Beasties..

I'm currently doing Jude Hill's online Patchwork Beasts workshop... and loving it. There is some really wonderful work being created and as always Jude is sharing of her knowledge and gentle in her teaching approach. I've not been able to create as much as I would have liked but have followed the workshop blog and lessons.

This is the start of my second piece; Hey Diddle Diddle. The cow body is pieced; so far the other bits and pieces (head, legs, udder) are just pinned on. It is a lot of fun and I hope to add the rest of the menagerie! You know, the little dog, the cat and the fiddle, the dish and......

This was my first attempt at free piecing... I don't love it but it has become a little sampler for the techniques....

Back to work tomorrow... I had some oral surgery on Friday (teeth extracted!) and still feel a little off... Looking forward to playing with fabric over the weekend....!

SpiritCloth Progress

I have learnt soooo much from Jude Hill's online SpiritCloth workshop! I have enjoyed the class immensley and Jude's teaching technique. I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would have liked on this cloth before the class comes to a close - I had 9 weekend visitors for the Hubble's 50th birthday + some extra work shifts... Still, I'm pleased with where this is at... still have backing and borders to add! The tassels are on a thrift shop pashima scarf I hand dyed. The cloth is only sitting on it at the moment but I think they will be added to the finished piece!

Off to work I go.... !

SpiritCloth Workshop

I'm back- I've been reading through lots of troubleshooting questions on the blogger site and have moved back to the old editor for now.. at least I can add a post this way! It's been a frustrating few days trying to get this to work...

I'm really enjoying Jude Hill's SpiritCloth Online workshop... we're learning lots of techniques and asking ourselves lots of 'what ifs' in our process of creating a Story Cloth.... I'm loving the techniques; and will eventually try each type and make a sampler so I don't forget in the future!

I've put together quite a few different bases; this one I blogged about last week; old, old linen and cotton. I've been thinking that the linen reminds me of something and I know what it is now; papyrus. The fibres are visible and the stiffness of this little piece reminds me of the coarse texture of papyrus.

This is where I am up to with this one now; a story is starting to be told. The bird is seeking inner strength and is safe to be with her thoughts whilst in the tree. The tree itself is nuturing and protecting. Sometimes in my life I am happy to be the tree and other times I just want to be that bird sitting safely in the branches. The roots are couched threads and frayings. The sky, earth and tree are all hand-dyed.

Detail

Detail

Bird Detail

I think the cycles of life are going to be incluede in this cloth too...

Here is where I am up to with my Sun piece; I envisage it being part of a larger cloth. I adore working on this hand dyed lined background....

The Sun

Here is another little 'what if'. What if I put that gorgeous coloured hand dyed silk piece on a piece of that tweed? And what if I dig in my jar of scraps and pull out.... that piece of vintage necktie fabric and put it on top. What if that looks like a tree? What if I stitch it down just there?

Tree on Tweed