I had the best weekend. I completed 10 tiny quilts. There are images of four of them below. I am on fire with these things. It has been a long time....10 years to be exact....since I have been this motivated to do my own work. Now that I have started, I keep having more and more ideas. The photo transfers are inspiring the pieces now. I have a very ample fabric stash and am actually cutting into it....I have been in the collecting mode for 10 years.
In some ways, I felt that I was saving the fabric for something....I think I have found it.
I am not sure what I am going to do with all these pieces. I have three piles right now....keepers....gifts.....and "seconds". I don't want to have a craft business right now. Bookkeeping is not my strong suit and I have a day job that pays the bills. I sure am enjoying making them.
Monday, March 31, 2008
tunnel tiny quilts
These are some tiny quilts that I finished last week using the tunnel lights images that my friend, Tamra, took on a trip to China last year. She was snapping away while going through a tunnel in Shanghi from the Bund to the other side of a bay.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Amy's fabrics
Amy at Red Fish Circle was so kind to post some of my Flickr images on her blog today. I rushed home for lunch and took some images of some of the finished tiny quilts. I am enjoying her Kaufman lines of fabric: Creatures and Critters and On a Whim.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Blogs that inspire me!
Gunnel nominated me for an award for creating a blog that "brings me inspiration and makes me appreciate the blogosphere." In turn, I am naming the ten blogs that inspire me.
Michelle C Moode at http://millionsofpeoplehappy.blogspot.com/
Cathy Cullis at http://www.novembermoon.com/
Christina Romeo at http://dogwoodstudio.blogspot.com/
Amy Schimler at http://www.redfishcircle.blogspot.com/
Sara at http://thefabricofmeditation.blogspot.com/
Jude at http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/
Nancy Blevins at http://www.motleymutton.com/ I had purchased one of her possum necklaces at another shop in West Virginia last year.
Mimi Kirchner at http://mimikirchner.com/blog/
Elaine Lipson at Red Thread Studio: Slow Cloth, New Cloth, Art Cloth at http://lainie.typepad.com/redthread/
and of course, Gunnel at http://gunnelsvensson.blogspot.com/
Ok, for my eleventh one I should include http://www.etsy.com/ which started all of this for me. I spent a lot of time surfing on Etsy and discovered many of the artists mentioned above, including Cathy Cullis, Michelle Moode and Christina Romeo. Then I found Flickr, then I found their blogs and started my own Flickr site and blog. I have only had both sites up for a month now, but already I feel like I have a much larger community than I did a month ago. Thank you Gunnel for including my blog in your list and enjoy meeting the bloggers who have inspired me!
Michelle C Moode at http://millionsofpeoplehappy.blogspot.com/
Cathy Cullis at http://www.novembermoon.com/
Christina Romeo at http://dogwoodstudio.blogspot.com/
Amy Schimler at http://www.redfishcircle.blogspot.com/
Sara at http://thefabricofmeditation.blogspot.com/
Jude at http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/
Nancy Blevins at http://www.motleymutton.com/ I had purchased one of her possum necklaces at another shop in West Virginia last year.
Mimi Kirchner at http://mimikirchner.com/blog/
Elaine Lipson at Red Thread Studio: Slow Cloth, New Cloth, Art Cloth at http://lainie.typepad.com/redthread/
and of course, Gunnel at http://gunnelsvensson.blogspot.com/
Ok, for my eleventh one I should include http://www.etsy.com/ which started all of this for me. I spent a lot of time surfing on Etsy and discovered many of the artists mentioned above, including Cathy Cullis, Michelle Moode and Christina Romeo. Then I found Flickr, then I found their blogs and started my own Flickr site and blog. I have only had both sites up for a month now, but already I feel like I have a much larger community than I did a month ago. Thank you Gunnel for including my blog in your list and enjoy meeting the bloggers who have inspired me!
