INSPIRED

About 6 or so years ago I found textile artist Deborah Lacativa 

and fell in love with her and her work.

I wrote to her to introduce myself and told her about my young 3-D students.

She graciously sent me a box of her delightful hand dyed linen pieces

that I gave to my students to work with.

From each of those pieces I cut a small piece for myself to stitch with alongside my young ones.

Of course my students finished their pieces 

but it wasn't until this summer that I finally finished mine.

I was tremendously moved and inspired by her art pieces at the time,

so Deb,

this is what I came up with.

Thank you for sharing with us,

and letting me learn from you.

And I dedicate this to you and your generosity.

I don't know about all you stitchers out there,

but I carry my work with me wherever I go.

I have with me at all times at least 3-4 bags with different ongoing projects

that I toss onto the floorboard of my car.

They get accidently stepped on,

spilled on,

tossed into the backseat when I travel with a passenger,

generally abused to the max.

The bag that held this baby traveled in both my car & mountain jeep

for the past 5 years until I finally finished it this summer.

It went in with me every time my hubby and I went into Denny's for breakfast/dinner

(once a week).

So over the years I was working on it, 

water spilled on it or it picked up condensation from my water glass on the table,

and some of the fabrics bled a bit on the white linen backdrop

(see the turquoise piece above, and some of the pinks below).

But I felt it added to the look of the piece and kind of tied everything together.

It was this summer that I used the Kantha stitch to quilt 

(in the white areas only)

the finished piece to the light turquoise border.

I used a slightly off white #12 perle cotton thread.

Then I put it in the washing machine on my most gentle cycle and laundered it

(cuz it was pretty filthy after all those years of working on it)

It did a bit of shrinking and fraying which I really liked,

and I received the nicest compliment from my harshest critic,

 my daughter.

 She thought it was pretty cool.

Oh yeah!

I'll have to mount it now for wall hanging.

Hope I can get it done by Xmas for my girlie.