Dreamland: In process.

In process.

One of my goals in the mentoring program is to handsew a larger scale piece, in a similar method to the way I created the skirt. Ultimately I'd like to sew an entire quilt by hand (and actually use it), but I'm starting with a -- more manageable -- table runner.

My original idea was to use blue-greens and greys, and with that in mind I feverishly dyed a stack of old t-shirts, with mixed results. Meanwhile, I happened to have a stack of miscellaneous bits of red and grey sitting on a chair in my studio. I walked past it for the twentieth time before I realized I could work with reds instead of blue-greens.

My first step was to sketch out my idea, then I cut swatches of my fabrics -- some hand-dyed, some old t-shirts, some new -- and stuck them onto my design board:

I made another draft out of paper scraps so I could write on it (with grey, white, and red, to mimic the applique & reverse applique techniques I'll be using):

That step also allowed me to start painting right away. Since each section is small, it's also portable.

I'm attempting to balance the colors, the lettering styles, the texture -- all while keeping it simple (but not too simple) and allowing the poem itself to shine. I can see already that I may end up choosing to redo a section or two, as I won't really know how they all fit together until I'm pretty far along. Hopefully I'll have more complete photos to share in a few weeks!