- On edge: Wood, metal and cloth assemblages

Don has been working on a series of assemblages made from repurposed wood and metal, of which this is the most recent ...

Wood from Junkology

This angle view shows off his edge work, as well as the dimensionality of the clockwork spring found during last summer's junk haul at the Outer Banks ...

This, in addition to last week's assemblage, made his original moon phase assemblage look washed out. Since the plan is to hang them all together, he made the edge of the moon assemblage a bit darker (dare I say edgier?) ...

Meanwhile, I finished stitching together four layers of linen with coral cotton strips woven in ...

a much more substantial piece to give the wood table protection from serving dishes ...

Close-up view showing the variation in cloth weaves

I dipped one edge into a simmered brew of windfall lichen ...

letting the color wick up close to the first row of cloth weaving ...

then hung it out to dry, during which time the color continued to migrate upward ...

This persimmon has become my de facto cloth-hanger

A second dip, a-side ...

and b-side, shows how much the color on the side softened after drying compared to the wet bottom edge ...

Two more cycles of dipping and drying remain to be done on the other two edges. At that point I'll consider whether to stitch along the boundaries created by the wicking, then put it all in the washing machine to see how the color will stand up.

I think I could get used to living on the edge ...

- Almost too busy to post: Updates on assemblages

Summer days are full ... yard work all morning (before triple digit heat sets in), tending dye pots (they're not trials anymore), helping the Austin crew pack for their upcoming move, and just plain keeping the homestead running.

Nonetheless, there are some project completions to report: the most recent table mat a-side ...

and b-side ...

Since I couldn't decide between a ragged edge or a bound edge, I did both ...

Plus Don's latest New Mexico assemblage ...

Turkey feathers courtesy of our neighborhood Rio Grandes

which joins an earlier work on the wall ...

And having completed those, we are both in-process with the next creative round. 

Mine inspired by a re-visit to Jude Hill's Cloth-to-cloth ...

soon to be dipped in windfall lichen ...

Double, double, toil and trouble ...

as were these thrifted cloths, which have been laundered and dried following Prairie Tea and lichen dunkings ...

and Don's inspired by a sign at the Red Sky Cafe in Duck, NC ...

Oh yes, Don also got a new toy ... the better to make some wooden nine-patches, he says.

Now that should be interesting!

- The Turquoise Trail revisited

Don and I have both been working on new assemblages, although his always seem to come together faster than mine ...

In any case, I decided to go back to Jude Hill's Spirit Cloth 101 class, thinking that I now have a context for the various techniques. 

Since I've wanted to create a series in Southwest colors for our dining room table, I gathered up some cloth, tore it into strips, and wove a base ...

which I didn't really like, but I wasn't going to waste the strips, so I rearranged them a bit and decided to dye a blue blouse with Prairie Tea to make some turquoise for contrast.

But slipping the turquoise strips into the weave didn't get me where I wanted to go, so I started making some pre-basted square patches. One and a half inches to a side seemed too big ... one inch to a side seemed too small ... one and two tenths ended up being just right. 

Looking at my little stack of patches I thought, "The Turquoise Trail ... of course!" And promptly went online to find a map to our first magical day in New Mexico ...

Then arranged my patches ...

and stitched them together with a rusty sun ...

Which I didn't like. Really ...

So I unpinned everything and tried again ...

Okay, better. For sure the snaking bits of cloth recalled the harrowing (for me) drive through twisting narrow roads. And the smaller bit of rust cloth had potential for a sun symbol. 

So I stitched it all down ...

and will think about how to finish it ...

whilst helping my daughter pack for the move to their new home later this month.

- I've got sunshine ... on a sunny day

Prairie tea is indeed an effective dyestuff, as this formerly white linen blouse ably demonstrates ...

The cotton diaper cloth on the left also took the dye well, as did the harem cloth ties

Sadly, no leaf imprints came through, but I may have jumped the gun a bit in unwrapping the bundle (what a surprise).

But in the "more good news" department: my turkey feather collection is growing by leaps and bounds. The Rio Grandes must be molting to beat the Texas heat ...

I was also successful hunting for linen on the shirt racks at the Wimberley thrift store (purchased for my fabric stash, but at least one may sneak into the closet). While there, I learned that my all-time favorite antique store By the Bridge had been flooded in May (contrary to news reports which led me to believe it had escaped unscathed).

