Quilt magic

Cut fabric apart then sew it back together. Repeat.

 
In the 1940's in the coal region of Pennsylvania, my mom's friend Sue made a number of cotton scrap quilts tops. Sometime in the 1980's she gave two of them to my mom. They had never been completed and were in a bin with a quilt top Mom appliqued for me, but didn't complete before her death.  I've been looking at these and visualizing them made whole and useful.  The 40's quilt top had many fabrics throughout that had not held up to the years and so the structure of the quilt top had failed.  I spent an afternoon cutting the squares apart, and then cutting the salvaged squares into four 2 inch pieces.  Now, I am sewing them together with solid colors as exclamations bisecting the 4 squares.  We'll see where this goes.  I'm thinking I will use a dark neutral as sashing between groups of blocks, but I may just work out the colors and values and join the blocks directly to each other.  My vision for this is still evolving, but I love the energy of the small prints, complex plaids and naive florals.

Christmas in July is coming.

I'm in a Christmas sort of mind today.  Last winter I created a Victorian era candy box for a Valentine's Day gift.  It was a figure of St. Valentine holding a heart in his hand and a pair of lovebirds at his feet.  The torso lifted off the base to reveal a round container that could hold candy, or a trinket.  This week I am recreating that type of container, but featuring St. Nicholas and the symbols that surround his lore.  He may end up looking more like Father Christmas than a saint, but you'll have to check back to see just how he turns out.  Here are a few pictures of him as I build his arms, torso and the candy box base.

The tubular fabric which will become an arm is handstitched upside down and inside out to a groove on the wrist of the sculpted hand, then reversed, stuffed and stitched closed.  Ta da! You have an arm.

water and coffee are creative fuel for this artist...

 

And, this is the figure of St. Valentine...

Like him, the figure of St. Nicholas I am building will have head, hands, boots, and sculpted symbols made of Creative Paperclay.  The tubular candy box, legs and torso are made of a combination of wood, acid free paper, bamboo fiberfill and cotton textiles.  The clothing for St. Valentine is made entirely of vintage linens with wool embroidery, metallic embroidered ribbon and leather. St. Nicholas will be dressed in vintage textiles and trims, too. This makes for an art doll who is made entirely of archival materials. Maybe best of all is scouting for the textiles and jewels and materials that combined, become these figures. A wonderful joy and a gift of living the creative life.