Creative Life Sampler

What do you do when a loved one brings you their all time favorite article of clothing and begs you to do something to salvage it? You do your best to mend it of course, . . . and maybe give it even more character. This not so gently used Patagonia pullover was covered with thread bare spots and rips that showed signs of years of love. The whole body of the garment had to be examined for holes.  I pulled the navy color from the top accent binding to mend along the bottom ribbing seam and cuff seams using embroidery floss. Circles were drawn around each spot with a heat erasable fabric pen and a blanket stich was sewn in ever smaller consecutive circles to create these dots in a lighter blue.      I won't take credit for this idea; mending examples are all over Instagram and other social media. To be honest, it all seemed like a lot of effort for not much return. I had no interest in the trend until I ran across these two books: Creative Mending by Hikaru Naguchi and...

Literal Use of Negative Spaces  Finally time to share this latest project.  This is an improvisational piece, - the first time I have done this with appliqu é . The patterned shapes are the cut-outs from my last reverse appliqu é  project. I liked the Ghana batik so much that I was inspired to use these shapes in a new quilt, rather than just toss them into my scrap box. So the first project's negative spaces, (an art term for space between and around solid objects), became the solid shapes in this one. The hand quilting is a combination of a repetition of the batik fabric's pattern, the seed stitch, and echo quilting.  I enjoyed this process so much that I went rummaging through the scrap box for cutout shapes from other projects and I've already started on a new quilt. The top is complete and ready to sandwich for the quilting stage, so stay tuned!