This was the inspiration for Tigi, my collage kitty in lace and softness…..

And this is Ebenezer, soon to be found in the best way I know how.

The tail was a good beginning.

The fur will be a long but fun process.

There is a potential for grace here, and that is how I envision Ebenezer.

Gray cats have various tones of color, so in this tub I dumped many whites and cream and ecru tones to see if I could get some nice variations. I also did two other tubs of color and ended with a nice assortment.

Ebenezer has stolen my heart. I have spent the last two and a half days on his tail alone because tails are so important to cats, especially Ebby. There will be a lot more manipulation of fabric in this cat so it has more of a sculptural quality in its fur. I am doing a lot of tearing and gathering and forming. There is no end to the results that one can create with lots of playing and hand stitching. I think Ebby will find a nice new make believe home here with lots of love and devotion.

I will post a few pieces here and there as I work in the days ahead. I have a trip to see my grandchildren next week, but I am hoping to take Ebenezer with me. His tail will be finished today.

For some reason, I have never been a huge fan of the desert. Maybe it is the heat and the lack of shade or lush foliage that leaves me feeling parched, both physically and spiritually. However, having spent two nights there on Thursday and Friday, I have come away with new awareness and appreciation. My father always loved the desert, particularly in the spring when it was in bloom. He made annual treks to see the colors and the flowers and listen to the voices there that called him, the ones only he heard, the ones that carried him into the deeper recesses of his complex mind. He always came away refreshed and renewed. Now I think I was introduced to his appreciation the last few days.

The sky has a deep and penetrating blue as it becomes the backdrop for the sharp contrast of the red and stark sandstone. When I think of the desert, too, I am reminded of Georgia O’Keeffe and her love of the stark desert beauty around Taos, New Mexico where she lived and painted. And for me, part of the awareness and appreciation of the colors and textures are the same elements that I employ when I am thinking of creating a cloth design or imagining space and how something needs to be left open to chance and surprise, like the face of these desert mountains.

One morning we decided to climb Camelback Mountain in Echo Canyon in Phoenix. Phoenix is supposed to have the best urban hiking in the country, a fact that surprised me because I always boasted that we had this claim in Portland, Oregon. We had no idea what we were getting into with this hike. The stairs at the trailhead seemed harmless, so we ventured up, eager and ready for some good morning exercise. The elevation is 2,704 feet above sea level and the elevation gain is about 1,200 feet. It is all layered sandstone with plenty of rocks and boulders to climb over and around.

Some of the trail is so steep that there is a cyclone fence lining the edge as well as a metal handrail that you use to pull yourself up and higher to the next level. We went up the Summit Trail at the beginning of the Echo Canyon Park.

When we climbed up past this area, I turned around to see where we had been and took this photo. At this point, my husband was taking every step with great precaution because of his inability to use his left arm and shoulder from his surgery. At this point, he was regretting the climb, not wanting to re-injure his shoulder and begin the process of healing all over again.

I was loving the climbing and pulling up and over the rocks, the strenuous task of the journey. About halfway up the climb, we stopped to talk to a man about our age and he told us about this 80+ year old man at the summit named “Sonny” who climbed Camelback three times a day, 6 days a week for a total of 80,000 times to his calculation. Within 15 minutes we ran into him as he was on his way down. I asked, “Are you Sonny?” He was wiry, tan, and about 5’6” tall. When he confirmed his identity, I told him that we had heard about him. He merely smiled and clambered down over more rocks on the steep trail down. I love running into people like this. How inspiring!

Most of the hikers on the trail were fairly young, the majority in their twenties. I hope they all use Sonny as a role model as they age into their senior years.

We took the Cholla Trail down on the other side making the round trip around 3 miles. Now I am ready to go back to more of this desert urban hiking.

There was a shop in town that sold red dirt shirts. It looked just like the colors of the sandstone and this red dirt was used to dye this clothing. I loved the deep, rich color and immediately thought of the blue sky and then the turquoise jewelry that mimics this blue so beautifully.

Almost two weeks ago, my husband and I left on a flight to Alexandria, Virginia. We were finally meeting a new grandson and welcoming back a son and his family from Germany. We had such a memorable and wonderful time seeing our two grandchildren and catching up with news and life. One of the days I had some free time, so I took the metro over to The Textile Museum in Washington DC. I had been there previously about six years ago and found it to be worthy of time well-spent. It is also housed in the most beautiful building in a picturesque part of the city.

When you walk in the front door, this is the garden that you see directly in the back. This could be England or France. Impeccably maintained, it is a museum not to be missed.

Even the bathroom is stenciled with textile terms. Everything in this building is a textile lover’s paradise.

I keep up with their ongoing special exhibits, and I was not going to miss the opportunity of seeing this one, “Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats”. The dates of this exhibit are October 16,2010 through March 13, 2011. If you are anywhere near the area, it is well worth the effort to see this amazing, colorful exhibit. It features a collection given to The Textile Museum by collector Murad Megalli that includes nineteenth-century Central Asian ikat “robes for men and women and women’s dresses and pants, as well as cradle covers, hanging and fragments.” I have to say that it was absolutely breathtaking to walk into the rooms and see these pieces displayed against midnight blue walls. The designs and colors of these pieces just popped. I wanted to take photos, but of course it was prohibited.

