2020 lockdown gallery

The last few months have been so strange, dystopian even.  With all usual activities (classes, gyms, fabric and yarn shops!) closed and a virtual stay at home order, it should have been a time of huge productivity.  

I know this was true for some  but although initially I had a burst of energy and finished a few things, the current "return to the new normal" (how can you return to something that is new???) left me feeling that I could have done a lot more.  Yes I did do a bit of sewing, making myself a couple of new things to wear this summer, and finished a big project (more of that in a future blog, though there is a teaser it the end of this post) but I hardly knitted anything and read less that a book a week.  

Knitting or reading always feel a bit of a luxury, something you can do when all the important (or boring stuff) is done, something for the afternoon sitting in the garden or on the sofa. Well, I got to the sofa or garden chair bit, then I fell asleep... Was it anxiety? Those early days were a bit scary with news coverage from around the world and at home of scenes from intensive care, rising death rates and deserted streets.  It seemed that as a retired person with no essential work or work at home to do; in fact nothing but to avoid getting sick and thus save one more person entering the already overburdened hospitals, sleep was the natural thing to do

To summarise, the message I got was "please keep out of the way!"

Then I thought about my painting and actually there I had achieved quite a lot, helped by a weekly zoom class.  So this is my 2020 gallery - some were painted in the last three months, others, already begun were finished off and some a bit of slicing and dicing, (where I don't particularly like the larger picture but am able to cut it down to show off small parts that I like a lot better!)

The animals were painted as presents and have, together with Weymouth Beach, already gone to their new homes but the rest are for sale, if you are interested please let me know in the comments (or by direct message on Instagram where I am @cath_ode). The pictures are various sizes and framed in Ikea's white frames with mounts.

1. Misty lake

 

2. The Ionian and the mainland

 

3. Genteel decay

 

4. Weymouth Beach

 

 

 

5. Lakka

6. Olives (fragment)

 

7. Poppy field

 

8. Fjord

 

9. Julian Bridge

 

10. Orchid

11. Bella's Buddy

 

12. Silva's leopard

 

13. (Fursty) Ferret 

xx

C

PS - the teaser - a quilt of improv curving colours, appliqué and freehand embroidery, designed as a wall hanging and inspired by the view depicted in painting no 2 (as is the bedcover)

Ionian

Disaster averted

We all have knitworthy friends, don't we?  Those nice people who don't ask for hand knitted things because they think its cheaper to get a scarf or sweater that way or that you love knitting so much you will happily spend all day for a few weeks making something that will be worn a few times then forgotten in a drawer, but friends who are always delighted to receive something and are seen wearing it - often.  Lizzie is one such friend and from time to time she will wear something that I have made that attracts the attention of someone else.  So much so that a scarf or pair of gloves mysteriously disappears from Lizzie's house and reappears at MB's 

A couple of years ago I knitted a brioche shawl for Lizzie, in grey and black cashmere silk mix and was amused to see it appear in a very fine photograph on instagram, by @theodoraw8 

Very much not Lizzie

I was rather pleased, there's nothing I like better than to see my work appreciated. But it is a shame to make these two appreciative friends share, so I decided to make MB something of his own.  After a bit of stash diving I found some wonderful fingering weight alpaca from Triskelion . (The yarn I had was in deep stash but they have something similar here )

A bit of searching on Ravelry and I came up with Celtic Myths by Asita Krebs.  Knitted, blocked and posted - to Lizzie for onwards transmission to MB .  Unfortunately I did not warn her to expect a parcel from me and over enthusuiastically opening a parcel she thought was one expected from her publisher she stabbed it rather too deeply with a sharp pair of scissors. I received a text to ask if I had any left over yarn as she needed to mend the 'teeniest nick' in the scarf - my friend is a writer of fiction...

After much begging for a proper photograph of the damage, and at MB's insistence, the scarf was sent back to me. I took a little time to work out the best way to repair it.  

