Thinking about layouts
I cut out some bones and am considering how to proceed with the frame. Should I continue cutting out more bones to make the frame look like a pile, or is this one row enough?
Reversible bucket hat from Oliver + S Little Things to Sew book
Alice has an off-the-charts huge head (sort of) and the two summer hats we had didn't fit her. I put it on the shopping list, and then was like, "wait, I can make that!" Sure enough, there was a pattern in the Oliver + S book I already owned.
The hat is reversible, so I used an insect fabric on one side and a hand-dyed pink fabric on the other.
Of course, Alice is now old enough to have opinions. She hates the hat and throws it if we try to put it on her.
Reverse-resist scarves
These scarves were dyed with black fiber reactive dye (that particular dye shows up like a very dark brown on silk), and then I put them in thiox color remover. The effect on the first two is the opposite of how resists usually look, because the shape remains dark. The third scarf I just dipped in the remover to get an ombre effect. These were finished at the end of March.
Feral hams
pages 10-11 of sketchbook
We were driving on 95 through Philly and I saw a billboard for a performance by an oboist named Woodhams, and I kind of obsessed over the way those two things could be combined. Drew this later.
Starting a new piece.
I obviously have not made many things since the baby was born, but I'm getting some of my studio time back. Here's the very beginning of a new piece.
It started as a sketch in my book:
The night I scanned the drawing, I sort of impulsively decided to make it into a quilt or embroidery. I didn't have a plan yet, so I just made a template from a printout, cut pieces out of some hand dyed fabrics, and fused them together.
Then I stopped to work out some more details. I *love* sketchbook thinking and I really missed it. For me, making a whole piece is like solving a strange kind of problem.
So now I have a clearer idea of what I want the piece to be and what I have to do to get there. It could still all change in the future, but now I have direction!
Alice’s butterfly
Since Alice was only going to be 5 months old at Christmas, and we have excited relatives, we decided not to really get her too many presents. My husband bought her a shirt, and I decided to sew a toy for her. She *loves* a little butterfly guy that's on her bouncer, so I thought I should make her a bigger, huggable version.
