monkey hands

wings from a broken heart

I just noticed, while playing with scraps and shapes, that a broken heart can become wings to fly

some kantha stitching for ground under their feet, and to help hold the cloth together

both with a nod to Jude Hill at Spirit Cloth 

Morphing Beast; Teaching: Third H.S. Quilt Finished

This little beastie started out with an odd kind of menacing face that never seemed right (see the before face here). A small scrap of fabric and a new face later, this little beast now seems more friendly, even a bit curious. With an ode to Jude Hill's "Beasts" class, and now the Spirit Diaries Course, online, more info here at Spirit Cloth. Check out "Classes".

Tomorrow, after living and working in Beijing for two years, I return to teaching--part time, not full time anymore-- at Keene State College. With temperatures in the teens during the day and the single or negative numbers at night, it's going to be a rude start for an 8am course. Nevertheless, it will be good to be back on campus with colleagues and students, and I'll still have time for fiber and textile work/play.

These generous folks:  

made most the blocks or longarm quilted this great quilt, now on its way to a happy recipient!

Here's to the generous world-wide community of quilters, including longarmer Phyllis Dewey of Quilter's Pantry! Three quilts are totally finished, two more are quilted and waiting to be bound, one more is pieced to send off for quilting, and the blocks pressed for the seventh and final quilt, soon to be squared, cut, and stitched together.  

Flying Turtles, Rainbow Quilt, Leaving Soon

flying across the moon

Stitching continues on my Diary Cloth  (one of  Jude Hill's inspiring online course at Spirit Cloth). It's a relaxing way to begin to process change and transition. 

part of the diary cloth

I think flying turtle is leading the way home!

rainbow quilt for, and designed by, a very special niece

The top is finished, and just in time to pack and thento pass along to Phyllis Dewey, longarm quilter at Quilter's Pantry, when I get back.

stuff accumulated over the past two years

workers from Roundabout picking up donations for migrant workers and their families

Roundabout Organization is an NGO in Beijing. They run a store similar to Salvation Army or Goodwill in the U.S., and also donate goods to people in need, which includes the 14 million migrant workers living and working in Beijing.  

The so-called "migrant workers" are Chinese, but don't have a hukou (offical government papers allowing them to live in a city other than their rural hometown).

Migrant workers have few rights and often little access to public schools, healthcare, or other social services. These guys were great sports who pick up our air filters, my post-surgery-for-the-broken-foot gear, household goods, and so on. 

Plodding Toward China

I've slowly been making minor progress. Turtle now has claws to cling more firmly to the freshly seeded (stitched) ground, and also newly embellished wings for soaring.

my view from a Tucson coffee shop

Meanwhile, I've been working my way back to Beijing via some family time in Oakland, Ca, Tucson, and now San Francisco for a night before taking off for China tomorrow morning.

cacti in post office parking lot

Next steps may be a cactus behind Turtle, and an ocean in front...ongoing work as part of Jude Hill's inspiring Spirit Cloth Diaries class at Spirit Cloth.

 

Just Stitching

A little stitch sampler--practicing my stitches from Karen Ruane's great online course (link in sidebar).

These little patchwork-type grids are more Jude Hill ( of Spirit Cloth) inspired.

 

Seeing (and Sewing) Beasts

When I first glanced this poorly dyed (lots of bleeding and smudging) linen batik in Muxiyuan, the large wholesale fabric area in the south side of Beijing, I saw beasts.  I didn't see shapes that could be made into beasts, I saw beasts. My vision or imagination was so strong and clear that I actually thought it was screened with Jude-like (of Spirit Cloth) wild, soulful, imaginative beasts. 

Maybe I just have beasts on the brain these days. I've been dreaming in beasts since beginning Jude's Sprit Cloth Contemporary Boro 2 online course, and it was about this time last year that I was creating a Chinese folklore inspired tigercat project for an enrichment program for migrant workers' children (see more in this post TigerCats at Human Capital Unleashed). Here's an example: 

So, with beasts on my mind, I was delighted that this was a "remnant" of four or so meters, and thus I could purchase the coarsely woven, dyed cloth. Cloth in the market is usually sold only by the entire roll or bolt--typically 100 to 6000 meters--but remnants, sometimes beginnings or ends of rolls that have flaws, are often available.  I washed and dryed the cloth and put it aside. Last night I picked it up and put a 12" square on my hoop. 

