On the way to see grandchildren, I finished a white and blue sashiko that Ellen gave us to work on in our winter workshop for the Quilters' Connection. I will put it with the other sashiko pieces I have blogged on before, pieces to turn into pillows and coasters. Sashiko is by far my favorite road trip craft. It is so portable. Joe puts a book cd in the car; I have scissors on a cord around my neck with a small sewing kit in the console; and we are ready-to-roll. See other sashiko projects by typing that word in the white search area in the top left corner of this post near the Blogger icon. Hit return.
I have just finished some journal quilts to complete with hand stitching, the next time we hit the road. The first is a bed to refer to that awful flu (notwithstanding the shots) which exhausted and grounded us for a month, it seemed. Also, I created that memory while also thinking of the doll beds that Joe is making for Hannah and Erika. This is a two-in-one journal quilt, almost. But it needs more quilting and truly refers to us.
The second journal quilt is about the busy week of Easter and Passover, and the memory of how I obtained a huge pot of the best matzo ball soup for my big crew. I traded teen Lloyd his portrait (scroll down to see the painting at my April 19 blog) for his big silver pot of incomparable soup. The matzo balls are painterly eggs and the paint brushes allude to the exchange. It really needs some embroidery tidying up.
The third unrelated quilt is older but it was an experiment in weaving fabrics too close for contrast. I kept adding puff paint and beads and even framed it to try to save it. I just tossed it in for history. Click to enlarge photos.
