looking and looking, and cutting out triangles

Making squares into triangles... the darks are cut and stacked. I'm half-way through the mediums. Lights still un-ironed in their pile. I'm loving some of the batiks, the infinite variety and the mysterious voluptuousness of the colors... the abstract patterns in some of them, reminiscent of geological maps or kimono... most of the darks are leafy batiks, plus a few birds. The mediums strongly favor green, which is good since the recipient of this quilted throw has a STRONG preference for greens. Fewer batiks, more prints, in a certain shade of grasshopper-green; and in fact there is grass, as well as flowers, pebbles and a vaguely Polynesian pattern... the lights are mostly batiks again, plus some birds and dragonflies.

I remember when I was a child...my mother sewed, mainly clothing and functional items when I was younger. The patterns of the fabrics she chose often captured my imagination, and I couldn't help visualizing worlds within the colors... magical gardens, dangerous mazes, a curtain of live flowers that might conceal a secret passageway to a beautiful, enchanted place where girls had special powers and mythical friends to help them along the way -- a world like the ones I read about in books, an imaginary world, full of beauty and safety. I could pack a LOT of imagining into a piece of cloth! And still can... I buy too much lovely fabric, as much for the pleasure of seeking, and viewing, as for utility. But it feels good to move away from scraps and collage for a while (my normal art-quilting mode) and use these quarters and half yards for their intended purpose -- to cover someone in color and warmth.

moving in a different direction for a while

I had two days off from work -- in a row -- so I cleaned the sewing room. REALLY cleaned it. Sorted the scraps from two consecutive projects (an unfinished wall hanging and maybe eight to-go warmers made up as Christmas gifts.) Cleaned out a drawer full of socks and moved them to the bedroom so I could make a new home for all the blue cottons; transferred another drawer of random odd supplies (doll heads, prefab lace appliques, dryer lint etc) to a large plastic bin to make room for the purples and browns. Sorted a 10-gallon bag of kimono scraps by color and transferred each pile into a separate ziplock (before putting it all back in the 10-gallon bag.) Dusted. Broke down the sewing machine for the time being, and wiped down the cutting mat.

 Haven't seen the floor for weeks...

I'm ready for some geometry, ready to start that large throw my husband's been asking for, just a patchwork quilt in the double-pinwheel pattern. After creating lots of smooth, flat, horizontal surfaces, I pulled out all the batiks and leafy prints I'd been saving over the past three years for this project. Lots of rich greens, browns, purples and rusts; faded celedon, watery aqua, and more. He wants lots and lots of greenery in this, and doesn't care for the regular contrasts the pattern calls for; he wants the darks and lights to merge and blend from one end of the quilt to the other, like a spectrum. So this afternoon I washed, ironed and cut all the dark triangles. I also washed the rest of the fabrics. Tomorrow will be busy, but hopefully I can spend Thursday and Friday in good part on finishing the mediums and lights; layout will be time-consuming, and I'd like to move ahead with that soon. I have cloth ready for the back and borders as well.

While I could do without the backaches it entails, I find the rotary cutting process very soothing, a clearing of the mind, repetitive action bringing some peace to this one.

The other image, the bird, "trying," will have to wait. She can't seem to get off the ground.

 One of the last to-go warmers.