Materialistic

When I take a break between quilting projects I often select fabrics, threads and other elements that I want to work with and look at them for a while. Seeing what I have to work with first gives me a chance to let ideas and inspiration come to me from the materials. This pile is what I sat and stared at for a few hours tonight.

This piece of black and peach cotton is super thin -- almost gossamer, like a veil -- and has a beautiful feel to it. The boldness of the dye patterns and the fragility of the fabric are very appealing to me.

This gray, black and dark purple synthetic piece has the same dramatic look to it, but it's much heavier and slithery. I picked it up a few times so I could let it run through my hands -- it's got a lovely feel to it.

The other large pieces of hand-dyed fabric I chose for my viewing pile are cottons of different ages and weights. Both have antique sepia tones in different values. The patterns are much more subtle on these, but very pleasing.

I want to try using this green tea-dyed twine as an element -- I really liked the effect of the avocado-dyed twine on my last art quilt. By the time I finished my brooding session I decided against making all of these materials into a series of small art quilted pieces. I want to combine them into a lap quilt top -- I'm just not sure how yet.

I wasn't idle while I was looking at my future project materials. As I was thinking I also hand-sewed a piece of blue canvas and muslin with some scrap batting and did some stitch practice to see if I could control six strands of cotton floss while making one of my circular feather-stitched mandalas.

Small practice pieces like these are why I never need coasters at my house. I also discovered that six-stranded floss can be controlled with a big-eyed needle and a steady hand, but I can't use the long lengths I usually do with embroidery.