Month: June 2019

Whiling Away The Time

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I just tried sitting in my standard transmission car – it’s 2 1/2 weeks since I broke my right wrist. I can steer using my left hand, but I can’t shift gears with my right! So independence is at least a week away!  I’ll try again next weekend. The new fibreglass cast is providing more support for my wrist but it’s also rubbing protruding bones and can be very uncomfortable and limiting. Thank goodness Wimbledon starts tomorrow – that will help me pass time because sewing is out of the question – I can use the machines, but I can’t cut or press! And the cast is not allowing me to knit much. I’m currently not being creative.

Instead I’m keeping my eyes open for other art endeavours that open possibilities.

Came across one the other day –

The Sandy Cliffs and Blue Skies of Martha’s Vineyard Abstracted into Paintings by Rachael Cassiani

Cliffs Of Martha’s Vineyard – Abstracted

Now there’s a textile wall art idea! I must go through some of my landscape photos to see if I can do something like this with one or more of them. I’m drawn to the large swaths of colour and the way the image emerges. Rachael Cassiani does this with paint – I would do appliqué and thread painting.

Another creative example I came across was –

Quilled Paper Sculptures by Sena Runa Embellish the Natural Forms of Everyday Objects and Animals

Sena Runa’s paper quilling is spectacular! I can’t imagine how much time it takes to execute what appears to be a simple piece as this poppy seems – it must have taken considerable time. Each piece illustrated in the article is breathtaking. Again I can see how. I might render something like this single flower into a textile piece  – where she has done the quilling, I would thread paint.

Lots of ways to experiment.

 

My Jazzy New Cast

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Here is my new fibreglass cast – got it on this morning.

New Fibreglass Cast

The x-rays this morning showed no unwanted movement of the fractured end of the radius – a good thing. And the skin on my arm looked OK. So they put on this fibreglass cast. Looks like it will be on for five weeks. The question is will I be able to stand the rubbing against the tendons on the back of my hand and the bones in my wrist!

Patch

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Yesterday, the chiropractor told me to walk to the end of the block before getting into the car at the end of our session. What he didn’t know is there’s a wonderful small fabric/DIY shop at the end of his street – Patch. Chris Pasquet, the owner, saw a need for a DIY sewing studio in Halifax that also provided instruction, stocked unusual garment (and quilting) fabrics, along with interesting indy patterns and a few notions. She opened five years ago and the shop has been a going concern since.

Deb and I stopped in. Chris had a couple of interesting sample linen garments in the shop window which caught our eye. The three of us chatted for a while, Chris pointed us at some of her recent acquisitions – Japanese double-gauze prints, some nice linen and linen/cotton blends.

 

Summer Dresses

I have a single summer dress to my name. I could use a couple more loose, light garments for the warm days to come in July/August. In the end I chose a turquoise print Japanese double-gauze, a copper/beige ombre linen/cotton blend, and a pattern for a simple summer dress.

I won’t be making the dress as shown on the pattern cover – I plan on making it longer, much more A-line by inserting a wedge at the centre front/back on the centre fold line. The dress also has a tie at the back neck, I will just make a loop and button closure.

Now to get the fabric prepped and then I can commandeer help for the cutting!

Unplanned Interruption In My Creative Life…

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My Cast For Wrist Fracture

Fractured my right wrist and injured my left hip in a freak accident Thursday (you really don’t want to know what idiot decision I made that resulted in this unplanned outcome). Had x-rays of my wrist and lower spine done at emergency and came home with a humongous cast. Very uncomfortable all weekend sitting on ice. (The wrist break BTW is the result of a FOOSH – falling on outstretched hand – what’s referred to as a Colles’ fracture of the distal radius).

Spent yesterday getting my left hip X-rayed, then getting my cast changed. No hip fractures! No increased slippage of L5/S1. Yeah. And while it’s still a plaster cast until next week, it’s a lot smaller and it frees my thumb and fingers so I can use my right hand a bit. Can’t lift anything with weight but I can use a knife to cut food on my plate. Big improvement. 

Saw the chiropractor this morning and the left hip injury is much less serious than he and I expected. He did a bit of adjusting and I’m moving a little more easily. So day by day….

Can’t drive (probably not till I get a fibreglass cast next week) but friends are being wonderful at helping out and getting me where I need to be. 

While inconvenienced, I expect to recover reasonably quickly.

Thursday, before the accident I’d cut out a pair of pale green summer wool pants and was just getting ready to cut out another in red linen:

Two Projects In Waiting

Now that I have an opposable thumb (and you can’t believe how important that actually is) I may even be able to knit a bit and sew some soon.