This is my first creature (or creatures--is it a three-headed beast, or three beasts, connected?) from this cloth.  More are sure to follow!

The Party

 "The Party" is my donation for the SAQA 2012 Benefit Auction.  Free-embroidery (without sketch or markings) with sashiko and unraveled wool thread on indigo cotton and unbleached muslin; muslin batting and backing; hand quilting; 12" square. 

Though jet-lagged and weary, it's great to be back home in rural New Hampshire for few days.  This  is my view from the dining/sewing table. That's  Mt. Monadnock in the distance: 

Sashiko and Magic Diary Cloth

White sashiko on dark indigo cotton.

I've started a new sashiko sampler; the final size of this panel will be about 16" square.  I plan to make it into a bag, a pillow, or maybe a cloth for a table.

detail

This kind of stitching is quite relaxing, almost meditative. 

 ~  ~  ~  ~  ~ ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Today I shall start stitching it all together ~ may the magic diary cloth appear!

Roots, Spiders, "Mistakes" and Creativity

freshly dug ginseng root on a bed of moss

A very sweet man gave me this box of freshly dug ginseng root a couple days ago to help aid healing (the broken foot repeat). What a good friend! I'll slice it into hot water for tea.

I've long had a fascination with roots of all types--edible and nonedible. I like their twisty, thick-then-thin shapes, and I like the idea of roots, of taking root, of being rooted. I'm awed by the beauty of these particular roots -- like lace, reaching deep and wide for nurishment while creating strong suport, an anchor.  

I'd been thinking of adding roots to the "magic diary" cloth I'm making as part of a wonderful online course I'm taking with Jude Hill of Sprit Cloth, and seeing these roots confirmed that direction. In a connected vein, here's where spiders and mistakes come in:

On impulse (with thanks to Deanna of Eclectic-Meanderings), I started a second online course this week with Karen Ruane, and it's a wonderful contrast with, and compliment to, Jude's course. This week the lesson includes reviewing and/or learning different stitches, some of which I've started practicing: 

The big-ish blue "spider" was wonky, with some legs flushed out and others skinny, long, and sorrowful (I'm just learing this stitch, please be kind). In the context of my growing idea about adding roots to my magic diary cloth (Jude's class), seeing and touching fresh ginseng roots in their bed of moss, and learning new stitches (Karen's class), out of an ungainly spider I created an...um...even wierder spider? Or the beginnings of roots, perhaps? As seen from the top looking down? It seems root-like to me. 

I'm not yet sure where this is going--that's what I like about process and experimentation.

Wool Faces Quilt

The seams in this medium-weight wool needed to be firmly pressed and also stitched to stay flat, so I've been hand-stitching away. It's rather mindless, meditative sewing--quite relaxing at the end of the day when I want to keep my hands busy, and when my brain wants to slow down.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next step is to add a border or to start quilting without a border in order to make the size and weight more manageable. If I proceed with the second option, I will quilt the "body" and then add front and back borders. 

It's not quite this wonky--pinning it on the design wall has distorted and started to stretch the wool. I didn't leave it there long! The colors in the photos aren't true (they're richer, deeper), but I'm not sure how to remedy that problem. I seem to get either over or underexposed images no matter what I do.

Spring temperatures are here, with highs in the low forties now, but the air quality has been quite bad. Click on the U.S. Embassy's AQI image, below, to read the warning for this "Hazardous" level of pollutants. When it gets like this, as it often does, visability is so poor that flights are delayed or cancelled and highways closed. School children stay inside during recess and phys ed, as does everyone else who can possibly manage to avoid the air. Many people, millions here in Beijing alone, especially the so-called "migrant workers" -- Chinese citizens born in other areas of China who lack official relocation papers from the government--must work outside all day, six or seven days a week, in spite of poor air quality and serious health consequences.