piece and it's off to QuiltWorks for the gallery show today. Tea is No Minor Beverage is inspired by The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. It measures approximately 20" x 20". Here's my quilt description:

Tea is No Minor Beverage

Renée, a Paris apartment building concierge, has one true friend named Manuela.  They meet for tea and pastry on a regular basis.  Renée tries to hide her talents and interests from the people who live in her building.  As the book progresses, Renée’s true character emerges and she develops deep friendships with Monsieur Ozu, a wealthy and cultured Japanese businessman, and Paloma, a precocious 12 year old girl, both of whom live in the building.  Tea brings these characters together and seemed to me a fitting symbol of them all.

p. 91:  “So, let us drink a cup of tea… I know that tea is no minor beverage.  When tea becomes ritual, it takes its place at the heart of our ability to see greatness in small things.”

This piece is created with hand appliqué; hand embroidery; hand dyed fabrics and threads; and cotton, linen and silk fabrics.

This is what it looked like last night.  One of the things I did was to couch down a sample of handspun mohair that I made a couple of years ago.

In the past couple of days I added a bunch of quilting stitches.

Today I was adding the glass beads and buttons.  I just ordered these blue glass buttons from Etsy and got them the other day.  I had no plans for them, but they seemed just right here.

I think the back is always interesting to see.  The heavier lines are created by quilting with a back stitch.

Finally a tiny hedgehog had to be on the back and my signature.  This is what I finally came up with and I like it a lot.  My signature post should be coming up soon. 

***Lastly, I haven't heard from Val yet. Please email me soon, Val.  I don't have your contact info in your comment. **

AAQI for November

Little Blue Lamb was just finished for my Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative piece for November.  I keep rolling along with the Quilt-A-Month club.  This piece was started in Jude Hill's Patchwork Beasts class in September 2010.  A little more stitching, some batting, a backing and a facing and it's done.  I like using my old class samples for this sort of thing.

I realized a few days ago that I don't have a photo of my October AAQI quilt.  I thought I had taken one, but can't find it anywhere.  The photo isn't up at AAQI yet, but you can keep track of it here if you like.  Tulip Fields started with the class sample below, from a workshop that Jean Wells did for our guild last month.  She gave us most of the fabrics you see below to use for experimentation and said that they weren't a very good palette.  That was enough of a challenge for me to make it work.  I added some extra bits and even more when I did some applique and stitching.  This one should be up in the next week or so.

Right now, the AAQI people are at the International Quilt Festival in Houston doing an amazing job at selling some 1500 mini quilts for AAQI!  I have 4 quilts there as far as I can tell and 2 have sold so far.  Nine Daisies and Through the Window I have sold!  Zoom and High Desert Sun are still available at last count.  Over $20,000 has been made at the festival so far!

Last night

Made a design decision last night and even got to execute it.  More stitching today- hurray!

Magic Feather #4

Magic feather #4 is done and I'm working on 5 and 6. You can learn more about the Magic Feather Project here. I had fun doing the protrusions on this one. I think the most fun is making it up as you go along. I love the freedom to not know what's coming next.

And a note to say that my new Etsy shop is up and running!  Thanks for checking it out at the link in the header.  More items will be added as time goes on and I get my act together.

Tea continues and a bit of early Autumn

Tea is No Minor Beverage continues, with lots of added stitching.  

I didn't notice until I took these photos, that my stitching has echoes of the pattern in the saucer.  It's funny how the mind works.

Meanwhile, early autumn in Bend has been glorious this week! It's been just lovely during the day and I can hardly wait to get out for a walk. Yesterday Ryan and I took Scrabble for a walk to the library and stopped for a few photos along the way.

Contemporary Folk Art Retreat

The Contemporary Folk Art Retreat with Sue Spargo and Tonye Phillips took place at the historic Camp Sherman Community Hall, about 15 minutes from Sisters.  It was so beautifully decorated and a really lovely space to do a bit of stitching.

Actually, we had three days of stitching and it was really just heaven!  Below is the class sample, a pretty bad photo.  I didn't realize my camera was on a funny setting and never did get a better one.  At least you can see the idea.  It was a blend of Tonye's whimsical houses and Sue's wool and embroidery.  Of course, most people took off in their own direction after getting a little inspiration from this and all the other pieces on the walls.

