Last nights woven block is brown & black.  I am starting on the black, brown, green, cream, copper quilt now.  The lighter color block will go in the light collection.  I am finding I only have time to work in the evenings and I can't see to sew 'light on light' colors.  Those will happen when I have daylight hours free.

Experiments with dyeing

One night I played with items I had in my kitchen, some embroidery thread and an old pillowcase.  This is what I came up with using coffee (instant and drip), tea bags & tea, turmeric, and red pepper flakes with pleasant results.

First Woven Block

My first woven block, pinned and starting to baste down the strips.  I am taking Jude Hill's Cloth to Cloth workshop. Her site is Spirit Cloth and you can find me most evenings on her site going through her archives.
I have two quilt ideas going at once, one is very light colours, looking more at textures, the other will be black, brown, olive green, cream and copper.  This is the most amazing way to be creative, relax and unwind after a hard day's work for sure.

When you can't sleep...paint your nails!

When insomnia struck..what did I do?  I explored nail art.

Not the best picture, but it was actually a scan.  It is based on a new sweater I picked up at the local thrift store.  I was going to use the fabric from the shirt for a quilting project but decided I really liked the pattern in the sweater so I'm keeping it whole and wearing with matching nails.

I make mosaics.  Well, I did.  Hard to work with the glues in winter, indoors, even when there is time for it.  I am changing my focus to indoor mosaics..of sorts.  With cloth, with clothes, with quilts... it smells better too.

I paint sometimes too...again...when I have the time.  I am trying to take time in my life to do these things again.  These things that make me happy.

I'm liking this

jacket pattern...setting it aside once I play a little more with dying fabric, and making cloth.  Perhaps I can make a nice jacket to wear ( or two -- a long one and a short one )

Black Sadie

I wrote this poem about six years ago.  I am slowly putting a plan together to turn the poem into a quilt... it brings so many images and ideas to mind...

BLACK SADIE



In the distance you hear the sound of their laughter,
Of tales told and of drink and of dance,
It lures, entices and enchants you
In to the heart of the gypsy's night camp


Far away from the crowd are hung blankets,
a small fire burns bright on its own
Shadows of a woman are seen clear in the night
As she holds herself and she dances alone


She steps toward the light of the fire,
To reveal such a haunting, pained face
How sad is this woman called Sadie
Dancing alone in her black satin and lace


In her tent she read cards for the strangers
As the candles burn dim on the shelf
Black Sadie sees into their futures,
She helps others but can't save herself


The pain buried so deeply inside her
Makes her live in a world all her own
Where she feeds it and nurtures it lovingly,
She can heal it, but won't leave it alone


She falls to the ground crying into the night
For the girl who once danced not alone,
For what she once was, before pain touched her heart
For the man, and the life she had known


Her silenced soul screams at the tools of her trade
Telling fortunes, for her hold no place
The crystals and tarot are just symbols of fate,
Not the real, not the pain she must face


She backs once again into the shadows
Where no one can reach her dark place
She hides in the folds of her dresses
And tears soak her black satin and lace.

Bobbi Fetterly

© 2005