There’s no way I can go six weeks (that’s how long I expect to be in a cast) without making stuff. No way!

Three Hangings – Completed (Skinny Quilts)

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I spent the better part of the day hand stitching the hidden bindings on the back of each panel – took over an hour each and left a small hole in the middle finger on my right hand in spite of the small metal thimble disc (Ultra Thimble) I had stuck to my finger. (The hole will take a day or two to heal.)

Three Hangings – Completed 10″ x 42″

I made a point of matching the hidden bindings with the front of each hanging so that when they’re on the wall the fabric at the edge is consistent with the panel itself.

Back of Panels

I am definitely pleased with how these panels turned out – they feel refined, sort of elegant. I must find a location to hang at least one of them somewhere in my apartment! That will be a challenge because there isn’t much wall space left.

Untitled #1

Untitled #2

Untitled #3

Three Hangings (Skinny Quilts)

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I’ve been working on these three hangings for the past several days – I needed a few more wall hangings to fill out the stash for the upcoming showing in Parrsboro in August and decided three simple long narrow panels would work. These three panels are done except for the hidden binding which I’m just about to do.

Three Hangings – in Progress

Finished dimensions: 10″ x 42″.

Once started, I can see a gazillion more I could do but I am going to stop here for now. I still want to get the Black Rocks piece done for the show; however, I’m turning to garment making for the next couple of weeks.

Garden In Bloom – A Colourwash Quilt

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Finished this quilt last evening with a hidden binding. I auditioned various fabrics for bordering but I didn’t think anything worked very well. A black border muted the white corner and any other colour simply didn’t work. So a hidden binding it was.

Finished Watercolour Quilt

Final dimensions: 18.5″ x 24.5″. As one of the women in the Friday knitting group would say – a good sized place mat!

I quilted the piece by stitching in the ditch on a zig-zag – that allowed me to do complete stitching runs in a single thread colour. The lower left corner was stitched in black, the upper right in white. The more middle tones I stitched using an Aurifil variegated grey. I did a reasonably good job – the stitching isn’t at all obvious.

I’d considered quilting the panel in 4-block or 16-block units. I went so far as to create an embroidery design, but in the end I thought I’d not be happy with the quilting overriding the colour flow and in the end settled on stitching in the ditch.

I have several hundred 2″ blocks left over from this project. I don’t see me doing another art piece like this but you never know. I have discovered these quilts are also referred to as “colour wash”. And it also qualifies as a “postage stamp” quilt because of the small block size.

I’m happy with the outcome. Notice I embroidered my signature using black rayon embroidery thread along the right side. The bottom rows were too busy for any signature to show.

Now on to the next project.

Socks From Leftovers #7

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Finished this pair of socks last evening. They’ve turned out to be rather wild and colourful. I did think about keeping them but I’ve put them in the giveaway sock stash. They might not stay there – they might still end up in my sock drawer!

Socks From Leftovers #7

These were socks from one of the original yarns:

Here are socks from the second.

I have to say each of these creations from leftovers are interesting – the socks have turned out to be unexpected and quite interesting. I’ve already begun another pair using leftovers.

Watercolour Quilt Panel – Making Progress

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I played with the arrangement and the colour flow off and on yesterday – I’m stopping with this layout:

Laid Out

I worked at changing the block placement from linear on the diagonal to a more parabolic flow and also tried bringing in brighter colours toward the top.

Half Assembled

The curved colour flow is stronger with the stitched blocks because they end up 3/4 the size (1.5″) of the raw 2″ blocks.

Assembling the blocks is a careful, slow process – I decided to work in pairs of rows, laying the row above on top of the blocks in the row below and rotating them 90˚ so I would be stitching the horizontal edge (12 pairs at a time). Next I pressed the pairs open, assembled 4-block units, finally stitched those together to form a 2-row strip.

I’m needing to be extremely focused while doing the pairing to make sure I’m reconstructing the block layout precisely. So far I’ve succeeded without having to take any stitching apart. I’ll have to be just as careful when I get back at the sewing later today!

I still think I want to add an appliqué of some sort because the panel seems unfinished – at least at this point. I still have no idea what I can add – I googled “watercolour quilts with appliqués” for ideas but everything I’ve seen doesn’t achieve the elegance I’m looking for. So once the panel is completed I may have to put it away and sleep on it for some time. I don’t think the panel wants a silhouette and a photo image printed on fabric won’t do either because the background is very busy. So I will just have to leave it for a while.