Back to work, Granny

Sigh.  The dear ones have gone back to their home nest.  It will be my turn to travel next.  I miss them.

 This morning I unwrapped my arashi pole (Glennis' shibori class).

Here it is on the counter with a little bobbin made with a twig from the apple tree.  The thread I used to wrap the silk on the pole is buttonhole twist; you can see it on the bobbin.  This bobbin idea came from Deb G.

Here is my arashi after I ironed it.  My goal is to create a pattern like water and then to make a lap cloth:

with several to many of these (above) sewn together.  I'm practicing Jude's piecing method.  The silk is tricky to manage because it is slippery.  On this piece I used starch, then I tried a fabric interfacing and that worked well, but the silk no longer felt like silk...more like cotton.  I have a couple of other ideas to explore.

Donkeys and Winter Bird

Here's a close-up on how the donkeys are coming along.  I gave them a little ground to stand on.

And here is another bookmark.  I used linen for the background.  This little bird I made using a stabilizing fabric backer because it's silk and was slippy sliding around something terrific.  Next time I'm going to experiment with starch and see if that will help with tucked-under applique.  Maybe it would be a good idea to work on a bigger scale!

The photo doesn't pick up the shiny thread moon that the winter bird is looking at.

And here is one more, an experiment, a sampler of all these new (to me) ways of working.  It is maybe Santa wading through the January lull.