Monday, March 24, 2008
Wild flower baby quilt
I got to spend yesterday working on a wild flower baby quilt for my new grandson, Jack. I am very pleased with how it is coming along. The photo transfer images include skunk cabbages, spring beauties, wild iris, toad trillium, red trillium and two images of luna moths. All the photo transfers were done with Electric Quilt cotton lawn photo transfer cloth. I have experimented with many types of transfer media and I have found this to be the most colorfast.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
wildflower quilt
It is beginning to be spring here and I was out looking for wildflowers last weekend. I have many images of wildflowers that I have taken over the years and have begun work on a larger piece that will include many of them. I started with the images of the skunk cabbages. They are the earliest wildflower I found when I lived in the northern mountains of West Virginia. I don't think that they grow here in the Kanawha Valley.
These pieces started out as tiny quilts, then I started putting them together with some other images and I think I will make my grandson another baby quilt. The earlier baby quilts that I made before he was born were backed with two layers of organic cotton flannel and then machine quilted. I had not washed the flannel, so they wrinkled up beautifully when I washed them with the flannel shrinking up a bit. I think that texture will work well with the border fabrics that I am using for this piece.
These pieces started out as tiny quilts, then I started putting them together with some other images and I think I will make my grandson another baby quilt. The earlier baby quilts that I made before he was born were backed with two layers of organic cotton flannel and then machine quilted. I had not washed the flannel, so they wrinkled up beautifully when I washed them with the flannel shrinking up a bit. I think that texture will work well with the border fabrics that I am using for this piece.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Ancient History
These images are of a sweater that I made in the early 80's while I was staying home with my young daughter. The yarn is handspun two-ply Finn wool in natural sheep colors and the blue is indigo dyed. One of the patterns is called Dancing Grannies.
I had the extreme good fortune to take a knitting class with Elizabeth Zimmerman after I was already a big fan of her work and books. She was a wonderful, generous teacher and I followed her instructions to design my own sweater in this traditional style. I knit it on circular needles and cut through the steeks (sp?) on the front and added the front opening. I found the perfect old acorn buttons at a flea market.
I am so excited to see a whole new generation of young women falling in love with spinning and knitting. I would have loved to have access to blogging at that time in my life. I read over and over again in blogs and on Etsy that they are making things while staying at home with young children, like I did. I have been inspired by them to create this blog and have become excited again about creating my own work.
I had the extreme good fortune to take a knitting class with Elizabeth Zimmerman after I was already a big fan of her work and books. She was a wonderful, generous teacher and I followed her instructions to design my own sweater in this traditional style. I knit it on circular needles and cut through the steeks (sp?) on the front and added the front opening. I found the perfect old acorn buttons at a flea market.
I am so excited to see a whole new generation of young women falling in love with spinning and knitting. I would have loved to have access to blogging at that time in my life. I read over and over again in blogs and on Etsy that they are making things while staying at home with young children, like I did. I have been inspired by them to create this blog and have become excited again about creating my own work.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
work in progress
One of the things that I have been working on for a while is a wedding gift for my friend, Nancy, here are a few studies that I did last week. These studies are placemat size, the wall piece will be much larger, so this how I decided to work out the layout and color placement. I think I like the one with the squares offset and the circles lined up. The whole piece is inspired by a plate that Nancy, a potter, made. The plate will hang beside the wall hanging on their new fireplace.
I used wonder-under to place the circles in the squares and then stitched around the circles to secure them. I think I will stitch into the circles more to "draw" with some rayon threads to tie the piece together a little more.
Again working in a small scale is really pleasing to me. Twenty-five years ago, I was a spinner and weaver trying to make a living selling my work at craft shows. That was truely the slow cloth craft time. When my daughter started kindergarden, I went back to college and got a master's degree in art and taught part time at Marshall University after I graduated. I wove a lot of 3' x 5' bound weave, krobragd rugs during my time at school. I loved weaving, but could not figure out a way to be a full time weaver. I used to joke that I had a master's degree in something that was replaced by the industrial revolution 300 years ago!
I have not done much weaving for a few years the last rug was a wedding gift for my daughter. I think that was about three years ago. I dyed all the weft yarn with natural dyes, much of it indigo. I was pleased with how it turned out. I will have to get a picture of it to post.
