Spirit Cloth Progress

Well, here we are, heading in to the  middle of May. For those of us in the Southern Hemisphere, that means autumn is almost finished, and winter will officially be here soon. While the nights are getting quite cold, the days are unseasonably warm. Spring bulbs are already up, and many of the trees - fruit trees especially, are very confused. On the up side, it is still warm enough to plant out autumn crops, and next week I will have enough extra to afford a small seed order, so I should be able to get a few more varieties in for the winter garden. Yay!

Woven block

The Spirit Cloth bedcover is progressing nicely. Mostly because I am doing it to the exclusion of everything else at the moment - including most housework, lol.

A number of people recommended starting with a small section, and expanding out from there to make a large cloth, and adding other sections as you go. This was a new way of working for me. I started with the circle piece pictured in the last post. From there, not having any ideas of what to do with it, I set it aside and moved on to making a few other blocks. One was a woven block, another was a woven block with hearts, then I did a small moon piece.

Moon block

Heart block

Finally, with the Moon block, I got a little inspiration. If the moon is in the sky, then it could do with a bit of ground underneath. So I extended the cotton lawn base, and added an orange piece for the ground. It was wider than the moon piece, so I added a bit more cotton lawn base to the moon block, and extended the sky out to the left a bit. 
In the scraps basket were two narrow, long pieces left over from projects completed many years ago. I never envisioned being able to use them, but couldn't bring myself to throw them away. Now I had ideas for using them. The first one was a long straight piece which was perfect to use as a fence rail. This was embroidered over to attach it across the ground. On top of the rail, two cats came to sit. One of them decided to start singing. This is where the second piece of treasured scrap would be used. It was a long, tapering piece, with music notes on it. Perfect! However, I didn't wan't to cram it onto the existing block, I felt it would be much better to have it wandering onto another block. Once again this would entail adding another piece of cotton lawn base, then adding another foundation piece to it.

Moon block with cats

Singing cat

By this time, I was finding the constant need to extend the piece, without any clear idea of what I wanted the finished section to look like, quite frustrating. I also realized that I was unconsciously squaring the piece off each time - something I actually wanted to avoid doing. I decided to put it - along with the other blocks I had done, onto the sheet base. So I had finally ended up where I usually start. My usual way of working is to start with a whole-cloth base the size I want the completed project (in this case an old queen-sized sheet), and work from there.

I can see how the piecemeal approach would work very well for many people. Doing applique and embroidery on a smaller piece is certainly a lot easier than doing it in the middle of a humongous cloth. And if you have a vision for each section, then there is a milestone to aim for that isn't off in the forever distance. But that approach just doesn't work for me. For me personally, I find it actually stifles my creativity. We all work in different ways.

For me, the most effective and creative way to do it is - as already stated - to start with a whole-cloth base the size of the item I want. Almost always, this will be an an old sheet. From there, I lay the foundation of patches. This gives me a good overview of the project, in terms of colour and foundation composition. Even if I don't have a clear vision of the finished item, I can still plug away at the foundation. For me, the ideas of what to do wrap themselves around the structures formed by the foundation. It makes it easier to - literally - run with an idea, such as a stream or a wandering line of falling leaves going down the entire length of the cloth. It also makes it easier to have the second and third layer elements crossing over from one patch to the next.

It is still very easy to have short term, medium term, and long term goals/milestones. I lay my foundation patches along in a line from one side to the other. Of course the bottom of the line is not a straight one because of the different sized patches, but it is still a line. Each line is a milestone. Laying the patches - large, medium, and small, then filling in the spaces and gaps with strips and bits. Once the entire line is laid and pinned, then I baste it down, leaving the bottom of the line unbasted, so that the next line can be overlapped or tucked under depending on how I want the patches to be.

left side of the first line

Middle of the first line

Right side of the first line

Eventually the last line is completed, and that means the entire foundation has been laid. This is what I term the First Layer, and this is the first major milestone. From there I start adding what I term the Second Layer elements - the applique. Once all the applique has been completed, I then add the Third Layer elements, the embroidery. This where the beasties get their faces, the leaves get their veins, etc. Unlike with the Crazy Quilting, which is very heavily embroidered, the embroidery on the Spirit Cloth will be kept to a minimum. It will be used to flesh out and embellish the appliqued item, but won't be used to fill in spaces and cover the surface. I think that level of stitchwork will clash with the Kantha/Boro stitching which is the final element, the Fourth Layer.

The Fourth Layer is where the entire thing is stitched together with close running stitches to pull all the layers together into a single cloth. In India it is called Kantha, and in Japan it is known as Boro.

As you can see, I am now doing the last line. I thought I would take a picture now, while I can lay it out on the driveway (the only place big enough to lay it out). We are expecting rain over the next few days.

From the bottom looking up

From the top looking down

Until next time... cheers.