juxtaposition

This is the beginning of a fiber/paper collage that incorporates two sizes of vintage blocks (approximately three inches and seven inches). I've had these blocks for over 25 years and they had belonged to an elderly family friend. I've used some of them before but not together. It appears that the larger (seven inch) block may have been part of a quilt top at one time and then taken apart. The vintage buttons are not yet sewn on and may be re-arranged.

once the winged

Fiber and metal.


As once the winged energy of delight
carried you over childhood's dark abysses,
now beyond your own life build the great
arch of unimagined bridges.

Wonders happen if we can succeed
in passing through the harshest danger;
but only in a bright and purely granted
achievement can we realize the wonder.

To work with Things in the indescribable
relationship is not too hard for us;
the pattern grows more intricate and subtle,
and being swept along is not enough.

Take your practiced powers and stretch them out
until they span the chasm between two
contradictions... For the god
wants to know himself in you.  ~ Rainer Maria Rilke

weaving wip

Jude is the master and I've seen many wonderful examples by her students.  Inspired by her work, this is my first attempt and is still a work in progress.

celebrating

Last week I celebrated my birthday by working on this block and

with roses from my husband

and with this package from my friend Corrine that included 

wonderful things to play with! Many thanks Corrine!

rhythm

This week's inchie has a fiber base and is embellished with beads and wire.

"Everything has rhythm, everything dances." ~ Maya Angelou

"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony." ~ Thomas Merton

"Now this is very profound, what rhythm is, and goes far deeper than words. A sight, an emotion, creates this wave in the mind, long before it makes words to fit it . . ." ~ Virginia Woolf

tactile history

Diane Savona refers to her art as "bricolage, a technique that makes creative use of whatever materials are available regardless of their original purpose." She "uses salvaged cloth and garments, domestic found objects and intense hand stitching to construct fossil specimens that present textiles in an archaeological context."

I don't know how I missed learning about her before but she certainly accomplishes what I sometimes strive to do.

endless mountains

Endless is the word for this week's Every Inchie Monday challenge and for some reason I thought about endless mountains. Having grown up in the Roanoke Valley, I have many fond memories of the  Blue Ridge Mountains.

flower show inspiration

It's still cold here but at the Philadelphia Flower Show it's Springtime in Paris.

dance

"If you danced from midnight
to six A.M. who would understand?"


from the poem "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" by Anne Sexton


This week's word for Every Inchie Monday is dance. 


I don't imagine this is what their dancing slippers might have looked like but this does like something a princess might wear.


This inchie is comprised of muslin, lace and tulle, none of which are visible since I decided to add beads.

conventions

You may notice a pin in the top left corner of this block. There were a couple of conventions I adopted for myself early in my quiltmaking and this is one of them. This is code to myself for the orientation of the block.

The other day I was fascinated by the shadows of the lattice fence and gate when I went outside to make sure my Erosion Bundle was still there. (It is.)

"Be happy for this moment.
This moment is your life."
~Omar Khayyam

Barbara's New Blog Pinelands Treasures

Poof! It disappeared! Barbara deleted her gmail account and her entire blog Pinelands Patches Beadscapes and Spirit Dolls disappeared. So for anyone who followed her blog, she has now created a new blog called Pinelands Treasures. She'll be posting photos of her beautiful Spirit Dolls. 

thread and beads and lace

This picture is still flipped but you can generally get the idea. All but a couple of the blocks have gone through one round of embellishing with embroidery. Some have beads and/or lace.

frolic

The word for this week's Every Inchie Monday challenge is frolic. According to The Free Dictionary the definition of frolic is
n.

1. Gaiety; merriment: fun and frolic.

2. A gay, carefree time.

3. A playful antic.

intr.v. frol·icked, frol·ick·ing, frol·ics

1. To behave playfully and uninhibitedly; romp.

2. To engage in merrymaking, joking, or teasing.

adj. Archaic Merry.
My original intention was to make this inchie out of fiber but instead I ended up using a copy of Victorian scrap mounted on a paint chip and embellished with bits of lace. This copyright free image is from Penny Plain Scraps.

lucky

None of the photos I've taken do her any justice at all. Her name is Amaia and I am the lucky recipient of her from Joanne! She is exquisitely detailed and incredibly gorgeous. According to her tag,  "Amaia is a sturdy Basque mountain nymph, ready to lead you on any path you set out on. She is a bold guide and a trusted companion." I am so lucky to have her for my companion!

Joanne included this lovely card that is also a piece of artwork in itself. I'm trying to decide whether to frame it or to use it as the cover for a journal I'm creating to use for collecting and consolidating my little scraps of paper with sketches and ideas.

Thank you Joanne for your kindness and generosity!

another block

This is the fun part. I continue to skip around, trying to balance the types of embellishments among all of the blocks.

secret ingredient

 Tim Holtz or Industrial Chic? Usually I mix them together but this happens to only have the Tim Holtz "secret" key. You would think I wouldn't need to buy new keys when I already have a few vintage ones, but these were just so appealing.

cosmic

is the word for this week's Every Inchie Monday challenge.
The definition "of, relating to, or concerned with abstract spiritual or metaphysical ideas" from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cosmic is the one I chose for this interpretation, focusing on abstract. This inchie  is comprised of woven fiber strips and is beaded.

block by block

the embellishing continues on this everything but the kitchen sink crazy kind of quilt.

some prints

made during a recent Lunch and Learn 

 may become

pages in a journal

or cut into strips to make bookmarks 

since you asked

There were a couple of questions about the little log cabin quilt I recently added to my sidebar. I completed it several years ago and it was one of my first attempts at free-hand cutting and sewing, no measuring, just cutting light and dark strips and sewing them by hand (of course) around the red "chimney" that makes up the center of the block.

It's a little wonky, not perfect. It's also small, about the size of a placemat. It may be hard to tell but in the top photo it's shown placed on a small stool.