I used wonder-under to place the circles in the squares and then stitched around the circles to secure them. I think I will stitch into the circles more to "draw" with some rayon threads to tie the piece together a little more.
Again working in a small scale is really pleasing to me. Twenty-five years ago, I was a spinner and weaver trying to make a living selling my work at craft shows. That was truely the slow cloth craft time. When my daughter started kindergarden, I went back to college and got a master's degree in art and taught part time at Marshall University after I graduated. I wove a lot of 3' x 5' bound weave, krobragd rugs during my time at school. I loved weaving, but could not figure out a way to be a full time weaver. I used to joke that I had a master's degree in something that was replaced by the industrial revolution 300 years ago!
I have not done much weaving for a few years the last rug was a wedding gift for my daughter. I think that was about three years ago. I dyed all the weft yarn with natural dyes, much of it indigo. I was pleased with how it turned out. I will have to get a picture of it to post.
Monday, March 10, 2008
snowy saturday in the studio
Saturday turned out to be the best day yet in my little studio. It snowed outside all day and I had the whole day to play with fabric and drank tea. I worked on the tidal pool series and actually completed 5 pieces in that series. I have one of the images below as a work in progress. I printed four 3" x 5" size images of a tidal pool and added some strip pieced fabric to each. I then put the four units together in a "spiral" and was pretty happy with the result.
The other tiny quilt uses an image that my friend, Tamra, took in China last year. It is a gate leading into a bonsi garden. I just framed it with some cloth that I found in the stash. No strip piecing needed....it quilted up nicely too. I bound it with a solid gray fabric, everything else I tried just did not add to the work visually, too busy.
One of the beautiful things about these tiny quilts is that I actually can and do finish each one in a few hours. I will try to get some good images of the competed work and post them later. The whole process is delighting me.
The other tiny quilt uses an image that my friend, Tamra, took in China last year. It is a gate leading into a bonsi garden. I just framed it with some cloth that I found in the stash. No strip piecing needed....it quilted up nicely too. I bound it with a solid gray fabric, everything else I tried just did not add to the work visually, too busy.
One of the beautiful things about these tiny quilts is that I actually can and do finish each one in a few hours. I will try to get some good images of the competed work and post them later. The whole process is delighting me.
Tunnel lights
The images below were taken by my friend Tamra on a trip to China last year. She took a train that went through a tunnel under a bay between the Bund and another part of Shanghi snapping all the way. When she got back from her trip, she brought her image to my house and we spent the evening looking through 2,000 images. This series......29 images in all.....are ripe for photo transfer onto cloth and then to be pieced into tiny quilts. I printed the first 16 this weekend and have to let the ink set for a few days before I dive in to this series. As they say, the possibilities are endless.
Friday, March 7, 2008
Gypsy Wagons and Yurts
These images are from my library....inspiration..... Part of the reason that I call this blog gypsy wagons is because I decided to make a series of doll house size gypsy wagons, tipis and yurts. I have collected tiny things for doll making for years and it is time to get moving on some of these ideas that have been perking along in my mind.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Victorian Wheeling Trailer Teacosy
This teacosy was made in 2001. A line of fabric called Victorian Wheeling had come out while I was a quilt designer for Cabin Creek Quilts. The designs were inspired by Victorian era homes in Wheeling, West Virginia. Later, I rented an apartment in one of those homes and rain poured into the living room when it rained. My landlord was not able to fix the roof and I had to find another apartment. So the Victorian Wheeling Trailer Teacosy was my response to that living experience. I had also lived in a tiny travel trailer like this in California in the mid 70's. So, I guess this is a combination of those two living experiences. This was my first textile gypsy wagon! I still have the cosy!
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Tea bowl
I started working on a series of tiny quilts based on an image of a tea bowl that was just taken from a wood fired kiln in China. The potter who made this bowl owned a tea house that specialized in pureh tea. A group of us went to this tea house to drink tea in the evenings. You would buy a brick or disk of this special tea and then they would store it for you at the tea house and serve it to you when you visited. It was a very lovely way to spend an evening.
Monday, March 3, 2008
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