Erosion Bundle Project, the final chapter

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you may remember the Erosion Bundle Project which led to a string of prayer flags in our back yard. You can follow the process from the chubby little bundles hanging in the tree to the prayer flags hanging in the very same tree here.

During these 4+ years, I have been posting updates several times as the bright colours have been softened by the sun and the edges frayed by the wind. I have been strangely attached to them and was planning to keep them there permanently. I thought they were becoming more and more beautiful.

(Those stitches were once black, and the white-ish fabric orange and purple)

When we were packing up the old house, they were still happily dancing in the wind

but one day I noticed that the trees were gone and the flags with them.

My reaction was something like this: What??? What!!!!! Oh Nooooooo. 

I wish I had known so I could have moved them, but there you go. Why watching these frayed and dirty little scraps swaying in the wind gave me any joy at all I don’t know, but they did. 

What I do know is that the chance of there being more raggedy flags swaying in my future is quite high. The trees may not be there anymore, but I’m sure I’ll find a way to dress the new house with some fabulously eroding scraps.

Thanks for stopping by!

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.

Then there were 14

I love how the Prayer Flags look tied together. They seem much happier banner-style than as singletons; like a huge slightly secretive smile cheering in our yard.
The first flags are still withering away in the sun and the rain. I am more attached to these, probably because they were made for one particular moment in time.

Thankfully the patient husband has yet to put his foot down demanding tree-decorations to be limited to Christmas.

Safe prayers

I have been revisiting the prayer flags in our back yard lately.There is not much left of the bright happy splashes of colour from last summer, but the beauty is far from gone.
Whitened, softened, ragged, and twistedcompared to how they started out. You can read more about them here.
I had to exercise quite a bit of self control not straightening anything.I have no idea whether the ink has disappeared or not, but my prayers are still safely stitched in between the layers.
It has been one of Those weeks. I’m not much of an anniversary-celebrator, but some dates are etched into your life whether you like it or not. I’m happy to put another 356 days between us; now I can sleep properly again.

The weekend was brilliant; I had the whole house to myself and got lots of work done. I find such weekends revitalize me to no end; it’s good to be a bit egocentric every now and then isn’t it.

Erosion Bundle Project, Take 8: Eroding still

My prayer flags are still hanging in our garden, getting more and more frayed and fragile as the months go by. They are still holding my prayers safely tucked between fabric and stitches though and I still love looking at them.

Erosion Bundle Project, Take 7: Projects

Hi there, how are you all doing? I am back from our holiday, but as it is the day for revealing the results from the Erosion Bundle Project, the summer holiday stuff will have to wait.

As you might or might not remember, I did not have much erosion in my bundles, just a pile of mismatched and blah fabric scraps (now, wouldn’t that be a great name for a fabric line? We give you “Romance and Butterflies” using Mismatched and Blah from Drab & Dreary).

This is the first project, “Stainless Summer” from this post.It went together in no time and is made from the fabric strips in my bundles, one of the white wrappings, the jagged turquoise Kona cotton and a few scraps cut into shape. Everything was covered with a layer of turquoise organza, pin basted and straight line quilted. The binding is leftover binding scraps from my Big Box of Binding. For the backing I have used a piece of thrifty cotton canvas which actually shows a bit of wear and tear.

I still had more wrappings and scraps, so starting with the black & white scrap; I made “Fabulous Summer”, a lady just enjoying the sun and water.Except for the black & white, which is used as it was, everything is free form cut with scissors. That was so much fun! The scraps were covered with a layer of the same turquoise organza and free motion quilted. I added a little string to the water and a scrappy binding.

I still had two more wrappings, lots of string and a few small scraps, and they were made into the Prayer flags from this post. They have been hanging outside since June 30 and are slowly changing. All the rain and wind this summer has left the edges more unraveled and threads and strings tangled. I had to untangle some of them from the branches for the pictures. I will leave them out there to watch how they change through the fall and winter. There will probably not be much left by next spring, but what do I know…

Thanks again to Kris Henderson for arranging this project! I have enjoyed every step of it, and would happily join in next time if there should be one.

