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. 

Making Connections

Dear Timothy,

This is a favorite lettle section of the Autumn side of the moon. I have been stitching like a crazy fool. Mostly because stitching allows me to escape into my own brain and leave "stuff" outside. However, I have also been on a mission to finish the stitching of The Green Moons Forest square.

Which I have done and for the record, it is now 47 inches square and ready to receive the next part of the story.

The black connecting border is in place and I have been auditioning some of the early components that I thought would come next.  The problem is I may have changed my mind and so I will stop for a while and just be in the "thinking" mode about that. 

You know Tim, sometimes making connections can be hard.  All I can tell you about that is, when in doubt, give it a lot of thought. 

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.

Making Moon Trees

Making Moon Trees

Yes, of course there are trees on the moon. And I needed them to be more greenish that brownish. Brown has its place but I hardly consider it a color. To me, brown is another gray. 

So, I had these brownish trees that matched the greenish trees of

Green Moons Forest. In the studio, on a shelf, just above the coffee pot, I reached for the Rit dye. 

Ahhh haaaa! Coffee pot still hot! Why not!

I added a small amount of green dye to the hot coffee. Tossed the brownish trees into the pot. Ran about two cups of water through.

Wa la!

Greenish moon trees.

After rinsing, pin the stack of trees together and dry with a load of laundry.

Green Moons Forest

Green Moons Forest                                                                           

The components of the center section are connected. It is now approximately 45" square. Too big to photograph. It is tacked above a wide door frame.

I have a lot of inspiration for embellishments and stitching. Mainly because of the name of this section, "Green Moons Forest".

I will be taking a little break from the cloth.
Company coming!!!!

One Feather

I stitched Sunday the 7th.

In the chair zone all day.

A tree was added to this forest after the connection was made.

And then, just a lot of straight stitching...

and one feather.

About the beast, they don't really feel like "me".

This one had a face change and is more to my liking.

I'm still undecided about all the beast.  I have to keep in mind that the reason I was adding them is because this is Tim's cloth and he would like them; however, at the same time, it has to feel like me.  I can't remove these central beast but should I add more, they will feel like me.....

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.

Layering and Conjoining Method

This past week, I enjoyed a visit from my brother and family who live in Arizona.  Saturday we invited a whole bunch of family for dinner so they all had a chance to visit with Mark.  We had a great time and my Aunt Sue and Aunt Irene came.  Sue is Granny's daughter and Irene is Granny's daughter-in-law.  I enjoyed showing and telling them about Tim's Quilt.  They both have made many quilts but nothing anywhere similar to this cloth I am working on.

So, just touching the cloth again after a few months made me want to do a little stitching.  Well, that and the fact that I am quietly involved with Jude Hill's Magic Diaries class.  I liked the slow format that she planned for the class and thought I could focus on the continuance of Tim's quilt.

Sunday evening, I picked up these two forest components for the ring of trees and finished the raw edge applique stitching.  Then I conjoined the two.  I'm showing my method of layering the two edges and then stitching to conjoin.  

Four Seasons

Fall trees ready to stitch.

Spring trees ready to conjoin.

Pencil line in before stitching.

Summer trees conjoined.

Winter Trees

For the most part, I played all day Saturday with fabric and planing the four sides of the forest. I expected to stitch just a little while and then move on to something else. Instead, I stayed in the chair zone stitching Sunday and Monday.

The Dye Pot

I wanted to document some of the fabrics before throwing them into the Rit dye pot.  The discovery of over dying any fabrics in my collection to incorporate them with and into Tim's quilt is exciting. 

So much so that I jumped up one morning this week and ran this second batch through the dye before leaving for the desk in town.  Then, if you look closely at the above fabric on both sides you can see a floral with a bird of some sort.  I like the think I discovered a partridge in a pear tree and that excited me so much that I managed to rinse and dry this batch and select some of the pieces to take with me to the desk in town.  I composed the third forest component and have it ready for stitching.  

I'm leaving the moon unstitched on the Second Forest for now.  And of course there is a lot of stitching to add to all of these components.  But first I want to get four or maybe eight forest components ready before adding the embellishing stitches.  One reason for that is the stitching inspiration hasn't shown it's self yet.

I am gonna love this Forest with the birds in the tree.  It is all ready to stitch down and I'm sure to find myself in the chair zone this weekend.  It is cold and drizzling rain.  Perfect for siting and stitching.

My Winter Memories

Back to the cloth.  There is something inside me that just has to play with cloth and quilting during the cold months.  I think it might have something to do with growing up helping my grandmother make quilts.  My memories are "winter" memories because my job was to iron the quilt scraps with a real "iron".  It was not electrical and was heated by sitting on top of the cast iron wood burning stove in the living room.  Granny made the most beautiful quilts that all began from tiny scraps.  I spent hours pressing them flat so she could cut out the pieces.  I suppose she mostly quilted in the winter because during better weather, she would have been out chopping cotton, pulling corn, feeding chickens, hoeing the garden, or maybe frying chicken and making biscuits for supper. I suppose.

Feeling the cold and the urge to play with my cloth, Saturday, I started pulling out more fabric from the sewing studio stash to incorporate into Tim's quilt. 

The black and green gold checkerboard component has become problematic as I can't seem to incorporate it with the other components.  I decided to surround it with a forest of trees and make it the center of the quilt.  For now that is my plan.

When I started playing with the possible composition for the first forest component, I got so frustrated.  I am committed to only using what fabric I already have and yet nothing seemed to work in a cohesive way.  I doubt Granny ever purchased fabric for the sole purpose of a quilt other than maybe for the backing.  Furthermore, I'm pretty sure she never got frustrated with her scraps not being cohesive.  That, I know and have evidence of it.

So, I walked away from the pile until the next day when I had a thought to just throw all the pieces in a big pot of avocado Rit dye.  (You will remember green is the theme I started with)  It didn't matter what is was I put it in the pot.   I am so excited about the results.  I will be dumping more in the dye pot soon. 

My first forest component is not finished and I'm not sure these photos really show how lovely and cohesive it is but I'm so pleased and that makes me want to keep going.