The Finish

Dear Timothy,

Your cloth is finished!

I was trying my best to finish by the end of August. So I guess going over two days is good enough. I did my best. 

Your cloth turned out quiet large. As a matter of fact I had a hard time getting photos of the whole cloth. Turns out the only place that worked was in the Garden Palace on the parlor floor around noon.

Green Moons Forest

Around the big green moon

Dragoneosorus

dra-gone-o-so-rus

On the Back

Corners

Timothy, as with many of my big projects, at the very end and when all is finished and done, I am left without words for a few days. However, I will share here one revelation that merely came to me while trying to get final photos. 

It is about the dueling dragons. It is simple and only you and I will understand. I now recognize their symbolic presence on the backside. They came quietly from the dye pot and when they did, we both knew what they were. But who were they? They are us. You and me. Timothy and Nana. The dueling dragons. 

Winter Jungle Connection

Dear Timothy,

It is true. I haven't stitched for 5 months. There were so many things going on during the summer and the fact is I have too many excuses to tell. 

The winter jungle was ready to make the connection to the story line and Green Moon Forest and that is what I did yesterday. 

After making the connection, I finished weaving the first Jungle corner.

And would you believe, there are jungle birds circling in the corner. 

Tim, I'm sure you know that sometimes birds circling means something below has died.  But that is not true in this case. 

Stitch Stitch Stitch Circles

Oh Dear Timothy,

I just needed to stitch and stitch and stitch. And so I did. In the jungle for the Winter side of the Green Moon Forest.  

It's Not A Moon

Dear Timothy,
I did make the connection with the early components that was planned in the beginning. I thought I would be able to make great progress if I would just quilt stitch these added components. I told myself that nothing else need be added. But I became bored with just straight stitching. So your cloth has been just waiting for me.

Timothy, don't be confused that the added circle is another moon. It is not. 

The Storyline

Dear Timothy,
Maybe you think I haven't been stitching. I have. I have been focusing on finishing all the stitching in the big center Green Moons Forest square. I am anxious to make the next connection using some of the first components that started this story.

I didn't realize until I laid the pieces together that the forest needed a ground.  So, I'm adding a border around the piece before conjoining the components.

I'm always amazed how doing one little thing inspires the next thing. Makes me think that all the options are  written down in order somewhere just waiting for my discovery. But I have to discover them in a certain order. It's like walking down a path.  The path splits into two paths. A fork in the road as they say. It depends on which path you take as to what you will find.  You should remember that.

I am excited about the black border. It is going to look really cool but more than that, I think it will become the story line.  That is the inspiration that was waiting for my discovery. 

Tim, you always need to know how thing are put together and what makes them work.  Well, just so you know, this is how I'm going to make the connection.

Forest Components

 The forest grew over the weekend.  I made the connection.

 And also made another tree corner component, stitched it and connected it too. 

And then I made these beast with Inktense. I'm unsure at this point if I will add them to the cloth or not. I've become bored with stitching for now and will fold it up for  a while. 

Maybe. That's how I deal with the edge of a decision. 

Back away.

I ordered some Harem Cloth as recommended by Jude to use as backing cloth behind my woven components; however, I've not yet decided if I like it for the backing cloth. It is true, it stitches like butter. That I like about it. But I found it hard to rip and get same sizes. It doesn't hold its shape as well as I would like. And for my purpose, it is a little too thin. I'm using the backing cloth as the middle of the sandwich between the design layer and backing layer. 

To use or not to use.

Another decision to back away from. 

I keep wanting a good black cotton fabric and find none in my stash so yesterday, I found just what I wanted at Walmart. There was a very small amount on the bolt and it was priced at $2.68. But I was charged $3.44.  I questioned the cost but accepted her explanation. 

Now I don't know why.

Weaving A Connection

I acquired more scraps. Well actually, I ask for them from a dear friend because I knew she was all done with them.  Thank you Terri.  The 1960's-70's wild and crazy prints were gifted to her and she made a beautiful quilt with them. When she showed me the quilt, I ask about the leftovers.  You can do that with dear friends. 

I selected a few and ran them through the dye pot just to take the edge of of them so they would incorporate into Tim's quilt. 

Here is the first tree corner component.  I have woven some of the new scraps with old one and I find this is a great way to introduce new fabric to the quilt so that it looks cohesive. 

