Raven and Sparrow

Discomfort

The patchwork base is attached to its backing and I am tacking some silk scraps to it. This cloudy lavender is meant to be the first layer of amorphous floaty shapes that break the strict grid behind them. It isn't very satisfying at this stage. I'm not sure it looks good (although it might just be too soon to judge), the silk is slippery and hard to handle and my stitches displease me. As I laboriously ply my needle my inner voices ask if other shapes would be better (easier), whether the colors are ugly, and how much effort is is being wasted. This is the quicksand of creativity. I'm out in the middle of the swamp, can't see very far ahead and the ground I am occupying doesn't want to hold me up. I don't know if I will continue or start again.

Evening blue

The patchwork base of my ad hoc table runner is now sewn together. I have pinned it to a piece of organdy and the next thing is to attach the two thoroughly enough to dispense with the pins (ouch). As I stitched my squares I was also dyeing some old silk scarves I had in my stash from my days working with Michele Wipplinger at Earthues. She used them in her dyeing classes because they made a finished product that students could take home with them. They have been languishing in my storage boxes for years and seemed perfect for collage, especially since I don't have too many patterned fabrics. I dyed them in log purple, log gray, cochineal and indigo and came up with various shades of purple, lavender and blue. My original guiding thought was to represent the warmth of home against the falling dusk, but as I have handled my fabrics and played with dyes my idea has softened to a more generic "Night Sky". It could still change.

I have also traced out the full size pattern for Lisa's summer tablecloth. Making a line drawing from my giant photos clarifies the flower stalks and helps me see where to put what color.  I have decided to draw them in with gray Pitts markers on white linen, wax them, dye them and then paint the leaves and flowers last. I am waiting for Dick Blick to send me more markers. The cloth sucks up the ink pretty quickly and they run out of color.

I have been trying to spend most of my time outside now that good weather has arrived, but I am making progress on my textiles.

Summer tests

Lockdown days are busy, but somewhat blurred and similar, and I have come to feel a little blurry and indistinct myself. I don't have much to say to anyone.  Krista Tippett in her On Being podcast did a little riff this week on the energy we absorb physically from each other and the effect the separation is having on our vitality, and I feel like that provides a key to the slow and low tenor of my days. I'd be interested to know if others have noticed this too.

I have been working on my patchwork base, so cutting lots of blue squares and sewing them into nine-patches has taken some time. I am almost ready to join them into a long table runner about 15 inches wide and...how long? I'll lay them out and see what works best.

Bringing up an indigo pot was the next thing for Lisa's summer cloth tests, but when I went to make the base stock I found that my chemicals had spoiled (or, in the case of lye, hardened into an intractable ball) and so I had to send away for fresh ones. For a moment I considered trying a more natural method, but decided that my heart isn't really into the process so much as the outcome and I know how to bring up a chemical pot quite reliably, therefore why change? One Dharma delivery later my pot was on and I was able to dip my myrobalan-painted test pieces in blue. 

The results are interesting. The three examples are the same pattern drawn in wax only, drawn with gray fabric marker and waxed, and drawn and then painted and waxed, with wax finally taken off them all. I am pleased with the way the painted example came through the processes of indigo and wax removal. A little freshness was lost, but the paint is well integrated into the cloth. I like the delicacy of the gray outlines, but they may not be enough to bring the gray plates into active conversation with the design. I meant to keep the background green as light as possible so the first two trials were in the indigo for the shortest possible time. On the last one I doubled the submersion time and got the darker background. At first I thought it was too dark, but it is growing on me. I like the teal quality of the color. Of course, this is all just approximate....when I stuff a full size cloth into an indigo bath it could turn out quite differently, but at least I know what ballpark I'm playing in. The next step is to paint the two without color and refine my skills and color choices before going on to the big cloth.

Picking up pieces

Back before Christmas I mordanted three test pieces for Lisa's summer cloth. One has a fragment of the proposed pattern drawn on with marker and then painted with fabric paint and waxed, one
has the drawing without the paint, and then waxed, and the third is just the pattern drawn on with wax. They have been waiting in the fridge for me to clear a space to work on them, and finally I have. Today I took them out and painted over them all with the same concentration of myrobalan, which gives a buttery yellow. When it has had a chance to soak in (three days or so), I'll dip them in indigo and then remove the wax and see what survivies.

In the evenings I have been sewing my blue and black squares into nine-patches as a way to ease myself into the project prompted by Jude's blog. Since she has put her tutorials back onto her blog I have been watching two or three posts a day and marveling at the ease with which she amalgamates her vast scrap collection into compelling "stories", using the fabric like paint. (Hazel is also a master combiner....check out the pink ground on her latest.) Watching Jude and then actually taking up fabric scraps in my hands with the intention of making them into a picture reminds me of how literal I am. When I think back over what I have made I see that I always want to make my point clear. My method of working usually requires a fairly detailed plan and pre-made pattern (see Lisa' summer).  My stuff definitely evolves as it forms, but always the idea comes first and I judge my success by how well that idea comes through. I think being a designer drilled into me the necessity of clear communication, but I see Jude communicating clearly but much more organically and I admire that. I will not be able to replicate her delicacy because I am not her and I am working with much heavier, stodgier material, but I am trying to imitate her more open way of working, always wishing for the depth of feeling she is so good at expressing. Whether I will be able to maintain my enthusiasm in the face of the discomfort of this new path remains to be seen.

