Seabed Quilt

Detail: brown paper bags, tea bags, thread

Once you start stitching the ocean it becomes a happy compulsion. The original four panels of stitched wave patterns featured in an earlier post (Stitching the Ocean) expanded to eight new panels, and now they have merged together into a quilt. 

Seabed quilt

The recycled brown paper bags, once washed, crumpled and dried, take on a seductive texture, one that lends itself beautifully to stitching. As noted in the earlier post, the patterns are inspired by a turn-of-the-century Japanese book on wave and ripple designs (Hamonshu), and all thread ends are left dangling from the front of the piece because I love the end effect.

The only drawback to this piece is that the quilt as a whole is very tough to photograph. Enjoy the following detail photos.

Detail

Detail

Detail

Full quilt (2' x 2.75')

 

La Primavera: Garden in a Tin

Two secret gardens

This is being posted on the first day of spring, but the inspiration for these gardens came a few weeks ago, during the type of downpour they now call an "atmospheric river." While sheltering under a tree I looked down and saw a large chunk of moss that had been kicked up and was now lying on the sidewalk. I promptly bent over, scooped it up, put it in my pocket, and went home and made these lovely little moss gardens. See end of post for how-to suggestions for making some of your own.

Secret Garden

Materials: Recycled little sweets tin; old Persian image, downloaded and transferred onto scrap of silk; rescued moss.  

The garden enclosed in a tin

The garden revealed

The garden on a sill in the sun

Alhambra Garden

Materials: old mysterious medallion with image of Arab woman; upcycled scrap from a fabric sample book; mirror-cloth stitching to secure medallion; recycled little screwtop sweets tin.

 A mysterious woman's hidden garden

The garden revealed

Garden in the sun

How-to Suggestions:

• Collect any and all little containers and tins that might make lovely little garden containers.  Scrape off old labels.

• Use downloaded, non-copyright images, interesting cloth, paint, or whatever comes to mind to decorate the lid.

• Collect moss to compose your garden. Moss will require spritzing with water every day.

• Alternate idea: use potting soil and a few seeds and actually plant a little garden in the tin. Make the tin lovely. Give as a gift, with instructions to open tin, water, and watch the wonder grow.