creating a goddess

Fertility Goddess, 2009, 12" long

“Goddess” is this month’s Art Chix assignment. Stuffed with brown mustard seeds, this little rag doll will sprout if moistened—a real source of life. The body fabric is hand dyed and cut with a custom pattern.

Body details include free motion stitching for the face and metal snaps painted with nail polish for the nipples.

fiber art extraordinaire

Elin Noble at show opening, Penn Cove Pottery, Coupeville WA

When I saw Elin Noble’s whole cloth quilts today, a chill ran up my back. I was astonished by the simplicity, power and beauty of her work.

The show opening in Coupeville included quilts by Elin and quilts made by other women using her dyed cloth. The setting, a charming pottery gallery on Penn Cove, complimented the fiber art perfectly.

a rose is a rose is a rose

Tokyo Rose, 2009, in progress

Here is something new for me—very precise piecing with curves. It’s possible by following the step-by-step instructions in Ruth McDowell’s book entitled Piecing Workshop.

Done with a freezer paper pattern for each piece, success is all about the prep. Once the pieces are ready, it’s really exciting to see them go together. I can see many possibilities with this technique!

colorful goldendale

Last weekend I stayed with Pat Brim-Williams at her Goldendale home. The location was sublime—smack dab in the middle of a ponderosa pine forest.

On Friday we drove to our destination—a trip that took us down the south side of the spectacular Columbia River Gorge. Late that afternoon we cut and prepped fabric for dyeing.

Saturday started rainy but by noon was perfectly sunny. With our dye concentrates and soda ash solution ready, we headed outside to begin low-immersion dyeing. It was tremendous fun as we dipped, squirted and dabbed dyes on our PFD Kona cotton.

After rinsing and setting the dyes, it was time to iron the fabric. As I had dyed 15 yards, it took over three hours to press all the pieces. Thank heavens for movies on DVD!

We drove home on Sunday on the north side of the river—another memorable drive. The three-day trip was a non-stop pleasure. Just thinking about it makes me smile.