Prayer flags revisited

Hanging out in the garden these past few days, I have been revisiting my prayer flags. I absolutely love the first series which I made for my father using the scraps from my erosion bundles.

The flags are getting softer

and more ragged and beautiful for each passing season.

The two series from last year

(originally posted here and here) got trashed though. Literally.

The original plan (last summer) was to let them hang for a few weeks and take them inside, but now they were all stiff and dirty and not suitable for indoor decorating at all. I was not attached to them like the first series so it was easy to let them go.

These have a few more years in them I’d say.

Painting with fabric

Sometimes,

if you look past what you did to see the opportunities in what you have,

you might be quite surprised and happy you made the effort.

This is what happened when I made my first attempt at painting with fabrics a couple of weeks ago. I was so eager to see the finished result that I kept on stitching late in the evening - which I never do.

I had an idea and went for it.

Strips of solid fabrics

pieces of all kinds of sheers, a few aluminum foil circles

making use of my cotton yarn stash purchased for the crochet baskets.

My drawing tablet has finally got a protective sleeve which will remind me of sunny days for years to come.

Not all ideas will work though,

some of them turn to mud and need to be unpicked and get started all over again.

This time I’m very happy I made the effort.

Attention

If you pay attention

you can find beauty in small things

like filling a kiddy pool

with water

the stream painting a different picture

every blink of an eye

only using the zoom on my phone

no editing, no cropping, just pure art. Literally.

My young ones are spending the Whit weekend with me. In between feeding, naps and reading bedtime stories, we have spent a few happy and sunny hours in our yard. As we live on a hillside facing one of our famous fjords, there are not many flat areas in our garden. The view is worth it though, even though we had to set up the pool on the patio to keep the water contained.

The forecast for the next week is quite a bit colder, so I’ll be back in my sewing room soon enough…

It's a top!

Tonight is the May guild meeting for which I almost showed up a week too early, which means I’ll be talking about my book tonight. I am looking forward to the show & tell part as no one, except for my closest family and the publisher/ stylist/ photographer, have seen the quilts. As you know, everything looks different up close and personal, and so do these little projects. There are quite a few details that do not show in the pictures but make a lot of impact in real life.

We have all been invited to sew together for a few hours before the meeting, so I just might do that. The string top is finished and ready to baste onto the already washed fleece backing.

I had to add, oh I don’t know, about ¾” to the side borders to make them fit, and I do cheat – make little marks to line up with the seams between the rows. It’s the only way I can make them flat instead of wavy or wrinkly.

I always wonder how people make perfectly fitted borders. Really, how do you do that??

Maybe I need to do this as a Finish It! project to make it in time for the recipient’s birthday - make progress and blog about it once a week. It does work for me; things actually get finished that way.

First I’ll be cuddling the little one for a couple of hours though:)

Reboot, Step 1

To pick myself up after (or rather drag myself out of) the post-book-hibernating/post-crochet-disaster, I have been spending quite some time rebooting my creativity. To me rebooting means playing, giving myself permission to fail and make crap, and to try out any ideas and supplies I have been storing away. As the book was all about figurative projects, I have felt, as you might have noticed from all my mixed media posts lately, the need of freeing myself and be as artsy as it gets.

During my resent studio rearrangement, a few things resurfaced: 1,6 kg of (acrylic??) fibers

some 2 ½” squares of questionable fabric and paper tape. What if I combine them with a leftover piece of a table cloth

and punch some circles from aluminum foil using the Squeeze Punch (which I love)

add some of the fiber

cover them with pieces of leftover tulle

overlapping where one ends and the next begins

and free motion quilt some flower-ish shapes.

Hmmm, interesting.

Task of the day, May 21

Making kits for a Playing with yarn class in Egersund tomorrow afternoon.

Egersund is about 1-1,5 hour drive from here so that means a little road trip on a Tuesday. Usually I only go there when someone get sick when we’re staying at the cabin, but this time it’s going to be a pleasant visit. I’d better stack up on funky music, healthy snacks and caffeine beverages for the drive home in the evening.

Thank you for the Happy Norway Day wishes, the day was wet and the coldest 17th of May ever recorded

but ended in the lovely company of my guys.

In the spirit of making memories, this is one national holiday we won’t forget soon as in “do you remember that time we snuck off from the parade and into the school gym, spending the morning on brown plastic chairs while dripping onto the floor…”. 

It’s much warmer already, but those big changes in the weather leave me achy and tired - and just a little cranky – so I have started making my own sunshine today.