October Stitch-In

Zita hand stitched to emphasize the rectangular shapes in this piece by her friend.

We had a nice turnout for today's Stitch-In...six of us and lots of interesting projects and discussions.

Zita S. made it for her first time and it was so great to see her. She brought along a very special piece to work on. It was an eco-dyed and hand felted piece that her dear friend Sharon J. had made. Sharon passed away unexpectedly at the very end of last year and our guild recently had a trunk show sale of her work to raise money. Zita purchased the box labeled "India Flint" (Sharon took a class with India) and found this piece at the very bottom of the box. Zita says that Sharon was never really "into" hand stitching...so Zita is going to continue to work on the piece...hand stitching it a bit at a time. What an amazing way to feel connected to her friend (reminds me of how connected I feel when I stitch on my Dad's letter).

Zita plans to take her time hand stitching areas of this eco-dyed piece.

Ann Z. brought along Buffalo Boy's head (a sock) to stitch. I had to laugh...she was using a maraca as a darning egg to help stitch through the sock (ingenious!).

Buffalo Boy's head.

Ann also brought this in-process piece. She is trying to decide how to finish the bottom half of the piece.

Cheryl is following up on her Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year's) resolution to complete pieces. She brought in this luscious knitted scarf that she started a while back. It may go to a friend.

Cheryl also brought in a gorgeous silk scarf created by Ellen Hoverkamp using a high resolution scan of vegetables. It reminded all of us of Dutch still life paintings.

Detail of a scarf by Ellen Hoverkamp.

Alice H. brought in one of her shibori pieces to stitch on. She is painstakingly stitching her fabric to resist the dye she'll later paint on it. I just love the texture!

Barbara M-C brought in a number of things to share. She's been working on a series of cloth dolls symbolizing her childhood (she's posted some on Facebook and I believe is now selling some on Etsy). This one was influenced by the traditional Hungarian clothing her grandmother would sometimes wear.

Detail of hand stitched motifs on the dress.

She also brought a cloth and paper book she created using some of her fabrics from the Story Cloth class and handmade papers from her friend's collection.

And here is a piece she's started using some of her indigo dyed fabric. The theme is "day and night".

I was hoping to stitch on my Dad's letter but I'm waiting for a skein of hand-dyed thread to arrive (probably tomorrow). In the meantime, I started setting up a new piece about my Dad...a great story that my brother told me. I spent some time on Friday going through a folder of family photos and reading through stories my siblings shared with me about Dad. I think that there is really a wealth of inspiration and I'm looking forward to working on a number of pieces about family.

Healing Humble Cloth

This evening I decided to finally patch my favorite, comfortable jeans.

I was inspired by India Flint's book, Second Skin: Choosing and Caring for Textiles and Clothing. It's a beautiful book. The photography is amazing. You can almost feel the textures! I will go into more detail about this book in another post. Just know that I was thinking about those lovely stitched and patched pieces of cloth when I sat down to stitch my own humble pair of jeans.

Such a large tear called for two layers of patching. I found some indigo dyed ikat cotton and stitched a patch to the inside first.

I then created a patch to fit directly over the tear. I wanted it to match the colors of the jeans as closely as possible.

After ladder stitching around the edges of the patch. I did running stitch all the way around and then decided to do rows of running stitch across the patch.

The layers were soft and easy to stitch through, even though positioning my hands to stitch was sometimes awkward.

The finished patch. I like the quilted feel of it. It seems pretty sturdy.

Searching for Roy G Biv II: Red

Maine strawberry

I spent more time searching through old photos this month as I didn't have much time to go out on a real hunt for RED. Add a bit of creative cropping for some of these and here you have it!

Beaded blouse

My favorite framed print. It hangs in my kitchen.

One of the fabrics I designed for Caos on F Gallery.

Peppers at the Farmer's Market at the Ferry Building, San Francisco.

For those of you new to this monthly game, please post up to five RED photos and make a comment here with a way to link back to your blog, website or flickr page. You have until midnight, Saturday, February 23 to comment. I'll post updates during this time. If you don't have a blog, website or flickr page, send your photos to my email address (threadborn@gmail.com) and I will post them here. Remember, this round of Roy we are encouraging tints and shades...so if you love pink...go for it!

This is the Challenge Fabric, that will go to a lucky Challenge player. I'll put the names in a hat on Sunday and will post the winner at that time...Good Luck and looking forward to lots of RED!

Check out Roy Challenge co-creator, Jennifer Q's blog for more inspiring REDS.

Fiona at Paper Ponderings has an artistic RED.

Karen Anne Glick has a pinky RED.

India Flint has a walkabout of REDS.

Maya at Million Little Stitches is playing along with some lovely maroon-y REDS.

Lisa at arzigogolare gives us glimpses of RED from her favorite rose garden in Florence. She promises to share more in the days ahead.

Kim Henkel has a beautiful accordion book featuring RED pressed geraniums. Be sure to check it out!

I'm drooling over Susan's yummy REDS.

Deb squeezed in with some last minute REDS...love the seaglass!

Here are Joan's RED photos:

Plant in the Rainforest Exhibit at the National Zoo.

One of many unbelievable birds in Australia.

Mailbox, Sydney, Australia.

Phone booth, Sydney, Australia.