sensitive edge

This is a little whole cloth quilt - leaves hand stitched and stars machine stitched - with a bit of flannel for batting. I made one very similar and then this one to work on a few things I learned from the first one and so I will go towards the next ones with what I have learned from this.

I am really so excited about this edge. A sensitive edge maybe?

But for today - my biggest sweetest boy is eleven.  We will be busy preparing and partying these next few days.

More stitching next week.

purple

The purple asters are beautiful this year.

I took a little bloom with me to match the colors for thread.

I think there will be more blooms.

quietly there

The shell shapes I am stitching these days are based on what I see in my favorite and frequently visited creek beds. They are typically small in size except for the rarely seen larger ones.

Noticeably greater in size, but just as quietly there in the water as the others.

This cloth is growing into something - everything all together.

this past weekend

this past weekend - peace and perfect weather for stitching outside

but we are back from this place and right in the middle of a busy in many good ways kind of week.

Be back soon...

what I imagine

I have this drawn out in my head as I want it to look. I can see it. The stitches are slowly becoming what I imagine them to be and I am happy. The act of taking it from my head and bringing it out through my hands brings a calm focus to everything. I feel more myself.

a corner

a bit of green

I have started stitching around some goatsbeard leaves. They are many-toothed so there are many stitches. I am thinking about more contrast and plotting out areas full of stitches alongside areas of none.  I had moved towards browns and golds - thinking of fall. 

I went out to look at the goatsbeard plants yesterday and have a closer look at the veins of the leaves. The very hot and unusually dry summer has left nearly all of our perennial plants looking burned and brown. On the goatsbeard I noticed brand new bright green growth at the base of several of the plants, because we have finally had some rain these last few weeks.

and so I was inspired to add a bit of green.

But... the pale stitches reminds me more of a light frost, which I admit I have spent a bit of time daydreaming about because of the chiggers. I am done with the wicked late summer chiggers.

more than ever

I had thought when I started this I would try to leave more areas with less stitching - this would be a test of that. But the stitches just became more and more. More than ever maybe.

and I love it this way. This is what I do.

knots and dew drops

Green coneflower leaves this morning...

and a new way of working out the fringe on things. The stitching thread goes on as a part of it all to the ends. Still in progress...

Maple Summer Sunshine

I never intended to be away from this blog all summer. We have been quite busy spending lots of time getting to know this little lady, Maple. She has been with us two months now.

Keeping up with her puppy energy and love for outside has made for a wonderful summer. We are crazy about her.

We have had hot dry weather and hot hot sunshine all summer and so it brought me back around to the paint printing again. Hot sun makes a sharp print. I had been thinking on ways to do things differently - pushing all my favorite elements to coexist. Working towards the many threads of ideas here and there all coming together. I have worked on softening some of the colors.

 

Stitch had begun on a small scale - to try some new construction and work a few things out. 

Everything is shifting here very soon. School will start and I am grateful to have a little pup to keep me company. Thanks to all who are still listening and looking.

relationship

My son made this wonderful ceramic dish in art class at school. It has a rough bottom so he helped me design a little quilt for it to sit on. 

It has me thinking that I like the idea of stitching a cloth to compliment another specific handmade object - creating a relationship between the two. 

un square

I go back and forth about how to treat the edges of things. For things that will be put to use and need to be washed I want a finished edge - but when it's done I find it often seems too harsh. I experimented on this one with finished edges but I didn't square things up and I think it helped soften it a bit - and then even more with the fringe. There's lots of room to explore in the area of not so square edges and I am thinking on that.

It has made it through the first washing and the crinkle! I think the crinkle makes it a quilt.