silk and cotton comforter

I have been spending too much time on Instagram and YouTube.  I came across India Flint's eucalyptus printed silk comforter she made her grandbaby.  I also came across the videos of the woman in China (?) who is living a very sustainable life and making silk comforters for those in her life.

The Tall Short Person did not like the idea of the eucalyptus printed fabric for Blue so I dyed some silk cotton fabric I had with a touch of indigo and purple cabbage.  The indigo came out the palest of blues.  It only looks blue against white.  The purple cabbage is a blue lavender.  Almost silver grey.

I quilted wonky straight lines after filling it with two layers of organic cotton.  It felt like I was on a deadline since Blue was already here but I really was not.  More, there was always something else that needed my attention.  That feels fairly normal for right now.  

I bound it with at natural colored silk charmeuse I had and it turned out so soft and lovely.  Now, if the rest of my life was this elegant. 

For someone so small, Blue takes as much time as I expected.  The Tall Short Person takes more time then I expected.  Koda Bear just needs love and attention, which I give freely.  We have had some lovely learnings recently that I will share soon.  

There has been a lot of making going on.  Just not for my shop.  I am trying a new dye pot.  It is steeping as I type and I will see what happens with the silk I put into it in a few days.  I may decided to dye it with stronger solution.  I just have a feeling.  I really wish to see what color spinach would make.  Soon.

more nine squares

Life is very good and I am very grateful.  It has been mentioned that I need to rest.  Which is hard because I feel like I am standing in place and exploding with ideas at the same time!  I actually got pictures from teaching my friend how to ecoprint.  I will share them and share what I do in my next post.

But because it has been mentioned that I should rest, I sat on the floor and laid out a quilt.  Which is really, really hard for me.  Even when I am sitting I usually have work in my hands.  I am both crocheting and hand stitching two different dresses for myself.  Let alone I am making Koda Bear a sweater and I am making myself a sweater. 

And my best friend just sent me tempting links to more yarn today.  Rustic lovely wools.  Especially lovely for a pullover for a long dress to tramp in the woods in.  I find when I am collecting plants for dye or foraging, long skirts or pants work really well.  And in some ways, long skirts work better because I can use the skirts as huge pockets to carry my bounty. 

Totally off topic, I just read a bit from India Flint that she believes every dress should have five pockets.  Aprons should have five as well.  My carpenter dress is a fine example of that.  I am trying to figure out where I would want more pockets in a long skirt because there is so much truth in that.  There is a vest pattern in Taproot magazine Issue 28 that has that feel.  Pockets big enough for a ball of yarn or cord.  Add a crochet hook, scissors, a notebook.  I could think of a few more things.  India Flint makes sure that there is one for a poem.  That is not so much me but maybe something similar someday.

I am really babbling!  My head has been exploding with ideas recently.  I keep picking one or two and moving forward.  I hope to write others done so I do not forget.  But any project I make at my sewing machine, I make nine squares for quilts with left over bits and pieces.  A bit of rest was sitting and laying this out.  

Too soon I will have two quilts to baste!  My autumn quilt and this one.  I told my Beloved that he fell asleep before me last night I was going to make things.  I just got laughed at.

autumn quilt

Since I made the Christmas Tree quilt and the Sew Scary quilt, I have talked about and pondered making an autumn quilt for my wall.  More of a tapestry.  But everything I make to hang on the wall I make to see have the possiblity of a quilt.  Though the Christmas Tree quilt still has its lights pinned to it.

Two of my favorite shops for buying cottons for quilts are in Washington.  I stopped in Quilting Mayhem and picked up many fabrics for Christmas presents.  But I also picked up fabrics to make an autumn quilt tapestry.  Then I took the ecoprinting class.  

I combined the fabrics I had purchased with the prints I made to make this quilt top.  It is difficult to get a good picture of it because it is very similar tones.  But that was always the idea of an autumn quilt.  I am very excited about this but I will probably not have much time to work on it until Sunday.

Saturday, I am teaching a friend how to ecoprint.  I do not know how long that is going to take so I may or may not get to this space on Saturday.  I hope to take pictures this time!  I also need to go foraging for some of the greens I want.  And cut out pattern pieces.  I am going to print fabrics for clothing gifts.  Or maybe just some dresses for me. 

India Flint prints her aprons.  I love white aprons but you can always see stain unless all you do is work with flour.  I am thinking about printing my white aprons as well.  I may become a walking plant print!  I feel like I am having too much fun to focus.  It just makes me smile.

quilting

Yesterday the floor was warm enough for me to baste this quilt I have been working on.  It may seem like a small thing but crawling around on a cold floor to baste a quilt was off putting.  And I do not have a work table big enough to do it well.  But the basting is done.

The colors on this quilt are very spring like to me.  I am not ready for summer to happen.  Since there is so little spring here, summer happens quickly.  But I am enjoying the flowers that are blooming.  My blanket flowers are just on the edge of bursting.  I have a few already.

I have not gardened this year like I may have wished but I am going to go buy plants this weekend.  I am going to put in a few broccoli, maybe some kale.  I may plant some pumpkins.  I need a reason to be in the garden a few minutes every day and vegetables will help.  It will also help with the heaviness that is left by two men that have died this year.  They were both gardeners.  One was a farmer.

hiding under a quilt

There are actually a few cool days happening.  Which I love.  But the weather change is so fast that I get chilled.  And then I feel like poo until I am no longer chilled.  Which means that it was a very good thing I needed to bind this quilt.

I made this quilt for my Etsy shop.  I like the top a lot.

The colors are fairly mellow, leaning towards some neutrals.  I could make a quilt in all neutrals right now because that is what speaking to me.  But that is not what is really in my quilting fabrics.  I keep trying.

The back is pretty but did not turn out the way I wished.  One of the thrifted cottons was really too light to use.  Just too much like a lawn so it wrinkled a lot as I was quilting it.  None of the wrinkles will ever come out but there are more then I really like.

It is pretty though.  And I enjoyed making it which is what really counts.  It was very warm on my lap as well while I was quilting.