monkey hands

Shibori Covered Buttons, Rainbow Quilt, Beijing Smog

made using small shibori scraps from another project

the coins are about the size of a U.S. dime and a penny

when I was in Tucson, my niece picked out fabric for a birthday quilt, which she designed

no comment needed

Mongolian Quilt Center

This is the facade of the small shop and workshop where I spent some lovely days teaching skilled quilters how to make two types of small dolls from mostly upcycled materials (photos of inside the shop coming soon).

Doll-makers in action! Clothes will be made from silk scraps donated by a supportive local tailor. The quilts and quilted items--pillow-covers, bags, wall-hangings--are also made from donated materials.

Delight as dolls gain personality and "come to life"  with hair, eyes, nose, mouth! 

view from room in Ulaanbaatar

another view from room

Itinerant Doll-Maker

I've made dolls with people in the U.S., in India, in China, and now, in Mongolia. It seems to me that people are drawn to dolls and doll-making because dolls are made in our own human image. Creating a doll in a mixed-language group helps create a common language -- two eyes, one nose, one mouth, two arms, and so on.  We are so much more alike than we are different. 

                            These are just a few of the talented quilters I worked with in Ulaanbaatar. 

I brought this doll, upcycled from a sock and scraps of fabric, as a model for one of the dolls I'd be teaching the group to make. It was met with sighs of, "Oh, how Chinese!" and "That is a Chinese doll."  Yes, that makes sense, as she was made by me in China with Chinese materials.

                                                                       Newly made Mongolian dolls! 

 

Blues

My boro course is getting to me--I can't pass the scrap basket without thinking of a thrifty, useful new project. I sat down to start a "blues" version of "reds" but soon realized that my blue scraps, mostly from the wonky block quilt I made a few weeks ago, were bigger than my red scraps, and thus something larger should evolve.  

This is an oversize table mat--about 22 x 15. (The blues aren't really as neon as they seem in this photo. ) I machine stitched random scraps on to a light muslin foundation, then zigzagged over the edges again. I layered  the patchwork with batting and a medium weight muslin and hand quilted,  sashiko style, on the diagonal. The binding is pieced from scraps. Now all l I need to do to is trim, turn, and hand stitch the binding to the back.

I may decide more sashiko quilting is needed after future washings, but for now, it's okay.

Meanwhile, I'm ironing backwards (those legs really get in the way!) because I dropped my wonderful heavy hot Chinese iron a few days ago and did this:

Busy Monkey Hands

A bit of this and a bit of that...all over the place these days. Lap projects, mostly. Good for folks on crutches! Like me. 

A new bird with fabric from Shimla, India, a bit of sashiko on 8" square "snack mats" and a new pincushion. Yes, it's a tuna can pin cushion, because I needed a pin cushion, and I had tuna for lunch one day. So retro-craft, I know. In case you're wondering (as I was) pincushion may also be written as pin cushion.

Eyes or no eyes on this birdie? Usually I have an immediate sense, but not this time.  I may be a bit birded out just now. 

The wonkies are finished--the wonky blocks, that is!

For this quilt -- blocks on bed for arranging -- as conceived in this sketch: Wonky Blues quilt. 

For this quilt -- blocks on bed for arranging -- as conceived in this sketch: Wonky Blues quilt. 

Dyed sashiko yarn on muslin face with unraveled wool thread for earrings. A bit of fun today--inspired in large part, I think, by the totally engaging Contemporary Boro 2 online workshop I'm taking with Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth.

Snack time! 

Thinking Boro

Jude Hill's "Contemporary Boro 2" online course starts next week (see her  Spirit Cloth blog), so I've been thinking boro as I try to decide what I'll use for my applied learning--an old shirt, perhaps, or maybe a bag to carry.

I've been fortunate to see the boro exhibit a  couple times now at Amuse  in Tokyo (click the highlighted* terms for more information from the source).  If you're in Tokyo or get a chance to visit, this is an amazing place with a vast collection (the result of one man's life's work) of rural Japanese clothes, cloths, cookware and tools, including this farmer's jacket:

and this coat, below (with apologies for the sideways images--these were taken with my phone, and I'm too eager to get back to stitching to fiddle with them--click on image for larger version).

detail of coat:

I have a few more photos of clothes and cast iron tools--let me know if this interests you and I'll try to post more as I go along. For now, my needle beckons...

* barely highlighted--faint gray on my screen, sorry. I'll try to figure out how to fix that.

Bojagi Inspired Scrap Project

Some of you may recall the pojagi (or bojagi) styled curtains I made last year, like the bojagi/pojagi panel in this post: pojagi (in my earlier blog, alone in the studio). I used ramie and silk from KwangJang fabric market in Seoul (click link for more about this great market). 

In the interest of thrift and utility, I've been using the white cotton scraps and odd pieces from my wonky blocks to piece a pojagi-style curtain as I go:

The French seams are machine sewn with odd bits of fabric leftover after squaring up wonky quilt blocks. The cotton isn't as opaque as the ramie; it will be good where more sun protection is needed.