summer sewing

A deadline is often the thing that brings be back to sewing when other things have prevented me from giving it the time I would like. I have been posting a bit of progress on this one on Instagram. The ease of process in posting a photo or two over there is working well with our all over the place summer schedule.

This recent cloth is a table runner - roughly 14" X 90", made with vintage and repurposed fabrics. The blue fabric is from a little indigo dye session last summer, just a quick dip in a weakening pot.

The back is a thrifted canvas drop cloth. It gives a wonderful weight to the runner, enough relief for a nice crinkle after the wash, and a lovely fringe on a raw edge. Just the quilt top and the drop cloth are a manageable thickness for both hand-stitching and machine-stitching. I really love the weight of this combination.

That's a Buttonbush branch above, my inspiration for the leaves and circle blooms. I am eager to get another portable project ready to roll. Our summer has been full of bike races and although this runner project was portable during the appliqué and hand-stitching stages, for the most part it was made at home.

Because, sometimes a bike race looks like this. Maybe time to start a little mud cloth.

Thread of Days into May

I started working on this post when the title would have been "...into April" and then lost my hold on that whole month.

Many bicycle related things going on: My husband and I have become more involved in our boys' bike team and really enjoying meeting new friends with a passion for being outdoors and nurturing a lifetime love of bike riding. We have spent some time nursing our 12 year old's broken collarbone, also bike related. In his new place on the sidelines, he has become a contributing member to many conversations and I have learned so much about him by just listening. But, one boy a bit broken and slowing down seems to have resulted in our other boy just going faster and faster. Oh. My. 

It's a very busy time, and my absolute favorite season. I can't get enough of all the green and being completely worn out from digging in dirt all day is really the best kind of tired. End of the year school activities are near, summer trips and visitors inching closer, and the garden growing faster than we can keep up with. These threads of days continue into green.Thanks so much to all who are still following along here, despite all my gaps in communication.

Thread of Days

January is gone! I started this in November right around Thanksgiving. A day spent in the creek at my parents' house started the fossils. Then a tangle of things after that.

I was inspired to work on a sort of journal kind of stitching after following the last few months of Lynn Harrigan's daily calendar project on Instagram. For one year, Lynn beautifully documented the weather and experiences of each day in thread.

This project of mine grows by week rather than by day. I really wanted to work on something about process. No pulling threads out or worrying too much about how it turns out, I will just keep drawing and stitching.

I wanted to put things I might put in a sketchbook directly onto the cloth and then stitch them into it. I have been using a bit of walnut ink saved from fall for the occasional shading.

My firstborn had his 12th birthday last week and on we go. I thought I would say a lot more about all the imagery, but I don't really need to now. January is gone and it's all I can do to keep up. It's all in the threads and that's the point.

Maybe just a bit about the most recent stitches...a memory of last weekend's walk by moonlight through the pasture and woods. An idea of my wonderful park ranger at heart husband. We had friends, kids, and dogs along with us and could see well enough with the moonlight reflected off the snow. 

The little drawing of the woven bits = just a fragment of some recent developments.