As a note to this exhibit, I read that Murad Megalli was killed in a plane crash on February 4, 2011 just as this exhibit was nearing its ends. What a legacy he left behind and how generous was his gift to The Textile Museum.

I purchased the book because this is subject matter I find so fascinating to study, the history of the area, its people, the textiles, and the beauty and dedication of this magical craft of ikat dyeing and weaving. And the colors are so rich and captivating. The exhibit also coincided with another post I did on Russian textiles, as many of the linings of these robes come from Russia. This is the book that describes these textiles that were used, and they displayed a copy of this book by Susan Meller along side the featured exhibit book.

The second exhibit is one that is near and dear to many of us who write blogs about using and reusing clothing and textiles, “Second Lives: the Age-Old Art of Recycling Textiles”. When I entered this room, I just wanted to spend luxurious time here taking in all the beauty of the stitching and the old and loved and well-worn recycled pieces. However, the museum was about to close and so my fifteen minutes here were rather hurried. The flyer says the exhibit will last through January of 2012, but the newsletter says this exhibit ends July 10, 2011. Either way, there is plenty of time to see this if you are anywhere near the area in the next four months.

The hanging panel that is featured on the cover of the brochure is truly such an amazing piece. It is from Central Asia, Uzbekistan, 1850-1900 and features the most incredible collection of remnants, silk ikats and printed cottons from Russia. There are 35 squares separated by borders of repeated black and brown triangles. At first I thought this was a quilt but there is no evidence of quilting, and they name it a “panel”. But it is based on the nine patch with borders and then separated by these wonderful pieced triangle strips.

This is one of those pieces that I could stand in front of indefinitely in order to absorb all the prints and weavings of the various and most beautiful pieced textiles.

Back on the street, I had to ask myself, “Did I just die and go to heaven?” Boarding the metro and being in the crunch of the rush hour commuters brought me quickly back to reality. And isn’t this why we visit museums of art we love? It gives a chance to remove ourselves from the routine of everyday living and for a brief moment in time visit another world of beauty and culture.

For more information on this exhibit as well as others, you can visit their website here. Another exhibit I would love to see that starts April 16 and runs through September 11, 2011 is “Green: the Color and the Cause”. It “will explore the techniques people have devised to create green textiles, the meanings this color has held in cultures across time and place, and the ways that contemporary textile artists and designers are responding to concerns about the environment. Textiles from the museum’s permanent collection will be complemented by the work of a selection of contemporary international artists and designers.”

Now I intend to change the subject here as it is time for other things on a blog that is supposedly textile-related, the huge subject that often consumes my life too.

I have several skirts in my closet that have needed a little help, so about two weeks ago I started adding some embellishment to the hems. This one has a velvet ruffle and I added a crinkly rayon ribbon to it.

My next skirt was a silk one that had cotton lace on the bottom. I added some French metallic trim as well as some crochet pieces that I had dyed about two years ago. I still need to iron this, but I like the way the colors turned out on this one.

The next skirt was a purple one that was way too long, so I shortened it and added a simple narrow ruffle of silk taffeta.

And finally I took the lining away from the bottom of the wool skirt that I had made of this old jacquard throw awhile back. It hangs much better and is now ready to wear for winter.

My next project has to do with chalk paints. More on that later in the week.

When I was doing a little research on Florence Peto, I came across a quilt in a book published by the Shelburne Museum, Art of the Needle, and realized I had some “doilies” with a similar look.

The explanation from the book on page 100, described the technique: “The blue-gray color was sprayed over flowers, fern leafs, and bird stencils to look like early 19th-century photographic images produced on sensitized paper.”

This is the complete quilt, 89″ x 89″, late 19th century, pieced, painted, and quilted cotton.

The interesting thing about these pieces is that you can see the way the pieces were sprayed when you look at the edges. I think the fabric is a polished cotton and most of the images are of fern leaves. When I study the delight and imagery of these pieces, I immediately am drawn to here. I imagine the person making these images saying well…what if…and this is how remarkable pieces are created over time.

Thank you for your supportive and great responses to my post “Unfolding”. It will be a great way to begin a new year for me and my daughter. Collaboration is energizing and exciting. It will be fun to see how our mutual loves and dreams become an entity not yet defined…a longing of the best kind.

Recently I wanted to work with some dyes on natural fibers to see what unique colors I could create. These pieces above were from two wools sweaters that I had washed and dried several times. Both were ivory, and one had a paisley design that was light brown.

Since I have a large collection of cotton crochet trims, eyelets, and lace, I experimented with the same fiber reactive dye, chartreuse, by Dharma Trading. My goal was to use these in some quilts and handbags. This color was a big success and all pieces revealed unique and varied results.

Here is another array of colors: chartreuse, bronze, lapis, and claret. What I find most interesting about this project is that the colors varied according to the piece. It was a lengthy project but fun. Wear a good mask!