Author Archives: weaver

gypsy cloth

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Well, it’s done. My fingers ache from stitching, and I am pleased enough for a first effort.  I had gotten a bit muddled between what was supposed to be tacked and what was supposed to be quilted as the final step, so I made extra work for myself, blind tacking the back in places where I had already quilted the front.  Live and learn.

The moodiness of the colors appeals to me on a cold February night.  Winter might be here, at last, and these colors speak of dark nights and snug caravans.

I thought of adding beads, but that didn’t seem to suit.  What do you think about coins and bells?

zen gardens

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What if I did weave new cloth from all sorts of strips in soft grey, amethyst, lichen and moss colours? Then, what if I applique some irregular shapes and rake it with parallel lines of stitching throughout? Might it make an interesting garment?

I have just signed up for Jude Hill’s contemporary boro workshop. This may be my chance to explore out how this vision might come together.

My bookshelves are organized by color. It makes sense.  I would have to look up the author’s name most of the time, but I always seem to recall the colour of the binding. The gray books share a shelf with the purple ones.  Neither are popular colours for bindings..  I have more yellow books than any other colour.

Thinking out loud

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While I’ve been working on my gypsy cloth, I have been thinking about the next project.  I wonder if I have enough of these amethyst silk strips to weave a haori? Maybe if I make tight western sleeves rather than traditional japanese ones.

What if I embroidered some of it like this?

Just thinking out loud, just doing some digital embroidery.

More on the Gypsy Cloth

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I am enjoying the embellishment.

My straight-llne quilting is still very wobbly, but give me an interesting shape to follow and I have a better chance of creating ripples in the pond. Or lines raked in the gravel. Over the top of this chaotic gypsy cloth, I am making a zen garden, with lines and simple shapes.

Interesting how all the layers of my life come together in this cloth.

Going off in odd directions

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I’m still spinning thick and thin yarn out of muddy colors, and I have no idea what I will do with it.  My original idea was that it would become part of Dreaming Myself Awake, restful colors between brighter dreams.  I don’t think so. These are not meant to be lucid dreams, set against the background of a greyish-green winter. These are dreams so vivid and self-contained that they linger into wakefulness, that they become real.

That’s the way I see it today.  Tomorrow may be different, because I am changeable like that. Until I sit down at the loom and commit the threads into cloth, everything is subject to change. The muddy thick and thin may speak to me, may have a reason to return.

I just bought two pounds of black walnut dye, and I don’t even like the color brown. I am hoping to figure out how to dye fabric in a splotchy, streaky way, maybe sponging the dye on, or cramming too much fabric into a pot and pouring on the dye. I don’t know where this is headed, but I feel the need to follow it and explore it.

Some mornings, I dump my spent tea leaves on a piece of cloth and let them dry together.

Since I steep my leaves twice, there’s not much dye left in them.

Over time, the cloth takes on a soft and subtle color.

 

This morning, I sprinkled some of the ground black walnut hulls next to the tea. Hmmm…

If I were home now, I would have bags full of all sorts of weeds and leaves thatI I could use to make color on fabric.

I am also thinking about rust again…

 

 

Stuck in the fog

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My gypsy cloth seems a bit stuck right now. This is the problem with taking a solo class; there’s no one to bounce ideas off. I could email the instructor, but I’m not stuck on technique. It’s the lack of vision. I don’t know where the piece is going or what it means.

I know that it refuses to be a small purse, my original plan for it. It wants to be part of a banner, but I am having trouble seeing that or having the right fabric for it. Would I continue the same garish palette, flattened to the same muddy tones? Would some contrasts help, like black, white, gray and soft lavender? Maybe that.

See, it does help to talk about it.

Pausing to remember an extraordinary cat

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A few hours after I wrote my New Year’s Day post, my beloved Amber cat passed away. She would have turned seventeen later this month. Indigo kitten and I are still adjusting to life without our gentle little brown cat.

Amber was sweet, serious, and she had just enough spice to keep her from being too perfect.  For years, we had a gentle disagreement over the wicker chairs.  She liked to scratch them.  I always cautioned her that ‘nice cats don’t.’ She would look over her shoulder at me, scratching away at one of the chairs the whole time, silently asking, “Who says I’m a nice cat?” I found that incredibly endearing.

I loved her instinctive understanding of what was important to me. Remember this photo? I had just taken this cloth from the loom, and she had to be there, napping, as I hemmed it.

May Bastet protect her and guide her on her journey.

Reflections and ripples in the pond of thought

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What if…

What if I did combine handwoven wool and cloth-woven silk? Maybe not these exact pieces, but the contrasts of directionality and scale are exciting.  Meta weaving juxtaposed with weaving…

Depending on the direction that Dreaming Myself Awake takes (that’s the project that’s slowly gathering in my planning basket), I might be able to use the Gypsy Cloth as part of it.

By the way, that’s Indigo Sapphire, my adorable Birman kitten.  She and Amber get along very well, and I am hoping that Amber will explain to her that “Weaver ALWAYS does that fabric thing and there’s no reason to get so excited about it.”  Until then, life moves at kitten speed, with lots of movement and excitement. Everything is a cat toy, including me.

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The bliss continues. I am still working on my gypsy cloth. I chose this piece of shibori silk for the lining. Even though it won’t be seen much at all, it’s a fun piece of cloth and I’ll know it’s there.

I enjoy working with silk. This is a very simple shibori technique. I wrapped small stones in the silk and secured them with rubber bands, and then dipped the whole thing into the dye. I love the way the surface of the stone cools the dye and creates a pale area in each motif.

On the front of the gypsy cloth, I cut out a circle and put it back with a different orientation. There will be various circles incorporated into the cloth. Circles have a lot of meaning in my life. They are containers for energy and emotions. A circle happens when we join hands with the people we hold dear. So many important events in my life have taken place in a circle. The Shaker hymn, Simple Gifts, makes me want to dance in a circle.

To turn, turn will be our delight, till by turning, turning we come ’round right.

It will take some time until this gypsy cloth comes ’round right. I am still deciding about embellishments. Then there are all those running stitches to quilt the cloth and lining together. While I am thinking about all that, I am going back to the basics of cloth to cloth.

This woven block is so different. The colors harmonize, for a start. It’s also very shaggy, because these strips of waste fabric were from the places where the weaver was adjusting the loom or changing colors.

The little shibori moon is just resting there. It may join the fabric, or not.

Thus ends another year. May your new year be filled with color, texture and harmony. May the threads come together with meaning and the cloth speak the truth that is in our hearts.