The Vignette Quilt Along

 I stumbled across the Vignettes Quilt by Heidi Parkes on Instagram.  I immediately purchased the pattern.  I love  Heidi's work and also welcomed the idea of learning more about the principles of art.  I have been exposed to some of the terms and basics in other classes but never have had a good understanding of them.

Whether designing intuitively or approaching a design with a plan we all use the same six elements of art.

Line, color, shape, form, texture, value and form.  I am using this quilt along as an opportunity to reframe some childhood moments and memories.

In this vignette, there is some oriental fabric representing Naha, Okinawa where I was born and Taiwan where we also lived.  The dark blue fabric represents  depression, mine and other family members  The drunkard's path quilt block reflects a family predisposition.  On a happier note, the gingham represents dresses loving sewn by my mother for me.

Misty was the first movie I ever watched in a theater and the only one I remember going to with my mother.  I was five and cried hard for Misty!

Sunbonnet Sue is an example of appropriation.  I found two blocks at a flea market in Asheville recently. I slept under a Sunbonnet Sue quilt with royal blue sashing for much of my childhood.

This remnant from an old quilt was a gift from the class I took with Helen Geglio.  I chose this to represent my father.  It is made from shirting fabrics and his favorite color was red.  You can also see some vintage lace trim. 

Some indigo dyed lace trim for more texture and the tape measure fabric on the left for growing up and for always being the tallest in the class in elementary school.

I am enjoying this QAL and especially all of Heidi's prompts that encouraging sharing our images and commenting on each other's work.  Looking forward to adding some intuitive embroidery and hand quilting to this.  Quilt on friends.

The Unknown Quilter

 Today my work took me to Durham.  Instead of eating lunch I went to one of my favorite places.  The Scrap Exchange is an arts recycle and re-use center.  I love this place, whether you are a knitter, weaver, quilter, basket maker or just a curious type it is a great place to explore.

Today, I was so excited to find these.  There are only six and the mint green background fabric looks a little dingy.  I would love to know how old they are.

Hexies carefully handstitched.  In the pictures below you can see the needle and thread still tucked into the fabric.

What happened?  Did the quilter lose interest?  Did a family member sort through a loved one's belongings and donate them?

Last but not least are these star blocks.  The stars look to be made of men's shirting fabrics.  Again, how old are these?  What is this quilter's story.  Somehow it gives me pleasure to honor these unknown quilters by finishing these.

Big Emotions and Small Comforts

 Last week was a very long work week.  It had the requisite 5 days but instead of forty hours it was sixty and felt like one hundred.  I spent the week in far western NC.  We were in court all week in a contentious hearing.  It was emotional and stressful.  Made worse by the flash flooding and leaving my suitcase back home in Sanford.  Oops!

I as usual was in awe of the mountains and the beauty of Haywood County.  However, that did not solve the problem of no underwear, medications, toiletries or craft supplies.  I shopped for the necessities but had no opportunity to grab any craft supplies.  The night before leaving, I had prepared some hexies and packed all the sewing basics.  I was looking forward to this relief after each day in court.  I missed the small and not so small comforts I use to ground myself each day.

My people, my animals and handwork of some sort.  I bought a quilting magazine at a local grocery store.  That was as close as I got to crafting all week.  We finished up Friday at 1:00 pm and I prepared for my five hour drive home in Labor day weekend traffic.  I knew a soul restoring stop was required.  Asheville Cotton Company

Measuring and Folding Nine Yards of Fabric

This store is definitely worth going out of your way to visit.  An extensive fabric collection, friendly and knowledgeable staff and lots of notions and books.  It restored me for the trip home.  Never again will I underestimate the importance of craft to my day to day sense of wellness!  Quilt and weave on dear ones!

I cannot count my day complete
'Til needle, thread and fabric meet.
~Author Unknown

Practicing in the Gap: Day One

 Otis and I are planning a new tapestry, wedge weave of course!

We needed to pull some yarns first and choose a loom.

