Artwork created on ancient iPod

I inherited an iPod from Handsome Son, so old it can't even be updated, but some functions still work fine, including the doodle one. And you can email images out, with a lovely whoosh sound effect, which I did with this one.

Sent it to email on tablet, enlarged and photographed it with phone,  and here it is. The latest of a line of my ipod generated images. And my jury rigged method of getting images from a to b. I can print it from my laptop, just open the email there and bingo.

It's a possibility as a design to print on silk, maybe future stitching, maybe applique motifs,  maybe epp, not sure. But I very much like the color overlays.

So while I'm working away on the tumbling blocks piece, which may become a pillow or stretched and framed piece, we'll see, and collecting random scraps for the winter quilt project, some from the freecycled doll furniture linens, I'm also assembling designs for other purposes, as you see.

Aside from that..

Tumbling blocks

The pillow top is coming along nicely.
A few more blocks, and I can assemble it. The green fabric showing here and there is the backing.

Bigger project, bigger blocks

I've been cutting fabrics and cardstock like a maniac recently, to get started on my winter project, a tumbling block random design quilt.  Epp, need you ask?

I have a feeling, since I need a lot of blocks for this, that anything I'm not currently wearing might end up pieced and inserted. I tend to get carried away.

I've created much bigger pieces for this project, about 5"  blocks, since it will be a 60"x80" quilt.

The creating of the templates, getting them sized and fitting without gaps, was a saga unto itself, but it's done, and I'm sitting up and taking nourishment now. 

I got a nice piece of terrycloth to back the quilt, and may insert a blanket as padding, we'll see.  I don't want to handle batting.

I prewashed the terry and since it was a few yards -- plans for other items as well as a quilt -- there was an astonishing amount of lint in the dryer. I could probably stuff a pillow with it. Maybe I will. It's certainly clean.

I'm still working on the pillow top using Indian sari silk and the batik. I realized that I'd better make sure the pillow gets all the bits it needs before the fabrics vanish into the winter project. Right now it's a contest.

Same approach for both projects: create blocks using three different fabrics for each, no two alike, and at the end assemble them in a good design.

Side goal: attempt to take breaks before back freezes into position causing flailing to stand up, followed by hobbling and groaning.  It's very hard to realize how much time has passed, is the hitch.

Tumbling blocks in progress

I'm assembling pleasing combos of diamonds to make the blocks, and once they're done I can see better how to assemble the whole thing.

Here's the start. It's going to take about 25 blocks for this pillow. Since each one is an artwork, it's really intriguing to make the choices. My eyes get tired with this fine work so I have to force myself to take breaks.

This is one of those projects that you can't wait to get home to do.

Rough draft, tumbling block design

Indian sari silk, Indonesian batik, Kaffe Fassett cotton getting along well.

Another pillow, for the other sofa! I have a lovely piece of cotton handspun for the backing. And probably a form lying around to stuff it with.

But first I have to cut and baste and stitch a lot more blocks. While I hear The Last Chronicles of Barset on audio.

Revisiting Trollope, including the DVD of marvelous BBC production from long ago, most of the principals dead now. So glad their performances are still available.

More Indian fabric

Continuing with the fabric caper, here's a lovely bundle of recycled sari silk, courtesy of Darn Good Yarn. It's pieces rescued from old saris rather than throw them away, and sold to appreciative buyers.

And see how the bundle was tied! It's not only frugal, it's joyful. Great combo. You can be very happy while frugal.

And here is the bundle unwrapped. Plenty of patchwork possibilities, maybe scarves, maybe something else to wear. Happy camper.

But here, bit there, adds up to an eventual artwork

At least, that's the plan.

Here are the last bits of the Kaffe Fassett scraps, basted ready to assemble,and  an experiment with some of the batik.

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The diamonds will be appliqued to something as soon as I decide what.

And the leaves, cut out from the batik, I'm handling differently from the epp method. I'm overstitching them just with finger pressing. This will create an edge that will work for applique.

Here you see, at the left lower corner of the pic, the back of one, with the seam allowance, and on the right, the front of another, with a crisp edge.

The velvet back of the pillow turns out to be a good background.  I'm thinking about doing kantha, running stitches over the motifs. It's similar to sashiko. I'm under the influence of the Indian exhibit l showed you. Or maybe goldwork. We'll see.

Such peaceful work in a day of terrible war crimes by our "president".  After doing all I can to support the vote, including voting this week, and a big bank of get out the vote work, this is a kind of self care. Along the lines of putting your own oxygen mask on first.

I've been saying it all along, art will save us. And it comes in all forms.

 Including, for me,  remembering,  in prayer and stitching,our Kurdish friends from long ago Wisconsin days,  Najdat and Rajiha, and their little daughter, now probably an old lady herself. 

Hoping they have survived and will continue to. Lost touch long ago but I've  never forgotten them.

The last of the pillow gang

So, staying with the silk motif, I made a pillow with the last of the rosettes, the strawberry one.


Appliqued it onto a beautiful silk square  hemstitched, as in drawn threadwork, courtesy of Mittens. The hemstitching worked a treat at keeping the piece square.

Lined with another silk scarf in white which I had leftover from teaching a workshop

and backed with a piece of a skirt I got at the thriftie years ago, wore and wore, and here it is. 

The great trick, aside from finding a backing that looks lovely with the strawberries, is that it's a button-through skirt. So I cut it so that (or such that, as my math friends like to say)  the button placket runs up the back of the pillow.

That way I could stitch the pillow closed all the way around, then open the buttons and insert the stuffing. Much easier than stuffing then stitching the last seam. And it's a design feature! It's invisible at this point unless you actually handle it and encounter the buttons.

At this point I think all the rosettes are gainfully employed. Their maker may be at a loose end. For the moment.

Great afternoon of Indian fabrics, embroidery, and painting demo at Plainsboro Library Gallery this afternoon. If you're local, it's up all month.

 Anita Kulkarni, architect/designer, curated the exhibit. See more about her at www.anitakulkarniatelier.com

Prashi Khade-Gurjar, a young architect/designer and painter, demonstrated the painting of Warli and Madhubani

The colors are stunning, wonderful silk weaving, embroidery, twenty three forms of fabrics and design in the show. It's an education in Indian fabric, its history and the meaning behind the images. These are just a few of the exhibited pieces.

If you can get to Plainsboro Library before the end of October, you'll enjoy it.

Summer project done

So here's the collection, stitched,

stuffed, and sorted.

Fronts

And backs

After all the snarling about velvet, which was much easier to stitch than cut, and the stuffing, upcycling old pillow innards, there being no budget for shopping, it all came out happily. Aside from the cotton batik, the fabrics are recycled linen and the accursed velvet.

So now I feel free to move on.

Nice show for the summer's learning.