PROGRESS IN MOTION

Remember those pieces of nuno felt that I posted yesterday? Well, they have found themselves into a garment that I am working on. I have made great progress since yesterday and I am stoked!

Cutting out the pattern and piecing together panels of nuno felt.

Time for a little draping on my anatomically unreal dress form.

And voila, a long vest in very rough form -- indeed a work in progress.

And because this is made of nuno felt -- it is like being enveloped in a soft blanket.

Now, I am off for a walk on this most glorious day. I mustn't waste a day like this moldering inside.

FRESH FROM THE DYEPOT

As I listen to the weather channel talking about a major blizzard in the heartland -- 20"-25" of snow, the weather here has warmed up (70's) and we've got our Santa Ana winds so that means good dyeing weather. Yesterday, I made three pieces of nuno felt and then rolled them up with some plant materials and popped them into a dyepot.

This morning, I had magic.

Second beauty.

Third beauty.

Close up.

These are destined for a project I'm working on -- for which I needed more nuno felt.

FIRST MONDAY FEBRUARY FUN

Our small stitch group met yesterday and had a wonderful time. Again, we were so involved in our discussions and stitching that we almost forgot to eat our lunches. Margie arrived in her beautiful handknit sweater, the result of a fleece she bought at the Monterey County Fair fleece auction.

Close up of the little neck warmer she designed and knitted with her handspun yarn, on which she has done some beautiful stitching.

Michelle brought the quilt she is working on, using pieces of eco print fabrics that we dyed and exchanged.

Close up of her work.

My piece laid on top of Michelle's.

My project for the day was stitching on a piece of nuno felt I made and eco printed.

Michelle pieced together a duster she's working on.

View of the back.

Later, Michelle and I handpainted some 20/2 spun silk in variegated colors to use for stitching on some of our projects.

All dry and skeined out.

Perfect colors for the stitching I want to do on this silk jacket.

Note to self: remember New Year's resolution -- try to blog more.

TOO BUSY TO BLOG

Okay, the fact is . . . I have been too busy to blog. There's just not enough time in the day to do all the things I want to do. Been having too much fun dyeing, felting, stitching, spinning and knitting to sit myself down at the computer and update my blog, but the guilt finally got to me when all of a sudden it was February. Here are some of the fruits of my eco print dyeing from January.

Oh, and then there were the many forays to the local consignment clothing stores to find inexpensive treasures, like a beaded and embroidered linen top, that I deconstructed and began making into a dress, adding some of my dyed panels, doing decorative stitching along the seams of each of the five panels. My idea was to finish this before my trip to Maui in two weeks. Oh, well -- I'll take it along and stitch on it.

Another project -- a true labor of love -- is continuing to take shape. These were the various panels of eco printed fabric that Michelle and I exchanged in January. I finally pinned my shawl together and started hand stitching it together.

I began adding many new stitches, embroidery, and handmade appliques.

I decided I needed a backing, so I dyed some silk charmeuse in a brew of black tea bags. The result was a perfect beige piece of fabric which goes quite well with the eco printed pieces.

The final part of the construction was an edging. I took a panel of eco printed fabric and made long strips and hand stitched those around the entire shawl.

The whole idea here is to do the entire piece with hand stitching -- no machine involved.

Still a work in progress. Much more stitching to be done.

Can't wait for our little stitch group this Monday (Feb. 7th) to see what Michelle has done with her pieces.

Another thing that was on my mind for the longest time was to make some pieces of undyed nuno felt so that they could be used for some of my eco print bundles. I got around to this last week. And here are a couple of the results.

I've been up in the hills and down around the nearby creek collecting eucalyptus leaves and other plant materials. I'm sure people wonder who that weird woman is, because what could be so interesting about those dried up leaves on the ground.

And here's piece of wool that I bundled up the other day and put into the dyepot. I especially love this one.

Feel better for having blogged a bit. Now, back to spinning - a bag of luscious pygora calls to me, as does a new episode of Grey's.