Tidewater Yarns

Coastal Plain Yarns

Piedmont Yarns

Mountain Yarns

Warped and Ready to Weave!

Who helps you plan your tapestries ?

Staying Connected

I am laying on my couch procrastinating, you know the feeling.  There is a long list of to do items and my inner pajama clad toddler wants nothing to do with any of that grownup stuff.  I want to stay comfy on the couch looking at pretty tapestry stuff on my tablet.  A waste of time you say... I think not.

In my direct field of vision is this tapestry hanging on the wall.  Holding Space.  I thoroughly enjoyed planning this,  dyeing the yarn and weaving it.  The fingers are itching to weave again.  My quilting is a lovely way of working feelings out in a textile and tangible way but lacks the gravitas of tapestry weaving for me.

Holding Space

I specify for me as for others who painstakingly quilt thousands of tiny pieces by hand with much precision I am sure there is gravitas.  Crap!  I am not using that word correctly. Webster defines gravitas as dignity, seriousness, or solemnity of manner.   What I mean is that for me tapestry is Slow and Hard! 

 The tapestry muse left several months ago, the desire to weave evaporated.  What remained however was a lovely bunch of connections to the tapestry world.  Friends on Facebook and Instagram, lovely new books on tapestry by Tommye and Rebecca and new work by my friends at Tapestry Weavers South.  These connections kept me pulled into my love of tapestry without weaving.  Not ideal but I will take it.

Quilting provided a different way to look at color, value and proportion and confirmed some things I know about myself.  I will continue to quilt and explore improvisational quilting and let it inform my weaving. 

Love is Not A Victory March

For now, baby steps back into my tapestry.

My Selfie; Disgruntled State Employee 

I will be practicing in the gap with my tapestry.  What gap you say... Well the gap between my taste in tapestry and my ability to weave it.  Ira Glass describes it this way

"Nobody tells this to people who are beginners. I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this.

We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It’s only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through."

Okay, tapestry is hard and slow and I have to be willing to suck  fail!  Got it!

Please Don't Feed the Bears-Arrowmont

 Last Sunday I drove up to Arrowmont for my much anticipated class with textile artist,  Helen Geglio.  The class "The Keeper's Quilt" was about using treasured textiles in a newly designed quilt.

This is my fifth visit to Arrowmont and it is something I look forward to each year.  My only disappointment year after year was never seeing first hand the much lauded black bear visit.  But during lunch one day, two bears ambled through.  They did not approach us even though we were eating about 30 to 40 yards away at the picnic tables outside.  What a treat!

The class was exactly what I hoped it would be, a relaxing yet deep dive into using old textiles and hand stitch.  Helen is a knowledgeable and generous instructor, both in sharing her design process and materials.

One of my favorite aspects of the class was seeing her work close up and working with an old quilt with fabrics from the turn of the century and the 30s and 40s.

There is a whole back story about the fictional Hesperia, the maker of the old quilt Helen brought for us to use.

The class was small, only six of us.  It was a really pleasant group of like minded people of all ages.

Helen had us do some small samplers to practice some techniques.  My first was titled "Night Watch" .

We all worked then on a primary project.  Here are some in progress shots of mine, "Three Sisters".

Here are some of the other projects from our class.

Delightful Dilemma

 Last year my annual trip to Arrowmont was canceled due to COVID.  That makes this year's trip all the more precious.  I am taking Cloth, Needle and Stitch: The Keeper's Quilt with Helen Geglio.  I have been collecting old pieces of quilts, lace and trim.  This weekend I did some natural dyeing.

Osage Orange

Logwood

It did not take long to dye my way through seven yards of linen and some commercial text print fabric.

My array of purples and gold

I also took some of the leftover dye stuff and steamed some wrapped bundles for some variations.

I threw some yarn into the pots for fun.

For the dilemma, do I approach the class with a plan...there are so many possibilities ?  Or do I pack up a bunch of odds and ends and see what happens. 

What a lovely problem to have.