What's up Doc?

Remnant #10

Hi everyone! Just popping in to touch base...

Things are still busy here. For starters, the scheduled wisdom teeth surgery that youngest daughter was scheduled for tomorrow has been put on hold due to a case of bronchitis and walking pneumonia. (Where the hell, in the middle of summer, that all came from... I have no idea.)

Remnant #11

The combination of the two have kicked her asthma back into high gear, (something we had mistakenly thought she had outgrown) ... as well as my worry, (I'm driving her nuts with my hovering). Now it's lots of ongoing meds and doctor visits to keep a check on how things are progressing. She's been a real trooper, and things are looking like they are starting to get better as yesterday she didn't need her rescue inhaler at all.

I have been keeping more then busy with other family/life details that I won't bore you with, (you are welcome!) Happily in the midst of everything I did manage to get three new Remnant pieces made, (shown through out this post, because eye candy is always good!) Stitching keeps me sane.


Remnant #12

I am also planning for an up coming trip that I think you all will find very exciting... but I don't want to give away any more information then that... at least for now. (However, I will say that it is making me both very excited and very, very nervous. Hmmm... what could it be?)

Again, I will be back when time opens up. Till then, I hope all your summer days are happy and healthy. xoxo

Boro Bobbles and Remnants

These "Boro Bobbles" are yet another fun way to use up every bit of scrap shot cotton, because I just can not bear to let any go to waste!


Their inspiration is a continuation of my ongoing love affair with look of old, patched cloth, and the belief in "waste not want not", (which I first heard uttered as a young girl, from the lips of my Grandmother, as she showed me how to braid long strips of left over wool material and then sew them into small rag rugs).


The Boro Bobbles also found their muse by the look of crocheted 'Granny Circles' with their charming, various colored circles playing against each other. (I've been in a mood to crochet lately, but am resisting the urge as I am trying to stay focused on stitching fabric... I get side tracked too easily... so instead I stayed the course, and challenged myself to be inspired by crochet and try to re-interpret / re-invent, it in cloth. ).


They are double sided, so each side is the right side. The edges were left raw to show off the beautiful colored fray of the shot cottons.


The Boro Bobbles can be stitched onto other items for embellishment, used as beads or buttons, incorporated into jewelry design, strung together, dangled, or simply sit pretty in a vintage glass bowl as shown above! I have some posted in my shop in groups of three and will be posting more as I make them.

I've also been stitching some new Remnants....


Remnants #6 (on the top) and #8 (on the bottom).

And...


Remnants #7 (on the bottom) and #9 (on the top).

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One more thing... To my Hubby...
Happy 24th Anniversary!

Remnants

Pinned up on my studio wall, I have some photo images of really heavily patched and stitched antique boro.


The patches in those boro pieces are all raw edged, and seem to completely cover whatever had been the original base fabric.


I like that nothing went wasted, and everything was important enough to be patched.

... Years ago when I was a teenager, a woman commented on my heavily patched and mended jeans, (they made my mother cringe and I know she used much restraint not to steal them from me in the middle of the night and set them on fire). The woman told me that to patch something was to show love. I never forgot that. (And I appreciated that this kind stranger understood me.... I wasn't accustomed to that.)


Anyway... looking at the boro images, and then glancing over at the ever growing pile of small bits of fabric scraps and off-kilter shaped pieces of batting left over from previous projects and now just sitting on my shelf, got me to thinking it was time to use it all up.


So I'm starting a little series of "Remnants", which I will be posting in my shop as they are completed.



More to come soon. xo