Prayer flags

I don’t think I have ever worked that fast before, but the prayer flags were done and hung outside before noon yesterday – right on time for my dad’s surgery.
Most of the fabric scraps were white, and I didn’t really want bright white fabric scraps hanging in my garden, so, inspired by all the lovely dye work by Judi of Approachable Art, I decided to alter them. I did not have any fabric dyes, but I do have quite a collection of fabric paints, including two new ones, a deep purple and a bright orange. I filled two containers with a little water, splashed a little paint in each, stirred a little and soaked the fabrics and the leftover string from the bundles. I left them on newspaper to dry, but did not have the patience and ironed them dry between sheets of newspaper. I did hope some of the print would come off onto the fabrics, but no such luck.


I did leave one little scrap white for writing prayers however, and these are now safely tucked and stitched in between layers of bright colourful scraps and with string running through them for hanging.
Somehow working on these put my mind to rest. I feel happy and calm knowing that my prayers for my loved ones are blowing into the universe. They are hanging in the dead tree where the bundles were, at least until husband comes home. I hope they can stay out there; I would love watching them sway in the wind and change over time. My bundles have come to a full circle, and I’m happy to report that all is well with my dad.

I'll be adding this to Amylou's Sew & Tell on Friday.

Not-so-much eroded leftovers

These are the last little scraps leftover from my Erosion bundles after finishing 2 projects. Today I’ll be making prayer flags inspired by my friend, Corrine’s prayer flags. The first one will be for my dad who is going through major neurosurgery today. I absolutely hate not being there for him and my mom, but that’s just how life turns out sometimes. At least I can work on a prayer flag for him while I’m waiting for good news.

Erosion Bundle Project, Take 6: Taking inventory

The big Erosion Bundle reveal date, August 1st, has seemed so far away, but it’s slowly creeping up on me. With the summer holidays and hopefully wonderful weather ahead, there’s really not that much time left. Therefore I have taken inventory of my bundle fabrics to see what I’ve got. I was planning to leave the creases in, but had to iron the scraps slightly to get a proper view. The creases are pretty much permanently set anyway, but I was able to get a full view of the small spots of rust and discolorations.

When I first wrapped up the bundles, I just grabbed a bunch of different scraps, not thinking much about colours and shapes because the lovely rusty oranges would bring all the pieces together. Well, that did not happen (obviously), and I have to make a quilt from these:
4 pieces of white wrapping fabric with some yellow spots
A jagged scrap of turquoise Kona cotton that shows a bit of wearPieces of this and that with a few tiny yellow spots

Throwing precaution to the wind, I decided to just play with the fabrics, using the pieces as they were where possible and cutting the rest off with scissors. I loved the process, and while the colours are somewhat 80-ies looking and way off my usual palette, I think it will work out just fine. I’ll not put endless hours in trying to perfect the result, but rather treat it as a part of the whole process and enjoy the freedom.

I have another piece in progress with the leftover fabrics, but that’s a story for another post.

Erosion Bundle Project, Take 5: Harvesting

After 3.5 months I have harvested my erosion bundles. Erosion huh? You would think that living in an area with huge rust problems, I would get, I don’t know – something?
Remember the hint of yellow on the bottom of the bundles?
I don’t know where it came from, because inside I only found some teeny tiny spots of rust
The nuts and bots look pretty much the same as at the beginning.
I’ll keep the string to add some texture to my project.
I’m going to have to get really creative on this one, getting full value of the few rusty spots and the hints of yellow on the white wrappings! I admit I was a bit disappointed at first, but I think this will be fun; it might be a small piece, but a real challenge! My initial thought was to iron the damp fabric dry, but I love how crinkled they are; maybe I’ll keep some of them like that. Mmmm, lots of possibilities.

I’ll keep the nuts and bolts for another go; there is not much chance that fall will be dry….