textures quilted and washed

I logged in to write a new post after so long away from this place and found these photos waiting without words. 

So, here they are as a little note to myself on materials and process - that crinkle of the crispest cottons after a wash and dry.

A whole new year is full of expectations, and making the first mark on a new canvas is always a little intimidating, but here we go. Hello, again.

color journal II :: yellow in April

The forsythia just off our front porch is in full bloom.

 The daffodils are going all out too.

I have been busy indoors with some serious spring cleaning. Hoping to wrap it up soon and get back to more stitching as there are so many unfinished projects being unearthed as I tidy.

I have managed to find time to paint one fabric block a day along with The 100 Day Project (began April 6) and have been posting these over at my Instagram page. It's been great fun and I hope to say a bit more about that soon.

color journal II :: another one for March

It's sleeting outside every few minutes as I type but this past weekend was beautiful. I have stitched a block inspired by colors I found on Sunday morning.

British Soldiers lichen. Lipstick lichen. Matchstick moss/lichen.

A miniature fairytale landscape.

color journal II :: a few blocks into March

It snowed about 9 inches on the first day of March. Then, it all melted away under bluebird skies and a few warm days. Thank goodness for the blue in the sky...

because now we have some serious mud. I love this lone purple crocus in the middle of all the mud. It's kind of funny to post photos of mud, but this is how it is.

I am cutting squares of all the green I can find. I would like to make one more block for March and I would love for it to be made entirely of green and maybe a bit of blue sky.

Linda at Looktothisday is also working on color blocks by month. You can see her lovely March blocks here.

color journal II :: February blocks

Oh well, I will tidy tomorrow. I decided to start this before February ends. White snow, gray shadows, blue skies and brown remains of the plants.

color journal II

I have a lot of fabric I hold on to for mostly sentimental reasons. Much of it vintage print scraps given to me by my grandmother. I very rarely use printed fabric in what I make so I have given some of it away but I swear the odd shaped little crumpled scraps multiply when I am not looking.  So color journal II is born of needing to deal with this. I haven't finished quilting the first color journal quilt, but oh well - back to that later. Block by block still seems like the best way to end up with a quilt sized cloth and I love just working by color without over thinking it.

See first set of possible winter colors above. Freezing cold and snow with frozen mud underneath don't seem so bad when thinking of it only as color like this. It soothes the late winter mood, but still I will be daydreaming of the green. The clear blue sky days hold it all together no matter what the season.

I have a whole bunch of stitching going on but I can't find the words for any of it. My workspace is long overdue for a tidy and I am hoping that will help with the cluttered mind as well.

there will be green

I am working on something lighthearted and green. Faint light in the sky at 7 a.m. this morning carried me through a cold day. We hope to do a little bit of skiing first, but spring is coming.

patchwork yardage by color

I am trying to work on organizing the studio for a new year and new intentions, trying to make sense of what stays and what goes. I have been thinking it might be worthwhile to piece together fabrics of similar colors into larger cloth.  Hoping this will be easier than dealing with all the loose scraps and starting from scratch for a cloth base for every new idea. Nothing too fussy but maybe lining things up now and then if it makes sense. Not a new idea to work ahead this way, but new for me especially at this scale. I hope to go big.

I think it will smooth out my process a bit if I can work on these larger cloths now and then, preparing base cloth for more detailed stitching. I can cut from them as needed and continue to add to them during the in-between.

Piecing the bits together is a wonderful process in itself, not thinking too hard about what goes where, choosing fabrics based mostly on their color and pressing seams as I go. I have found fabric I forgot I had. I am really hoping this bit of working ahead will help me dive right into an idea with the cloth piecing bit already under way.

just that forgotten work shirt I have been saving for years...

This woven cotton work shirt finally made it a few steps closer to what I have been saving it for. I have been thinking of adding detail to cloth with cloth that already has the elements I like and with a little reconstruction - will create the patterns I want.

The back is so nice with the extra interest made by the allowance lines - flipping the angle the other way again. No striped work shirt is safe now, forgotten or not.

let there be green

I need more green fabric to finish the last two blocks for the color journal quilt. I painted some beige fabric that I already had with moss green Pebeo Setacolor Transparent fabric paint. I have been using this paint since the boys were very little. It is non-toxic and that was important as they were always close by. I still love to use this paint. I add some of the paint to a jar of water and then can keep what I don't use for later. A wide foam brush works well to apply to damp cotton fabric.

The paint will migrate to high points and edges - so interesting things can be done there. Folding will also create lovely effects.

Iron both sides of dry fabric on cotton setting to heat set.

Circles Blue

It's beginning to look like the blue will be what holds this all together...

Inside of a Circle

There are many scraps of fabric that my Grandma gave me that I have never been sure how I would ever use - for whatever reason they just did not appeal to me. I could also never imagine getting rid of them - I keep them because they belonged to her and I can imagine she touched them and looked through them as I do. I have a funny thought about these fabrics - what if my Grandma didn't care for them either and she held on to them for so long because some of them may have belonged to her mother. Of course there is also the fact that when these fabrics belonged to my Great Grandma and even when they belonged to my Grandma - you saved things like used curtains and pillowcases to make something else later on.


I am pretty sure this blue fabric was once a pillowcase - it's one of those pieces I was never sure how to use, maybe a little too feminine. But working on this circle sampler has helped me to see these fabrics in a whole new way. Cropping out one circle at a time - there are all kinds of interesting little areas within the repeating patterns...


I have also added some smaller circles to mix it up a bit - and rotating the stripe patterns where they overlap. I can see this becoming an ongoing long term project and a larger size quilt top than I first had in mind... I am really enjoying working on it.

Results From a Sewing Kind of Sunday...

We had a nice quiet kind of day yesterday and I was able to get some sewing time in. I pieced these little squares and got things rolling on something new. The patterned fabric squares (about 1.5 " square before sewing) are from my collection from Grandma. The charcoal linen is from a repurposed men's shirt. Details on what this will become on a later day...


I also spent some time on my current end of the day bedside table project - adding hand stitched details to the little Bluebird quilt. I have been stitching loose threads into little thread sketches and squiggles. It has been very enjoyable and is helping me get to know this little quilt again after letting it rest for awhile now...

Wood Block + Paint

Just SO restless today. Have some time to sew and can't seem to focus on any of the projects I have going. Finally decided to get the paints out and print some bits of fabric with the little scrap bin woodblock.