Breaking Through

I've had this piece on my design wall since early March -- literally six months ago, oy -- and finally finished it a couple of days ago. I began by pawing through my bag o' remnants, mostly commercial fabrics, pulled some out, arranged them by color and value, and strip-pieced a series of scraps into a long, meandering ribbon. Then I added the spiky shapes on the sides, piecing some into the background, and fusing others. The paler spikes on the bottom are sheers -- plant-dyed organza and a cut-up polyester chiffon scarf (thanks, Mom) -- that I appliqued on, last thing.

I still haven't decided which perspective to take; it could be a plant growing out of the ground or sunlight shining through a slot canyon. My husband suggested the name Breaking Through, which I like because it works either way. It also symbolizes for me the political struggle that's been going on in this country for most of this year; I hope it'll prove prophetic and that we'll truly break through into the light, come November.

Jer has been gung-ho about this quilt since the beginning, and had it up on the wall behind his comfy chair half an hour after I finished sewing. It's sort of a companion piece to Occasional Sunbreaks, which hangs across the room.

Look what I made

I can't recall the last time I baked a loaf of yeast bread, but a friend who's gone off carbs gave me a bag of millet flour, and the good ol' Tassajara Bread Book supplied loose guidelines about how much I could substitute for whole wheat. It sure turned out purty. Nice crumb, acceptable taste; next time, a little more salt, I think. I also made a batch o' buns and froze some to have on hand the next time turkey burgers are on the menu.

I spent some time in the studio, too, working on my art quilt group's current challenge. The theme is "trees," and the challenge comes from deciding which of the 18 gazillion possibilities to play with. (Look at how differently, and beautifully, Terry has interpreted the same oh-so-general idea.) I was struck by the pattern made by the trunks and lower limbs of a line of conifers on the golf course not far from here. I posterized, cropped, resized, merged, stacked, whacked and recombined one of the photos I'd taken, then printed several variations on fabric. I played with various arrangements on my design wall, and finally sewed the images together with strips of both commercial and hand-dyed fabrics. (You can click to enlarge the picture.) The brown fabric with squiggles that runs throughout the piece is the result of overdyeing and then discharging with thickened bleach from a squeeze bottle. I'd thought of it as a unifying design element, but it isn't strong enough to read that way. I think it wants some shadowing along the edges, either with pigment or threadplay, to accentuate the overall pattern. Quilting, once I get to that stage, should give it more definition, too.

A year of quilts, for what it's worth

In the spirit of summing-up that seems inevitable at the turn of the year, here's what I accomplished on the quilting front in 2007. I like the idea of collaging my efforts -- a virtual quilt of quilts -- which I appropriated from Terry.

Quantity-wise, it was a meager year. The strippy quilt in the upper right corner and the one I call Infinite Africa, in the lower left, were UFOs (UnFinished Objects) from years ago that just needed quilting. All I did with the bed-size Double Irish Chain was sew the blocks together; it still hasn't been quilted, and this might not be its year either. That brings my output of totally-new pieces down to a rousing three.

Aesthetically, well, I'd say the year was mixed. The translucent number on the upper left I count as an interesting failure; I've blogged about it here. Crop Circles, on the lower right, was an experiment in using natural-dyed wool. I was horrified when I saw it hanging at the Columbia Stitchery Guild annual show; the overhead lighting was not kind. I've since augmented the hand-stitching in the four main panels with heavy channel-quilting (shown here) and I'm much happier with it now. The only piece I'm truly happy with is Occasional Sunbreaks. I see a few things I wish I'd done differently, but I hung it in the living room, which should tell you something.

So, onward. This year I'm going to try the deadline approach. By the 15th of every month, I intend (ha) to have at least one new quilt, however tiny, finished or near completion. The ides of January beckon.