What To Do With Blue

The Roy B Giv search continues with our hosts,  Jennifer Coyne Qudeen and Julie B. Booth.  This month, BLUE is at the top of the color heap.   This month I present useful applications for this color, favored for it’s calming nature.  (All work by poster)
Dye with it.
Weave with it.

Stitch with it. Photograph it.

Paint with it. And paint some more. What to do with blue?   Dye, paint, warp and weft,  pixels and paint.  Blue all over the place?
To quote a wise one:  “The strongest rope is comprised of many strands.”
What to do with blue…

Little Bits

I got thinking about what my friend Nancy and I were talking about the other day.  We were saying how the summer is almost gone and we feel unfulfilled in our accomplishments.  So I went around taking photos of everything I’ve recently done that don’t amount to one BIG thing, however..

a pretty successful tea-dyed bundle

You may not be able to see the places where the little leaves resisted the tea, but I know my bundling is improving ever so slightly.

foamcore loom and serger leftovers

Sergers leave some mighty-good strips, and Sheila Hicks was in the shop this week.  (There are many, many more links for her retrospective.)
And a post I mentioned her in last year. (scroll to bottom)

yellow with a plastic fruit bag resist

using newly-dyed and other

made from same scraps

Have I made my point, yet?

Go see what Nancy didn’t do this summer.

Experiments and play and generosity count!

Back and Forward

This has been an exciting week back, well five days.  It’s always good to get home from a trip, nest with my stuff, rearrange and revisit projects and possibilities.
We did the usual re-hanging of quilts, in new spots, and  sorting of fabrics,  promotional discounting, cutting, stitching, teaching, greeting of customers – lots of newbies this week ( we love that our network continues to expand .)

(Breath)

Our plans for helping the Chinese Orphanages grows exponentially.   A quiet mention of the idea  has  more individuals and an entire class of young volunteers committing to the project. Here is an excerpt of an email I received from PL upon returning with her new baby.

“…the SWI director decided to hang (the quilt I sent with P) on the wall, so all the

children could see and touch it. It is currently the only source of

visual and tactile stimulation for these kids, which is so needed…The

orphanage walls are bare, but this quilt brightens up the area. You

know, Roxanne, you handed me the quilt, which was one of the many

beautiful ones you have, as a gesture of generosity. I don’t think

either one of us could have ever imagined the magnitude of its worth to

these people. Just amazing. You made a lot of people happy!”

This is a hard act to follow, but we also received a generous donation of fabric and a sewing machine which will go to Community Service Club of New Fairfield, Healing Hands Quilters. I think the end of summer is a call to organize our lives for the coming season.  These gifts were from two separate sources, both this week.

Finally, as the Quilter’s Alley  was closing for one of our few remaining 2-day weekends ( we reopen on Sunday from 11-3 after Labor Day), we were graced with a visit from Sheila Hicks, weaver (and her friend, Joyce).  I recognized her as someone who had been to our shop a few months earlier by her enormous smile.  Her smile is like a hug that laps you into her energy.  Never has anyone complimented my needle selection with such joy.  It is so precious to be around people who revel in such simple beauty.  From a case in her purse, like treasures, she pulled out the scissor I sold her last time and a graceful latch-hook  tool that she uses to pull threads through the weaving ends.  As the interaction unfolded, we were on the metallic threads, ribbons and anything I might have for her minature weavings, Paris studio  (?) website?  Before long, we circled Stu’s computer screen to see the amazing work she has produced over the last 40 years, all over the world.  Wow!  I feel so lucky!