Into the Abstract

It is clear to me that this is the Delaware Memorial Bridge at Carney's Point, NJ. What? You don't see it? I keep digging into this tub of hand-dyed fusible with a mind to just play with color, but my brain makes me cut shapes of things - flowers, leaves, insects. How about this frog, though, huh? He was just there, in the fabric, so I cut him out.
And yes, it has already been pointed out to me that my spider has a neck, which I gather is not a normal anatomical feature in arachnids. Wouldn't know, would I, since I avoid close encounters with spiders except when one requires whacking with a coal shovel (yes, I've done that).
--cds

Ha. I Have A Theme Going.

So far I have three little pieces with a big fat full moon plastered up in the sky section. I'm doing some embroidering on one, so that's not ready yet. The other day I started this one:


I was thinking full moon behind the Green Mountains - there have been some months here in Vermont, late September/early October I think, when the full moon rises over Mount Mansfield looking seriously otherworldly. As in freakin' huge and smokey orange in color. Anyway, I started cutting and fusing trees and leaves from my hand-dyed stash when Melody Johnson's Under The Silken Moon popped into my head, and that was that. Out of all of her work that I've seen, it's my absolute favorite. I have it bookmarked, in fact, and feel the need to view it almost daily. So so beautiful, yes? I moved on to something else. --cds

What Was I Thinking?

Oh dear Lord, I found myself back at work in my old office this week filling in for the vacationing Anne. All Day! Eight Hours! I'm exhausted and I missed my elevensies, to say nothing of the afternoon nap. Will I have the energy to do a little sewing this evening? Can I manage dinner? Do stay tuned... --cds

Atmospheric Hand-Dyes

Some of my hand-dyed fabric has some pretty neat color flow to it - all completely serendipitous - I had no idea what I was doing. To quote the famous Melody Johnson, "Surrender to the dye." I pretty much copied her method of fabric dyeing and was very happy with the process and the results. I can't wait to get back to Florida and do more color experimenting. Anyway, I had a nice piece of blue-green that, since I was in Florida, got me thinking "green flash". So I took this fused mess:
and turned it into this:

I think it's probably meteorologically impossible to have a full moon above the setting sun, but I like it. --cds

The Rain Has Ceased... for a while

I'm feeling pity instead of my usual envy for the people who have back-yard pools here in Vermont. By my count there have been only two days this whole summer that have been hot enough to warrant a dip. It rained all day today - a truly dreary Sunday. We did all go to breakfast at the Bridge Street Cafe in Richmond - so so good. I had never been there, so Josh and Steph invited us along with them.


I've been working on some various applique techniques on my little quiltings. I did some raw edge fusing for these flowers and leaves, but then decided to free-motion stitch around the shapes, over and over and over. It makes sort of a chain-embroidery effect, I think. I've discovered I just can't leave raw edges alone. My all-time favorite method of applique is needle-turn. I love making the tiny, almost invisible stitches. I love using small, slender needles and I especially love it when I've got fine silk thread on hand - so satisfying.

This is a quilt I made for my Mom - I used a freezer paper method for the applique. Not bad - it was fairly precise and I could get sharp points but had to dampen the shapes after with water to remove the paper. The pattern is a Piece O'Cake design. Loved the applique, hated the star - had to rip out several times to get it to lie flat. --cds