Sunday, January 31, 2021

Recovery Projects

 Last July, after my spine surgery, once I felt well enough, I needed something to do that wasn't too physical and could give me a bit of chance for creativity.

I decided to look in my fabric scrap box and see if I could make something. I went on line to get some ideas, and a bit of a tutorial on fabric landscape  design.  Then I made a sketch and began seeing what fabrics might work.

I was in no rush. I worked on it a little bit at a time, over months, actually, just picking it up when there was a time gap to fill. As for the design, I pretty much made it up as I went along, starting at the top and adding layers.


Here is the end product, finally hung just last week.

Today I Facetimed with granddaughter Irene and I was telling her about some of the fabrics. Everything has a story. She remembered the dresses. 

The sky blue is from a dress I made for her, back when she wanted fancy dresses. The solid blue in the mountains and the solid green are scraps from making Sounder flags in the early days of our fandom, ten years ago. The pale green is from Irene's rainbow dress, maybe ten years ago. The patterned green is from a vest I made for Isaac, part of our dress up occasion for celebrating an Irene birthday with high tea at the Brown Palace Hotel in Denver. That might be the occasion for the rainbow dress too. 

The dark green with the vertical lighter stripes is from a big piece of fabric I found in an antique store in Garibaldi on the Oregon coast. It was used in all kinds of things, including Christmas placemats. The other two green floral calico pieces are from way back, when I made stuffed JILL letters for Jill's bedroom, and Christmas ornaments, let's say 40 years ago. 

Last week I started a new recovery project, once again digging through my scrap box. I am making a set of two placemats to go with my Valentine table topper. These are going faster, because it is now the last day of January, and I want to use them for February. 

I'll post again when they are finished. There will probably be more stories. 

14 comments:

  1. It's a lovely piece of work, and with all those memories in there, it will be cherished for a long time to come! :-)

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  2. That's a great way to occupy your time and make what will become treasured pieces at the same time.

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  3. How fun and great that you posted what the fabric belonged to. The remember your cute grand daughters dresses. Maybe in the future you can make cute great grand daughter dresses? Looks like a fun creative project.

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  4. I feel guilty that I no longer have a scrap box, a sewing machine or any spools of thread.

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  5. That is a beautiful piece. I love that all those memories are attached, stretching back over the years.

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  6. Lovely project and the memories that it evokes are sweet.

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  7. This is a much better project than what we used to do - using old things for rag rugs that although told a story wore out and were gone. I think you are starting a trend!

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  8. Love your fabric landscape. Also impress how Irene recognized each peice which show how much the things you made for them meant to her. Priceless.

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  9. Your fabric landscape is amazing. You are so talented and must be a really good seamstress. Didn't know I had missed so many of your post. I couldn't imagine you out four wheeling so soon after your surgery. Was glad to see is was a safe four wheeler. Glad you're getting better. We could sure use a little sunshine here.

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  10. I have done a landscape quilt with strips and strips of fabrics to form a picture. I like how yours came out and with such special fabrics!

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  11. Wow, that is incredible. I love it!

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