Ironing out the wrinkles

Finally, finally I have finished the gold under cloth for Lisa's autumn table. I have been experimenting with quilted tablecloths to try to make them easier to handle and to iron. The first one I had quilted by long arm machine and I thought it turned out well, so I tried to quilt this one myself. To keep everything very simple, I just sewed line after line to make a checkerboard. It took forever and I found it pretty tedious. My sewing is wobbly and I think the final result is more like alligator skin, but it will be okay. Once it was finished, I had to wash the quilt. Taking it out of the dryer damp, this is how it looked.

It is very knobbly, but it lays well. It could be used this way. However, I wanted to see how hard it was to iron and how it would look if I did. It took quite a while and some pressure to flatten it, but it did become more smooth. Once ironed it was much easier to handle without re-wrinkling it than an unquilted cloth but I am not sure if the quilting is worth the effort. Even ironed it retains some texture...that alligator sensibility.

Laying the finished runner on top shows that the color of the under cloth may be a little too strong. Even though it matches the thread of the embroidery, the dimensionality and glossiness of the floss reflects the light differently and makes the wheat et al look lighter. 

Over time the quilt will lighten and probably become more integrated with the runner, but this is what I have now. The next step will be to decide what centerpiece, napkins etc. will be the best to take this table to a finish. 

 

Autumn under

Making a cloth to go under Lisa's autumn runner has turned out to be an endless job. My plan was to make a quilted sixty inch square. To start with, I needed a specific shade of gold to go with the wheat on the runner, and of course there is no commercially dyed linen that works, so I had to dye it myself.

I had a long piece of high quality white linen about twenty-five inches wide. Before cutting it into panels to make a large square, I dyed the cloth. The first immersion was in myrobalan, which yields a soft butter yellow. It turned out to be a pretty color, but not quite gold enough, nor dark enough. The second dip was in fustic and chestnut combined. This was much more successful in both color and value.

Then I sewed the panels together thinking any seams would disappear under the eventual quilting. There was only enough fabric to make panels 59 inches long, so right from the start I was going to end up with a smaller cloth than I had hoped. After layering the linen on top of a flannel middle and a muslin back I marked a one inch grid over the linen and safety-pinned the three fabrics together. I figured I could manage straight lines with my sewing machine if they were held together firmly. ( A moment while I roll my eyes at my own optimism. I can't sew a straight line to save my soul.)  It took two days to mark and pin the cloth. Now I am plowing through the seemingly endless lines of machine sewing trying to keep them as straight as possible. It is tedious and frustrating. Maybe long-arm quilting is worth the extra money.

Catching up

My computer reacted negatively to a Windows 10 update (rage against the machine!!) so I have been stranded in no-internet land, except for the moments I can cadge on Mike's laptop. I am missing my blog-friends very much, although I have been catching glimpses of the January collage project...quite engrossing.

I have finished Lisa's autumn runner but cannot show it without access to Photoshop, so later. I am now working on an undercloth to go with it. I am planning another quilted square which I will dye myself because no commercial cloth is the right color. That means scrubbing out my big kettle and setting up the propane heater outside. The cloth is in mordant now. I'm going to try to quilt it myself, so this will push my sewing skills in a new direction, not one I am particularly excited about, but oh well. It will be Very Simple.

Pillow tests

My efforts to dye my embroidery floss looked great at first, and even now, out in the sunlight they look good, but held up to the Lisa's autumn runner they look wrong...steely blue instead of grayish grape. I have put them back into mordant and plan to add a tiny bit of cochineal to the skeins to see if I can get closer to the color I want. If I don't, I'll just go with what I have, but I feel a little stubborn about trying for the color I imagine. We'll see. My stubbornness will evaporate if it gets too hard.

While I stitch away on Lisa's Autumn, I am also trying to figure out what to do with Summer. I'm not sure how to translate my giant photos of foxglove and dragonflies into patterns on cloth (paint, wax, silk screen?). I need to get some gray into the design because of the color of the dishes, but I don't want too much because gray doesn't seem summery. After checking in with Grace's blog (windthread.typepad.com) it occurred to me that I could just draw the pattern on with permanent marker in the color I want, like Grace draws in what she wants on her cloth. Unfortunately I'm daunted by the effort to draw on the size of cloth I am contemplating. There are too many things I don't know about how it will work. I need to do some tests, but testing for me has always been frustrating. I have spent many hours in the past testing for color or pattern, and then when I go to the full cloth, it looks entirely different. I might as well have not bothered to test at all. Also, I have trouble taking tests seriously. Still, there is too much unknown here to just leap onto my large white linen square. I fuss and fiddle, and then remember the Pillow Project. You recall the Pillow Project, right? .....my idea to use tests to produce some replacements for my tatty couch pillows? Yeah, me neither, until just now. By making something with a purpose I can short-circuit my tendency to half-ass my tests and work through whatever problems present themselves, as each pillow will be a mini-project unto itself. I may find that my ideas will work, or maybe come up with a new possibility, and if I fail completely I at least won't have wasted too much time or fabric.

