Well, I seem to have tumbled off the Internet for rather longer than I intended, there. There’s something about midwinter that makes me want to pull into myself, retreat, regroup, curl up in a ball and come to a full stop, just for a little while.
Back in my more overtly Pagan days, I understood this as a simple effect of the Wheel of the Year: the time between Samhain and Solstice is all about spiraling inwards. In recent years I’ve tended to ignore that, powering grimly through the winterval season with two-fisted festive cheer. For whatever reason, though, the need for silence and solitude really hit me at the end of 2010.
I have been mostly
My urge to connect has taken its time to reemerge, but I have not been idle! By no means! In fact, I’ve done more patchwork and quilting in the past six weeks than (possibly) ever before.
The photo above is one block in my dream catcher quilt, which I “finished” in a frenzy of last-minutiness early on the morning of the deadline. I say “finished”, because actually, when I get it back I’ll be adding more quilting.
Yay, though! My first art quilt! My first exhibition quilt! And by far the most complicated sewing project I’ve ever undertaken. Go me.
I have a very bad photo of the whole thing, lying on my kitchen floor minutes before I packed it up, which is almost too poor to publish. Compromise: I’ll show it to you at the end of the post. (Go on, scroll down if you’re impatient. I’ll wait.)
One I made earlier
Before that, I made some placemats to give my parents for Christmas.
OK, full disclosure, because I wouldn’t lie to you: the set isn’t finished. On Christmas Day, and I like to think this cements my credentials as a Proper Crafter, I presented a sample and a promise of more to come… (That’s a picture of one of the unbound ones, in case you’re wondering.)
The Oyster was disgusted that I chose an irregular colour layout for these, but I really like it. (It’s not off the stones he picked it. At his age, I would’ve been disgusted too.) The process of deciding which fabric went where was surprisingly interesting – it took a long, long time to get it looking pleasingly random.
Hot off the press
Then, yesterday, I finished a block for a competition run by Janome and Irish Quilting magazine.
The requirements were that it be a 10.5″ (unfinished) floral block, using at least two types of stitching.
I slightly adapted an image from Judy Balchin’s Art Nouveau Designs
More pleasing still is the fact that I finished it calmly, with several days to go before the deadline. I’m not sure I’ve ever done that before. With anything.
Definitely revolutionary.
So as soon as I finished it yesterday, I sat down and scheduled my next quilt, which is another big exhibition project. I’ll tell you more about that as I get going on it.
The very bad photo
Oh, yes, here’s the dream catcher quilt in all its badly lit, bleary glory. NOT that the other images above are any great shakes – I really need to up my game on the photography front…
When I get it back – which won’t be for several months – I’ll take some better photos and tell you all about it.
Comments! I love them
What have you been up to so far this year?
What projects have you finished? Or not finished? Or planned?
Do you hibernate at solsticetide too?
Love and kisses, everyone, and happy 2011. It’s good to be back.
Wow, those are rather awesome. I *really* like the dream catcher one, love the pattern and colour scheme that in my mind suggests the colours and shapes of a dream catcher, without actually spelling it out. I like the blue one as well, although my church-traumatised mind insists on seeing the white lines more as a cross than I would really like to.
I love that 10.5″ square. Very pretty. I see how Nina could see a cross but I saw a window looking out on a meadow. I think the tension between those is probably a good thing.
And yay for finishing it calmly.
I love them all. These are gorgeous. The floral design is very lovely but I too definitely saw a cross in it, and the placemats are my favourite kind of thing in the world.
[...] String Revolution shows what she’s worked on over the last number of weeks [...]
That’s really interesting – I didn’t see a cross at all until you suggested it. In my mind it’s a window.
Glad you like them, anyway!