GP's Got Your Back

Dear Timothy,
I've known for a long time that I would use GP's old shirts for the back side of your cloth. But first I needed to over dye them in a green bath to bring them together in a color-way.  I ripped the backs from the shirts to start with, holding in reserve the fronts and arms. 

Tim, always know that GP's "got your back".  

I had no idea until I placed the first shirt back onto the center of the backside how attached I was to the stitches showing there. I frequently flipped it over to admire my handiwork. Aside from being beautiful in my eyes, to see all those stitches was some way of measuring my progress. Whenever I share your cloth with anyone, I always flip it for their response to the gazillion stitches. 

The stitches are becoming on the inside as I cover them with new stitches and GP's shirt backs.

Tim, sometimes we have to let go and just keep the beauty an inside memory.

Sometimes, I can't leave well-enough alone. I really thought I wanted to add color. I rolled and wrapped with twine this shirt-back before dropping it into the green dye bath. And I was getting excited about the image that emerged. I was thinking about how a story was coming forth on the backside of your cloth. And how this story was about me, the maker of Tim's Cloth.  And you know all of my stories are in color. But now, I wish I had resisted the color and just kept stitching. 

Tim, I'm going to remember that sometimes I should resist my first impulses. And maybe you should too. But most of all, I'm going to remember that "there is always two sides to every story". 

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 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.