This was my stash closet last week. I do well with disorder. However, my house is on the biennial House Tour this year, so something had to be done.
It took three days.
Lots of remnants discarded, some fabrics that I'll never use donated to the thrift shop, and a few listed on eBay for sale.
Unwanted yarns sent to a nursing home resident who had requested crocheting materials.
Here it is today.
Need I say more?
Well, one thing more: I found a box I'd been searching for over the past three years--it contained my walking foot, and the feet for my newest Bernina (I've been using the older one because I couldn't find the feet). And the BSR that I don't use any more, so I'm selling that on eBay.
On reflection, this may not be interesting to anyone but me. I am patting myself on the back anyway.
Thing Number Two:
Our little church has been in the search process for a new rector, and in the meantime we've had visiting clergy for several months. Father Frank, who was with us the last three Sundays, wore this antique stole, which has clearly seen better days. I really wanted to get a closer look at it, so after church I said, "Father Frank, if you'd ever be interested in some restoration work on that beautiful stole, I would be happy to do it." He immediately took off the stole and handed it to me, along with his contact information. He said the stole had belonged to an old friend and mentor, the Canon of a large church. The Canon's sister had made the stole, entirely by hand, in 1911. She designed and executed the gold thread embroidery, which is exquisite. When the Canon died, he had no one to inherit his stoles, so Father Frank took them and has used them carefully.
I assured him I would work very carefully on this silk that is over 100 years old. He replied, "I knew you would, or you wouldn't have offered." Isn't that lovely?
So today sister Gee Gee and I went into Houston in search of the best match we could find to the olive green silk. No hope of finding matching brocade, of course. We focused on color. The very helpful saleslady at High Fashion Fabrics got interested and pulled out lots of bolts for us. In the end I bought two pieces, one a shantung in as close a match to the green as we could find, and the other an iridescent green/brown that goes beautifully with the embroidery and fringe. I don't plan to do anything drastic with the embroidery, even though some of the silk has shattered and disappeared. A lot of the gold has come off the thread, leaving the red core threads--this gives the embroidered section a very evocative coppery color.
I'm just going to put a bias-cut binding on the frayed edges, replace the linen at the neck, and stabilize whatever I can. Fine needle, careful stitching, don't pull anything too tight. You have to respect the maker and the age of the work.
I made this quilt a couple of years ago to enter in a show; it did not make the cut. So it sat in a cupboard, probably feeling as rejected as I did. Because a lot of my work is out at exhibitions right now, I needed something to hang in the front hallway--so "Orbit, the Final Migration" came out into the light again.
Cindy Klopsteck, who writes a column for our local weekly paper, the Eagle Lake Headlight, visited on Monday to see the house and write an article in anticipation of the House Tour. She collects butterfly items; wanted to know whether I had other "butterfly quilts." I did not, but told her "this one is available if you're interested." Fifteen minutes later I had a sold the quilt right off the wall. I told her how it was made, where the materials came from, and so on. She went home happily, and now I have a new "patron." What a nice surprise!