Wanting to help in the rebuilding effort, I did what I could do ... I went and spent money.  Owner Jill Jones has a great eye and she knows how to ask a fair price, so I quickly found an awesome kettle ...

which was obviously designed to be heated in a bed of coals on top of a wood stove (thanks Grace) ...

and a three-foot diameter iron ring, which I'm sure Don can repurpose ...

Since the items weren't marked, I chatted with Anne Marie while we waited for Jill to call back with prices. In response to my asking what she's been working on lately (you can see one of her felted stitch and patchwork projects here), Anne Marie showed me three folk art assemblages that stole my heart. This is the one that came home ...

The clothesline made it irresistible.

Now the question is, do I go back for the lightning rod?

- Only in Texas

Texas is a land of superlatives and since moving here five years ago we've experienced the most triple-digit days in a summer (100 over 100), the coldest winter on record (complete with frozen pipes ... which didn't burst, fortunately), the highest flood stage ever on the Blanco River, and the wettest May on record (those last two weren't coincidental), and well, you get the idea.

Not that any of this was on my mind when I headed out to do some weeding, after donning proper attire to avoid any misencounters with cactus spines, spiders (tarantulas), snakes, or scorpions ...

Instead, I spent an hour or so pulling up Johnsongrass (an undesirable invasive) and selectively thinning out the  Prairie tea (aka One-seed croton) ... which is native, but competes with the grasses. We have noticed when we pull up the croton, the following year we see an increase in King Ranch bluestem (not the greatest either), which then yields to Little bluestem (highly desirable) and eventually Yellow Indiangrass (woo hoo!)

The Johsongrass ended up on the compost heap, but having read recently about Prairie Tea as a dyestuff, I brought it in for a trial (along with some turkey feathers that I'm gathering for our grandkids to take in to pre-school at Thanksgiving) ...

Since Saskia has been showing off some wonderful clothing dye trials lately, I was inspired to try dyeing this linen top (with the ulterior motive of covering up some stains) ...

Then seriously rolled the biggest tea bag ever and put it in a pot to simmer with some tap water and alum ...

I also decided to test a theory that has been growing in my mind since going through my cloth stash yesterday. When I encountered cloth dyed this spring, I had yet another allergic reaction, even though the cloth had been laundered. Curiously, I didn't have this problem with the dye trials last autumn ... and the chief difference is that I started using a copper pot this spring.

So, I gathered some more Prairie coneflowers (aka Thimble flowers), this time cutting off the entire flower head, not just the petals. Then I put some on a piece of white muslin ...

folded it over and added some more ...

and repeated a couple more times ...

Then rolled and tied it all into a bundle and put it in a (non-food) hot pot with tap water and alum ...

After an hour, color was happening ...

And the back porch smelled heavenly ... which reminds me, one of the things I most love about weeding croton is the wonderfully resinous fragrance akin to sages (aka salvias) that wafts up as you pull them out of the ground ... a fragrance that is definitely enhanced by steeping.

Fingers crossed that these lovelies do not induce an allergic reaction this time around.

Oh, one last thing. In the midst of writing this post, I got an email from a former colleague at the Texas State University library indicating that I might want to take a peek at the latest emergency alert with the tag line "only in Texas."

So I did ...

Superlative!

Update: A few hours later ...

- This old shirt

Note: Click to listen to Mary Chapin Carpenter sing This Shirt as you read ...

After the intensity of working on Hearts for Charleston, I needed to decompress. So I decided to mend this cotton shirt from LL Bean, one of the last gifts from my mom, who passed away in 2008 ...

Mostly used as a night shirt, I recently realized it was getting threadbare ...

which I guess was understandable after seven plus years ...

I wish I had realized it sooner as I could have reinforced the thin spots with kantha stitch alone, but given the holes it seemed best to back the mending with thin cotton cloth ...

to support the stitching ...

And then, because I really just wanted to keep on stitching and have a little fun, I added cloth patches on the front over a couple of stains and some frayed edges ...

I even used some fabric from a deconstructed blouse of my mom's that had also served as a night shirt until it started to fall apart ....

In hindsight, I wish I had mended that blouse instead of tearing it apart, but at least I'm able to wear a bit of it again.

By the way, those of you who have been following the Hearts for Charleston posts might recognize this repurposed fabric from the first set of strips made to honor Ethel Lee Lance. In a way I'm glad it worked out that way as I now have a keepsake from that project.