october, the third

and I'm working on (displayed on my new Reeves Art & Craft Workstation)

it's all relative

stitching and drawing

Inspired by one of Jude Hill's classes, I've been handstitching, now drawing eyes mostly with Inktense pencils, then wetting them to make them permanent. What a trip for this "if I can't do it by machine, I won't do it at all" woman.

stroked

I feel my focus shifting, a strong need to pet fabric emerged, instead of painting on paper and canvas.

In about three weeks the first "anniversary" of the stroke comes up. Some things have dramatically changed for the better, mostly physical. And though I expect to recover even more, I have to get used to the fact that I will never recover to my pre-stroke status. But then again, my real problem is my mental and emotional state. Depression, anxiety, panic attacks, PTSD, no driving, not being able to care for my autistic son anymore (but "people" seem to expect me to), a daughter who isn't well, etc., etc.

Anyway, this is the backside of a thread painting piece I had sitting here (never liked it). It's about 21,5 cm x 27 cm / ~ 8,5 x 10,5". It was machine quilted and today I grabbed it and started drawing and hand stitching on it. Acrylic, ink, Copic markers and embroidery floss. I'm not sure if it's finished.

wallhanging pogress

This is the current state of the wallhanging from my last post. I sewed down all the fabric and batting pieces with black cotton thread, then embroidered with various cotton and rayon threads and washed away the stabilizer.

new wip

The background fabric is a half yard of "hopelessly-losing-the-glitter" fabric, folded in half, right sides together. On that I laid down heavy layers of scrap batting and fabric. I topped it with wash-away stabilizer and now I'm trying to free-motion all over the surface. Not easy, I just broke the second needle.

the rage and the madness

4 small strip pieced blocks, backed with water soluble stabilizer, heavily embroidered with cotton and rayon thread, that will somehow end up in one wallhanging. I think I will applique them to a background fabric.

top done and thread and fabric collages

I finished my free pieced quilt top and it's already sandwiched with batting and backing. Now to get it quilted. Not today, I can't face wrestling with a big quilt so soon after finishing my last one.

I started two small collages. For the one on the left I just took fabric scraps and "dot-glued" them to a piece of muslin, for the one on the right I put threads and fabric scraps between muslin and water soluble stabilizer. I then set my sewing machine for free-motion stitching and had a go at them. They are far from done, but I wanted to show you what I've been working on.

and it keeps growing...

still crazy after all these quilts

That's what this quilt will be called, once it's done. Often people ask me how I come up with the names for my paintings and all I can reply is that they just "arrive" in my head. It works everytime for me. And it seems that it's the same with my quilts. Last night while happily piecing and cutting, I suddenly knew it.

This is where I'm at right now, 24 small blocks, 2 big ones.

yesterday's progress

I pieced and cut, then pieced and cut some more and at the end of the day I had eighteen 8 1/2" blocks (plus one 16 1/2") on the table. Since I worked with the same fabrics for the last quilt I made, I'm getting a little tired of seeing them. But I promised myself not to cut into any yardage, until I have used up at least some of those strips and scraps.

free piecing again

I started to piece again. Nothing complicated, I just grab strips and scraps from my pile and piece them together randomly until the fabric looks right to me. Then I cut blocks. So far I have one 16 1/2" block and four 8 1/2" blocks. I might cut those up diagonally and then join those triangles to make new blocks. We'll see. In the photos you can also see some of the strata I made to cut my blocks from. Can you tell I'm having fun? :)

I feel a quilt coming

"says who?" construction

I was asked to show some in progress photos of how I pieced the quilt top, so here they are. It was the first time I made a quilt without instructions or a pattern. Click on the photos to see them at full size.

"says who?" gets quilted

Well I hid it in the closet for a year (shame on me), but today my guilt finally got the better of me, I set up my machine, and I've been meandering my way along the quilt. It actually surprised me that my body still remembers what to do, it's been so long since I freemotion quilted. Maybe "Says Who?" will finally be completed afterall. Note to self: try to not *ever* forget again how good it felt to touch fabric and baby girl (sewing machine) after such a long time.

in progress

says who
In early December 2009 I joined the Lib-Quilters group on Yahoo and this quilt top developed. It's been sitting in the closet, sandwiched and ready for machine quilting, for a year.