SPIRIT CLOTH INSPIRED

If you haven't had a chance to enroll in any Jude Hill stitch classes,

I really recommend Patchwork Beasts.

Jude of whirled wide Spirit Cloth fame is listed to the right under Artist's I Follow.

Love all her classes,

most of which I've taken over the years,

but it's her beasts faces that are so fun to play with.

Her drawings and watercolors of their faces in her on-line class are whimsical

and offer a lot of ideas to choose from.

I believe this is my 2nd attempt.

My first one can be seen here.

Jude is a wonderful teacher and I've learned so very much from her,

and her blog still continues to inspire and delight everyday.

So thank you Jude!

In our Tues. Nite Fiber Arts class,

we did a bunch of eco-dyeing about  year and a half ago.

Above are the pieces drying out.

We experimented with lots flowers, leaves, fruits & vegies for their dye properties.

After the pieces were opened, washed and ironed it was time to learn a few embroidery stitches along with needle turn applique.

Dang, 

this close up really shows my very messy embroidery.

Whoops!

Anyways...

We only used thin white and off white perle cotton threads to embroider with

which we had placed inside our bundled fabrics so they too absorbed the dyes.

Kinds of fabrics were thrifted linens, cottons and silk.

Each of us choose something different to fill our applique opening with.

I wanted to try another beast face.

Using Jude's famous invisible tacking stitch,

the face was attached to a contrasting piece of dyed cotton. 

I like to thrift really soft, 

old white bed sheets that have been washed many times.

Makes it much more easy to slide the needle thru.

Knowing I wanted to log cabin around the beast,

 here experimenting with several pieces of dyed, torn strips.

Then more stitching to secure/quilt over top,

a few vintage buttons and a twig complete the beast.

Oh,

in one of Jude's first classes I took,

she demoed how to easily fray the edges of the fabrics for a very cool edge.

I love the texture it adds.

A super fun project.

WISH FOR LOVE

STRAYS & BEASTS

MY DEMO PIECE

Always so very inspired by Jude Hill's work, 

by the many classes I've taken with her,

and by several pieces I've bought from her over the years,

all Strays & Beasts.

I just knew there was a stray inside of me.

So like I mentioned in yesterday's post,

I changed up the subject in my Liberated Quiltmaking assignment 

so that the kids focused on at least one Beast.

I had absolutely no idea how my stray would look,

if it was going to be a male or female, 

what colors I would use?

So how I started the kids and myself was to choose a donated bag of fabrics

(I have over 40 to choose from).

They are already partially organized by color schemes,

but there are always a few fabrics that don't belong visually,

so we get rid of those first.

I have no idea why I choose this bag,

it just appealed to me.

Kind of Xmas in Springtime I guess.

(Several of the fabrics backsides were used as well)

I had the kids start their beast by making a nine patch with no patterns,

just cut and sew.

They could fussy cut if they wanted to like I did for the birds in my stray.

Then I had them play around with shaping,

and needleturn under their beast shape down upon their foundation.

(I had no pieces large enough for my foundation so I randomly sewed several smaller pieces together,

you can see the seams below)

I saved the face for last cuz I was chicken,

always having a hard time committing.

But not my students, 

they jumped right in.

But I was inspired by Jude & the old necklace piece I found,

so I embroidered several wings,

and a few words,

thus Wish for Love.

Another Jude Hill trick to help the words pop 

was to whip black floss under the original gold stitches.

I braided some really nice barber poled cottons for the tail,

and also used them to make a few pompoms.

I like to save any frayed threads that hang from fabrics,

 especially when they come out of the dryer.

I used many of them in this piece,

coming out of the ears,

under the trees for ground,

and over the moon for atmosphere/cloud cover.

I also thrifted bits of lace, leaf edging & ribbon flowers for balance and interest.

I handquilted the piece in an off white thread which I felt tied it all together.

And for the backing I used a garage sale find,

and old linen calendar kitchen towel from 1985.

That was the year I was looking and wishing for love myself.

I was ready to settle down and have a family.

That was when I also decided to do the face,

 and it was going to be me.  :)

I dedicated this piece to Virginia Pooler,

our beloved Life Science teacher at Whitney and my dear friend.

If it wasn't for her talking me into going with her to get our Master's Degrees

(to raise us up on our teacher's pay scale)

I would have never met my ex husband,

Inars Agrums,

(the love I was wishing for)

and had my two incredible children.

Funny how it's all meant to be.

Gin Pooler is gone now,

but there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of her,

and thank her for her persistence in getting me to tag along with her.

I also want to take this opportunity to thank both of Gin's children,

(who I had the pleasure of teaching the arts to back in the day at Whitney)

Brock Pooler and Erin Pooler Carpenter,

for their continued & dedicated service to our United States Military.

Both are high ranking officers,

 and their mother would have been so very proud of them.

I know I am.

On July 15th, 

this Friday,

I will be giving this quilt to my daughter for her 22nd Birthday.

And I'll probably make her read this post too,

I think both my children hate how I feature them on my blog,

too bad!!

 LOL