I decided to go ahead and conjoin a forest component with this new corner because in the past, I have had a plan for a component and then forget the plan.  I love the connections.  Today, I stitch.

The Connection

It's true, I haven't stitched since June.  However, the cloth side of me always gets the urge when cold weather arrives. I wouldn't say it is cold here but is cooler for sure.  Other than the obvious reason for this urge, which is sitting all cozy with the cloth in my lap,  I think I'm also reminded of the times my Granny let me iron the quilt scraps for her.  The iron wasn't electric.  It was heated on the wood burning stove. I have great winter memories of this with my Granny.  

So, during the past weekend when this urge hit, I wove another component for Tim's quilt.  Before I put it all down in June, I had worked out how the components I had finished would go together.  Beats me.  Now it is like a puzzle and I couldn't remember or figure it out again.  So, I just made the above and went from there.

I really like "the connection" of two components.  I like that it isn't obvious at first glance.

I hope to make great progress this season.  We will see.

An Unplanned Plan

Yesterday, during my morning ART period, I did another component weaving.  It will sorta match up to other components that I have already shown.  I just really "needed" to do it. Maybe you know what I mean. I don't know.  I don't have a painting started and didn't have time to start because the "start" was not in my head.  But the "start" of this was in my head and so I did.  I first had this laid out with the same size strips, but when I was weaving the other direction, I changed my mind and added the wider check.  It seemed to really go with my unplanned plan.  Then on a whim and knowing I would be late to the office I "needed" to do the weave within a weave with the black.  Middle bottom of component.

Last night, still feeling a bit stretched and "needing" to just sit in front of the big screen, I basted around the edge with the hidden baste stitch and did a little stitching in the double weave.

I really thought this chartreuse green moon would be perfect here .... and I do like it but then I thought of the skirt I used in this piece and sure enough, it is more perfect.

Maybe you really can't tell with the close up instead of seeing the whole component.  Don't worry, I'll be showing again when I get all the stitching done.  I find the stitching so relaxing at night and today I'm feeling less stretched. 

Hello Skirt

This morning I was awake early which means I start my day like someone has turned the clock up a bit.  That's OK.  I did another block weaving before heading to the office.  It is very much like the first one because I laid it out together and planned it that way.  I want to connect them.  This one has another green introduced. My skirt. The one I cut the elastic band off of.  I have now ripped it.  You see I could have put the elastic band back on and shortened the skirt which is the reason that I no longer wore it. 

I wondered this morning before getting out of bed if my counter top would be deep enough for the components.  It is.  I can stand or sit on my stool to baste the block before stitching.  Good lighting here and this is actually where I used to paint before I got the big black desk.

Green Thread

While stitching this little nine inch component, I kept thinking about the green thread that was in my MIL's nest of threads.  At least 75 percent of her stash was green.  It gave me pause that my project's primary color theme is green. Anything with green. And that I most likely will use a lot of green thread to stitch. That's nice that I will use her left over threads.  But I have to admit while stitching this component, I got bored with using green.  I felt the need to switch to shades of gold and then red.  I'm sure it is safe to say, in the end, I will be using all colors to stitch with.

The one thing that puzzled me with her threads was that I found several hanks of thread that had been cut through resulting in a whole hank of strands all the same length and ready to use. In other words, instead of pulling the end of the thread from the hank and cutting off the desired amount, one could just pull off a 6 ply length and work with it.  Like the blue below, I used some of the green and rather liked that it was already cut like that.  I wondered if this was the way I was suppose to be doing it and I wondered if I had known this in the past and forgotten.  So I pulled a skein from its little paper holder and unfolded it. It was one big circle of 6 ply threads and I cut through all of it. Sure enough that was how it was done.  Then I looked at some of my newer thread and found that it is not done the same way.  In other words when the skein is opened up the circle that is formed of the 6 ply threads is much smaller and if I cut through the threads, the lengths would be much to short to stitch with.  I'm still puzzled about this and wonder when it changed. Was it by brands. It is certainly not something important to be puzzled about.  Just mindless thinking and stitching.

This morning I laid out my first component (below) to start planning the next one.  I'm thinking about how I can integrate them and that is why I left the edges random lengths on the first block.   At first, before starting, I resisted the thought that I could "start" without a plan.  So, I planned green.