All systems go

Funny that once I started talking about inspiration and making a journal I realized that I have a journal of sorts - an old binder full of ideas I have jotted down, magazine clippings and what have you. I had a look at it and this idea popped up. I had even bought fabric and knitting wool for it, and once I started thinking about it I just couldn't wait to get going.

Isn't it great when you get that urge to create? You get all tingly and excited and just have to start cutting into fabric and get all those beautiful threads out. Well, I'm saying you, but I really mean I, me, myself ;-) That's how I feel. Once I start thinking about a new project, all those colours and shapes invade my brain and whirl around in there even when I'm sleeping, and the time I have to spend at work can't pass quickly enough - I want to go home and sew! Luckily it isn't like this all the time - I'd be impossibe to be around, but when it happens and I'm able to spend some quality time with my sewing machine it is soooo much fun!

So I started up yesterday and made a quilt sandwich: one layer of fabric, one layer of cotton batting and another layer of fabric. The top one is a brown with tiny dark brown dots. The shade of brown has been all wrong for every project it has ever auditioned for, it's kind of "flat" and dull, and parts of it has faded, but with lots of different shades of brown thread on top I think I might make it work, and the little dots will be like wormholes in a weather-worn window frame. That's the look I'm going for anyway.

I started with stitching the outline of the frame and window panes, and quilted them with straight lines. Then I switched to free motion stitching and sort of "painted" the frame with dense stitching in lots of shades of brown. This took ages, and my shoulders were aching by the time I was done. I forgot all about my own rule of singing while you sew, to make sure you breathe properly and avoid getting your shoulders attatched to your ears! I used miles of thread and had to stop halfway there to clean my sewing machine, but eventually I was happy with the look and it was time to cut out the unquilted bits. That's as far as I got yesterday.

After a night of colourful dreams and a day at work ("I wanna go home") I could get back to it. Today I have basted a piece of water soluble fabric to the back of the frame with water soluble thread (that's those big white stitches you see in the top picture) and added branches of stitched down knitting wool. That seams to be all I have time for today, but I'm going to stitch some more on those branches, adding little twigs and such, and then I'll add autumn leaves. I know - summer has just arrived, and I'm making an autumn picture! Well I have been known to make Christmas things in March as well ... Anyway, the idea is to add leaves and machine embroidery to make it into a window almost hidden by foilage, but when I wash away the water soluble I should end up with a kind of lacy effect with lots of holes, but enough stitching to hold it together. I think. I haven't tried this before, but that's the picture I see in my head. I'll keep you posted :-)