Adding To The Story

This is the fun part!

Bits and pieces coming together to tell a story.

Stitched Memories

This piece warms my heart.

It represents…….

new travels

 the new feeling of stitching on wool

evening chats on the balcony

 afternoon tea

 sewing circle of like minded souls

 eco dying techniques shared by the lovely India Flint 

To Dye Naturally

For 5 wonderful days, I was inspired by India Flint on the process of using natural plant materials to dye cloth and paper.

Each day, we would wonder the grounds for fallen plant material. Then, fold them in between fabric or paper pieces held tightly together by string. The bundles would sit in a dye pot overnight. In the morning, we laid the bundles out with anticipation of what took place during the night.

Each bundle holds a different surprise, and every time someone in the class opened up a bundle all you could hear was "oooo, awww, oh my gosh."

These are a few of the magical surprises found.

The class quilt, hand sewn into blocks of natural wonder.

Prayer Flags

This piece was once part of a quilt I started for my daughter, but after a while, it didn't seem to flow the way I had hoped. It soon became one of those UFOs (unfinished objects). After months of shifting it from one pile to another, it is time to scrap it.  

This section makes a nice prayer flag.

My small collection on the back patio.

Happy New Year!

We have been getting a lot of snow here in the Midwest, and the temperature has been extremely cold. Hope your New Year is off to a good start.

Maggie loves playing and digging in the snow.

The Eye Of The Storm

I've learned about telling a story through cloth from Jude Hill. 

So much goes through my mind when I'm stitching. I just never thought of transferring those thoughts to cloth to Tell My Story.

The idiom "eye of the storm" means the region of mostly calm. Here the eye represents the center of calm, but the added tears mean there is potential for violent outbreaks. This has been my body's experience dealing with gluten sensitivity.

Telling My Story

One small phase of my life, yet such a big piece.

I got the idea of squares on squares from Jude over at Spirit Cloth. Once I started stitching the squares together, they became blocks of time that I have traveled during this phase. 

The spiral is the journey through these blocks of time.

#2 Block Of The Month

Finished Floral Delight, block #2.

Block #1, if you're interested.

Stitching To Stay Warm

Today's high was 15 degrees. A perfect day to stay inside and stitch.

Seashells

After sewing these two pieces together, the bottom half appeared like sand, so a few seashells were needed. 

Grandmothers Flower Garden Is Growing

This is a great travel project.

I baste these little hexagons on the go, and then stitch them together when I have enough.

#1 Block Of The Month

I enjoy visiting stitcher's blogs, but I felt the need to get out and socialize in person with other hand stitchers.

I am participating in my first Block of The Month quilt with a group of ladies from a local quilt shop.

Block #1 is finished.

The Beginnings Of A Story

Here is the state of mind I was in when these two pieces came together.

I have several projects going right now, but they just weren't stimulating enough at the moment. It's like my creative soul needed a challenge or something. Do you ever feel like this? 

 Some may call it bored. I can't explain it. Anyway, when I feel like this, I look through unfinished pieces.

These caught my attention.

 I'm not sure where I was going with this woven cloth piece.

I gave these little English paper pieced sailboats a scenic background a while ago.

I joined the two pieces, added a few more blue fabric scraps.

Added some wave stitching, and……

Now, I see sand. 

Maybe a few seashells?