Damage limitation

Firstly I grabbed as many stitches above and below the cut and parked them on a pair of DPNs and crocheted a chain down the cut sides

Pedicle

Then I created what in plastic surgery terms would be called  a pedicle graft (approximately!)

closure

Matching the stitch pattern of alternating sections of stocking stitch and reverse stocking stitch I kitchenered the pedicle in place at the top and stitched the sides with a sort of duplicate stitch

But it also seemed right to honour the repair, rather in the style of kintsugi (or knitsugi if you will) 

The structure of the shawl-scarf is such that it can be worn with the repair on view or hidden. I gather it is usually worn on show

xx

C

This Quilt

Remember this blog post back in December 2015? I wrote it as I contemplated repairing a very precious quilt.  All that remained of the ancient english paper pieced (EPP) quilt (given to my daughter by her godmother) was a large ragged top, full of holes and with its tatters held together by rusty safety pins! The reds were particularly badly worn, in some places nothing left but a thin fringe of the original fabric, in all probability due to the type of dye used.

The task was pretty daunting.  I needed to fill in the gaps, sew down the tatters, put in new batting, a new back, and quilt!  I had a few ideas of my own too. But firstly I had to ensure that I did no further damage, the entire thing was so fragile, and large, that although all the work was going to be by hand I could not risk working on my knee.  

I bought a king-sized, organic cotton sheet, washed (in non-bio detergent) and rinsed it several times  to be sure there were no residual chemicals in it.  I also bought several half metres of Liberty Tana Lawn in similar colours to the quilt pieces and treated them to the same laundering process

Next to lay out the quilt top over the sheet, the sitting room floor is the only space I have that is big enough, but even then it was pretty tricky trying to avoid standing on anything fragile (I must be a conservator's nightmare!!)

Once this was done I attached the assembled quilt to a home-made quilting frame (home-made by JTH). Most of the top is wound around the rollers running along the long sides, leaving a nice flat working space which can be rolled up and down as a section is completed. The assembled frame took up an entire bedroom (thank goodness our children have left home!)

I cut tiny pieces of (near enough) matching lawn and inserted them behind the holes then stitched them down with tiny stitches, through all layers.

In some places I could sew down the rips without patching from behind.  The very edge of the quilt was in such a poor condition, with long rips and some rust marks that I reluctantly decided I needed to cut it off, making the quilt about 4 inches smaller all round.

I don't know a lot about the quilt, I can only trace its existence back 100 years to the 1920s with any certainty, but  then the quilt gave up a secret.  Some of the papers used in the original construction (EPP consists of wrapping small pieces of fabric around paper shapes) had been left behind. I carefully removed them with tweezers.

A mystery. I could see Latin, Greek, Phonetics as well as English - what had been used for the templates? A clever friend did some research and in all probability the papers are from an ancient thesaurus called the Gradus Ad Parnassum, a reference book that would have been part of many household's library (along with a bible, a dictionary and some medical hand book).  It still does not give me a good reference date as the book was in publication from the 18th century for about 200 years, and maybe it would not have been cut up until it was no longer considered to be of any use.  This brings me back to the 1920s

The initial repair work took over a year. Then it was back to the sitting room floor to lay out another sheet, sandwiching unbleached heirloom cotton quilt batting (from Lady Sew and Sew) between it and the repaired quilt top.  Having decided that I would, as far as possible, hand stitch everything and use only natural materials I also decided I would finish the quilt with quite light stitching, using specialist quilting thread in a dark cream for the centre and dark red for the border.

I added my own pieces too (on the back of course) .  A Passacaglia medallion using the left over Tana Lawn

A panel giving some brief details of the quilt's story

A pocket for a little book with more details of the repair and reconstruction

And a little bag with the scraps of that Thesaurus

Finally a bright red border

And so, it's done, I wonder if it will fall to another mother to make repairs to it in another 100 years?

xx

c