Anyway, I have made three linen blanks a little bigger than 18 inches square and today drew a fragment of my pattern onto one, using a Faber-Castell Pitt pen in Warm Gray III. (I wanted to stay with the full-sized pattern, not shrinking it down because I am using a smaller cloth.) It was hard. The linen is absorbent and the pen bled more than I thought it would. I was hoping I could get a calligraphic feel to my strokes, but I'm not sure I succeeded with that. Still, the pattern is coherent, so I will go on. I plan to make another one by drawing and then try one using wax, my usual method.

Progress report

I've been working on several fronts as I prepare seasonal table linens for my sister Lisa. The quilted undercloth for spring is back from the quilter and I am fairly pleased with how it turned out. I like the swirly pattern and the texture it creates, and it is clear that ironing it and keeping it wrinkle free will be much easier than the single weight of fabric. I was worried that it would be too stiff, so I used lightweight muslin for the backing and flannel for the batting and it has maintained a pleasant drape. The bands I had to add to bring the square to 61" pretty much disappear under the quilting. They don't intrude into the visual effect at all. The back is pretty too.

The downside is the cost, as long-arm quilting for this cloth added $100 to its total and that is a lot...too much for one piece in an array of things needed for each season. However, doing it this once confirmed that quilting can be a good idea, so I will have to see how hard it will be to quilt things this size on my own sewing machine.

The cloth for summer will be another square and I am wondering if I should make it larger too (61" instead of 54"), and maybe another quilt. I have really struggled to come up with a pattern for summer. I knew it had to have dragonflies, because they are meaningful for my sister's family, and they are on the dishes. I started with a photo of a dragonfly that I got on the internet and traced over it to see if I could translate it into a line drawing.

Then I scanned it into my computer and played around with other elements to see what looked good. I finally settled on foxglove, which grow in abundance in my yard in early summer. I roughly selected several from my photographs and set them along one side of the square with dragonflies interspersed among them. This seems like an outline of a pattern, but I don't know how to translate them into marks on my cloth. I decided to print them out at full size so I can experiment without the necessity of blowing them up later, which can really change how they look. 

I am pretty happy that my local printshop could do these giant photos very cheaply, so I can play without worry.

Finally, I have got all the words on my autumn runner embroidered, but I think they are too low in contrast, and not quite the right color. This has turned out to be a problem. In our town we used to have a wonderful store that sold supplies for all kinds of hand work. It was owned by the wife of my fifth grade teacher, an expert knitter, crocheter, and needlepointer. She had a full wall in her shop dedicated to hand-dyed embroidery thread, mostly from Weeks and Gentle Arts, along with the full range of DMC floss, perle cotton and linen thread. It was my pleasure to take my projects into the shop and fuss for hours choosing just the right colors and weights from her selection. Alas, she retired and the next owner was not interested in embroidery thread. I still have a partial skein of floss from her in exactly the right color and value, but it isn't enough. I have attempted to order on-line from Weeks and Gentle Arts, but what they sent is not the same. I have come to the conclusion that I must dye some thread myself. Dang it. I hate dyeing thread and yarn and I don't like having to match colors. This shows that I am not an Expert Dyer. Oh well. I bought some white DMC floss and re-skeined it for dyeing with those deeply annoying figure eight ties

. It is in the mordant now. I'll let you know how it goes.

Sewing the circle

I'm still working daily on Lisa's autumn runner and have started to embroider the center "sun". One of the things I really like about the silk screened image I used as the base for this is it's unregimented, loosey-goosey quality in a still coherent shape. I took it from a small, etched metal piece made by my jeweler friend, with her permission. The trouble that has arisen in this iteration is the need to "bring up" the center motif to the visual level of the other elements in the design...right now, the wheat ears. That means I have to embroider it, but it is hard to embroider loose shapes without constraining and calcifying them. My solution is to use loose waggly lines that don't cover or encase each shape like the wheat ears are covered, but allow the underlying blobs to show through. I find that even though I have just used one strand of floss and tried to keep the embroidery delicate I have changed the feeling of the medallion quite a lot. At first I didn't like it, but in the absence of any other workable solution I kept at it and now see something new emerging. As every piece at some point takes over its own creation, I am being told to let this be what it is becoming and will take it to the end. 

Another practical element that I felt was necessary was the addition of a backing piece to keep the large circle from cupping. I was fortunate to find a scrap of harem cloth in my stash, basted it to the back and now am embroidering through it so the circle is reinforced. Eventually it will be trimmed more closely to the circle shape and will then disappear behind the larger backing I'm planning to apply when all the embroidery is finished.