Visualizing Memory
Maybe three or four weeks ago I started a new small art quilt. This is one I’ve been thinking of making for some time, since last year at least. The series this begins is listed over there –> in my sidebar. This particular one is about memory.
The background is linen, and the strips are made from pieced strips of my kimono silks. The strips are now sewn on, and I’ve started the embroidery/quilting part. It’s several different colors of thread, just running stitches. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, silk is a tough fabric. Poking a needle through can be quite a battle.
The inspiration for this quilt is my own journals, including this one. I’ve kept a journal since I was very young. I have pages and pages and books of journal writing. And one thing I learned, when I started to go back and read it, I realized that how I remember things is often the product of how I wish to remember them rather than just the plain facts. Over the years, listening to others’ memories, I’ve realized this happens to everyone in some way – people make up memory to suit how they want to remember things. And sometimes even more interesting are the things that trigger memories in people.
So this is my visualization of memory, or the beginning of it.
Bits & Bags 1: Elastic Wrist Straps and A Fear of Zippers
Working my way through Organizational Items A-F (actually it’s now A-H), but here are five of my completed items.
First up: Button Pincushions! These are not fancy pincushions–not cute animals or stuck into teacups or some such–but they are functional. My intent was to just make the wrist pincushions, but I had extra fabric, so I whipped up a third fat little guy.
I’ve loved wrist pincushions since I first discovered my mom’s when I was a kid – I thought it was genius and stole it regularly. I now have one of the standard Dritz wrist pincushions ones too, but these days the shine is off. I think it’s ugly, too thin, and I don’t like the plastic wrist band. My wrist pincushions are a take-off of a Keyka Lou free pattern. I sewed mine with 2 fabric layers and iron-on fleece, while hers are made of 3 layers of fabric. Also, mine have a comfy elastic wrist strap which I came up with all by my lonesome.
Not sure what happened, but the green one is a tad malformed … I must have stuffed it funny. These little guys will save me from sticking my pins and needles into random cushions on the couch or into my clothing while embroidering … a practice which I’m sure will one day become tragic if I continue.
Second: FEAR OF ZIPPER. These two items mean that I’ve now sewn a zipper into three items in my entire sewing life. I decided my irrational fear of sewing in zippers must end. It’s not that hard. At some point I became petrified of zippers to the point of avoiding them like they are months-old moldy cheese. So here I am facing sewing fears–I’m sure some past therapist is very proud. I’m not going to pretend my zippers are at a professional level, but they’re definitely functional and not bad-looking, I think.
Plus it never hurts to distract everyone by adding cute cat charms
I messed about with quilting for these bags … each side of the bags is quilted using thin fleece. One bag has straight line patterns, the other curvy free-form sewing. Quilting makes for thick sturdy bags, which is useful because I intend to keep sharp pointy objects in bags like these – an awl and scissors to start – and thick sides mean the sharp pointy things have less of a chance of poking me when I reach for the bags.
I’m plowing through these now at a great rate of speed, should be ready to post a couple more items soon!!
Rainbow Thread
About a week and a half ago I decided I really needed, somehow or other, to get back in the crafting groove. My energy has been elsewhere for almost two months, which is understandable. I wanted to find some way to get back to it, even if it wasn’t much, even if it didn’t make so much. So …
Yes indeed. I organized. That’s standard 6-strand embroidery floss. Wound neatly onto little plastic bobbins with all the kinks worked out and the really stubborn knots cut off. Stored in rainbow order in a nice little clear box like a box of sunshine and flowers. Guaranteed to make me happy just looking at it. I love rainbows and color, and I’m somewhat OCD, so lots of things get arranged by color in my house: my sewing thread, the clothing in my closet, Sharpie pens, notebooks, fabric stash, yarn stash. If there’s color and I’m nearby, it’s probably in rainbow shades.
Did I actually buy all of that floss? Nope. I’m not that crazy, I don’t embroider enough to use several miles of thread, and there wouldn’t be any pink there if it were up to me. The majority came from my inheritance of Jeff’s grandmother’s crafting supplies and is marked with an asterisk. I would describe her style of floss organization as “Giant Ball of Stringy Chaos.” There were a very few faded and “crunchy” specimens over thirty years old that weren’t salvageable, but most were fine. I rewound those and Jeff was patient enough to unknot the really nasty ones.
Oh, and any of you who embroider, you might be happy to know that your humble standard DMC embroidery floss will probably still be in good shape in 2040. Only the pink faded a bit.
I took pictures of it all because of how GLOWY and nice and shiny and ORDERLY and pretty these were. Where’s my next project? ‘CAUSE I HAVE THREAD.
