Question

If a tree falls in the forest but there's no one there to wrap it in yarn, does it make a sound?
Before you scratch your head in befuddlement take a gander a these pictures.


We happened upon this tree/sculpture as we were riding the Town Lake Trail the other day. The tree had apparently been felled recently in a storm and someone/ones had come along and wrapped its branches in lots of cheap, bright, acrylic yarn. It's really quite amazing. I love it on so many levels. Obviously the fiber connection speaks to me, but I like the public art/anonymous aspect of this project, and the fact that something like this is so quintessentially Austin.
If you live here and would like to see this for yourself, it's on the part of the trail that's just north of the Mopac foot bridge. And, if you go see it and post pictures, let me know. I'd love to see them.

Richard's Shirt Repeat

About a year ago, I posted about making my friend, Richard, a shirt out of some of my hand dyed fabric. Well, I'm thinking that this could be an annual event because I've made him a second shirt.


Everyone, this is Richard and his new shirt. One of the things I like about sewing for him is that he's not afraid to wear bold colors and prints. The pattern for the shirt is the same as the one I made him a year ago. Then, though, I hadn't thought to arrange a little photo shoot so that he could model his shirt.


These shots were taken yesterday morning after swim practice. He and I swim on the same USMS (United States Masters Swimming) team. His smile and probably mine are because the photographs were taken after practice. Everyone's always a little cheerier on the other side of the workout.

Mini Quilt Monday :: Yellow Edition

One of my goals in taking on the challenge of Mini Quilt Monday was to investigate some technical or design element every week. Sometimes the idea being explored altered the quilt in a big way. I feel that was the case last week. And sometimes, the new idea or direction is just a small variation of something I've already tried. I think that's OK too. A lot of times making one of these minis has spawned a slew possible variations on a given design.
This week's mini falls into the subtle variation category, but it's definitely something I've been thinking about for a while.


The concept, simple quilts, has to do with whole cloth quilts crafted out of a single, beautifully dyed piece of fabric. I envision this top heavily quilted and bound by a contrasting fabric whose color is intensified by the color of the top. Oftentimes, when I work out a design idea I do so in stages. This mini quilt seems like it might be stage 1 of my simple quilts idea.


It's obviously not constructed out of one piece of fabric, but I did stick to mostly yellow fabrics. I wanted it to read like a color field, but to be made out of small, slightly different bits. To accentuate it's singleness of hue, I bound it with some amazing yellow silk dupioni.


Photographing the quilt against this gray background was pretty much a no brainer. I'm especially partial to this view where so much of the background is included. It really highlights that color field quality.

This is the last Monday in May and technically, the end of my May celebration of mini quilts. But I'm not feeling done with Mini Quilt Monday, so I'm extending my commitment to weekly Monday Mini Quilts through June. I invite you all to join me on any or all of the Mondays in June by posting your mini quilt to the Mini Quilt Monday flickr group .
And, if you have a minute, check out Melissa's little beauty on her blog, Whatknot .

When the city is still sleeping...

...it is so beautiful.

Seven Reasons

I love fabric.


1. It looks pretty up close.


2. It's pretty from a distance.


3. It can have the most amazing texture (embroidered silk dupioni)


4. It makes so much creativity possible.


5. It makes me happy even after I'm done working with it (two versions of the same dress).


6. I can make it uniquely my own...


7. ...or combine it with something someone else's vision.

Those are only some of my reasons, but I'm guessing they're similar to the way a lot of you feel about crafting with fabric. Well, to help fuel your creativity(addiction?), the folks over at Fabric.com are offering you, my readers, a special discount. If you glance over to the right hand sidebar, you'll see that I've got a new button. I've decided to become a fabric.com affiliate and, at least for the next few days, you all are the beneficiaries. Between May 21 and May 28, you'll get a $5 discount on any fabric order. Just enter the phrase blogstitchindye as your coupon code and $5 will be deducted from your order. Pretty neat, huh?
Saving a little money could be reason #8, but, let's face it, I'd buy the fabric even without the discount, wouldn't you?

Inside Out Mini Monday

My original design for this week's mini quilt was thwarted by how much I liked the side with all the seams. This isn't the first time I've noticed and enjoyed the "wrong" side, but it is the first time I changed everything to highlight it.


What really sold me on the idea of featuring the raw edge side was the way the seams looked. I can be lazy sometimes about changing thread and at the time I was starting to piece this quilt, I was using an orange thread both as bobbin and top thread. I found that I really liked the way the orange contrasted with the whites and other light colored fabrics and how it emphasized the lines of the concentric piecing.


Once I decided that I was going to feature the raw edges, I realized I had a second design question to ponder. Did I want the top to look like the underside of a quilt, meaning that the fabric shown was always from the wrong side? I actually didn't want that. So, I had to piece all the blocks with wrong sides facing to make sure that the "right" side of the fabric faced out. Sound confusing?


When I stitched with my own hand dyed fabrics or with whites and solid linens, the right side/wrong side issue wasn't really present. But when I used commercial prints, I really had to pay attention because, after years of sewing with the right sides together, doing the opposite is no easy feat.


I also went back and forth about how to quilt and bind this little quilt and, in the end, decided to go with simple stitching in white thread. I wanted the quilting to be there, but not overt. The choice of binding fabric was partly dictated by the orange thread used to piece the top and partly influenced by my plan to photograph the quilt against a gray background. Orange and gray do look awfully good together, don't they?

A Quickie

Just popping in to make a little announcement, answer a question and show off a recent FO.

I'm so happy to tell y'all that my book now has an official title, Color You Cloth: A Quilter's Guide to Dyeing and Patterning Fabric. Yay!
If you don't make quilts, do not be fooled. This book is loaded with information that you too can use and half of the projects aren't quilts, so there's plenty for those whose sewing passion is not quilting.

The question has to do with my last post. I mentioned that I was planning on making this dress in cotton lawn. Someone asked where I have found cotton lawn online. As it happens, you can buy some lovely looking cotton lawn from fabric.com. I haven't purchased any cotton lawn yet, but I have bought quite a bit of fabric from this online retailer and I've been very happy with their products and customer service.

OK. Now for the finished object I mentioned. It's big and blob-like, but I like it.


It's the Gum Drop Pillow by Amy Butler. The pattern comes in two possible sizes, 18 and 24 inches. I imagine the 18" version is supposed to be more of a sofa pillow, but I'm a bit suspicious of this reasoning. This shape doesn't strike me as appropriate for laying back on as you relax on the couch. It does, however, make a great ottoman. This one belongs to my youngest. She picked out the fabrics which are, coincidentally, from fabric.com.

Just between you and me, I'm not in love with her choices, but I decided to avoid micro managing the making of her ottoman. The pattern was clear, and easy and, like all of Amy's patterns, incredibly well illustrated. I did make one modification. The original instructions call for you to leave a seam open in one of the panels so that you can add stuffing, then hand stitch the seam closed once the pillow is as fluffy as you like. I opted to put an invisible zipper in that seam instead, so that I could add more stuffing when I felt it was needed. Sure, you could open the seam to do the same thing, but unzipping a zipper is a lot easier.
I'm happy to report that Abi is very happy with her Gum Drop Pillow and that the making of it afforded me endless opportunities to squeal like the gingerbread man in Shrek, "not the gum drop buttons!"