The piece above is by my friend Jan Tetzlaff.  She has a wonderful eye for color and loves to incorporate words and/or letters into any quilt she does.  

Above is from Janet Wilson, a fellow Jude follower (makes us sound a little creepy- Judite??).  Anyway, I think the blues were hand dyed indigo that Janet made.  Her mushroom houses will be just darling!

This piece is by Marian Shimoda, another retreat friend.  Marion will be teaching Whimsical Wired Angels at the Stitchin' Post in December!  I will be there with bells on.  Marion is so very creative and makes all sorts of intricate small dolls and other beautiful pieces.

And this is mine.  I've already added a bunch more applique.  I think my favorite is the Seuss tree!  I have several of my hand dyed fabrics in the piece, both cotton and wool.  The border has indigo dyed fabrics.  I'll post an update some day soon!

The Magic Feather Project

A while back Jude Hill began a project called the Magic Feather Project.  I added a link in my sidebar, but just realized I never posted anything about it.  Jude is attempting to collect 1000 magic feathers to create a large cloth that can be used to bring comfort and healing to children.  She's asked for anyone to stitch or applique a feather to a small block and send it to her.  So far, there are 329 feathers in.  You can follow her blog posts about this or her Flickr page.  You can even see some free lessons in how to do this.  All of Jude's lessons are wonderful, so to get some for free is particularly delightful.

My story about the three feathers above is here.  In addition to my feathers for the project, I couldn't resist making a thank you for Jude.

I am now working on some patchwork feathers.  Here's a preview:

First Day of Fall

This week has been remarkable for September in Central Oregon.  It's hot enough to count as the middle of summer- up to the 90's during the day.  I've been trying to soak up what must surely be the last of summer, but also getting in some dyeing.  Up above, some of my synthetically dyed fabrics.  I've got Kona PFD, essex cotton/linen blend, linen, heavier cotton gauze, dupioni silk, habotai silk, and repurposed thrift store shirts of cotton and linen.

Today I got in what may be my last indigo session of the year.  The weather is going to turn soon, but my weekend is very busy and I knew I wouldn't have time then.  I experimented with quick dips, multiple dips, and a little bit of shibori just using my hands.  Some were scrunched up, some were folded, some squeezed in just the right spot to make a starburst.  

Tomorrow I am heading to the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival for the day and on Sunday, this boy of mine is turning 17!  It's going to be a very full weekend.  I hope you enjoy yours too!

AAQI for September

It looks like I'll be going back and forward in time as these posts go along.  There's a lot going on here right now!  This piece came together very quickly when I decided to make a mini quilt for the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative for September.  My monthly streak was kept alive when I bought a quilt in August, but now my studio is coming along and I can get back to sewing amid the seemingly never ending boxes that need to be unpacked.

The background was cut from a bit of machine pieced fabric leftover, the sun was started as a sample in the Sun Moon Stars class with Jude.  I did some Kantha stitching and embroidery to spice it up and finished it with a facing.  I got this idea from a sample that Tonye had at the retreat last weekend.  It's easy and looks really good.

The space on the right is ready for the AAQI number that I should get soon.  Then it will be in the mail and on its way!  I still have three other AAQI quilts that haven't sold, but they are now being held for Houston.  If you have a chance to see them please let me know!

Long Time No See

Time keeps slipping by and I've not had the blogging mojo.  The house is getting settled and the family visits are over.  Chloe has been delivered to college and started classes last week.  Ryan's school starts in a few days so I should be able to get back up to speed here soon.  

Yesterday I could wait no longer to get back to my usual summer activities.  We may be having the last of the truly hot summer weather so I started a new indigo vat.  My technique has improved and this time I got some lovely deep blues.  The long pieces are silk scarves from Dharma.  I also dyed an orange plaid linen tablecloth picked up at a thrift store.  The orange mellowed to a nice brown which was just what I was looking for.  There's some cotton floss and cotton fabric too.  See you soon with stories of my summer!