I'm Loving Visible Mending

So, my jeans which are a little big on me and thereby super comfy (I'm a fan of baggy clothes), split at one knee.  I keep a stash of the good bits of discarded jeans for just these times.  Usually I make a basic rectangle patch and stitch it on.  But I've been bitten by the visible mending bug now, so a basic rectangle just won't do!

I thought about how it was kind of like a blinking eye with my kneecap poking out, and boom, decided to mend it with an appliquéd eye.  I enlarged the eye I used for my Eye Contact project for the Sacred Threads show.  I used a variety of denim colors, and here's the result.  I am, as I'm learning to say from my internet friends across the pond, chuffed. 

Here's the Eye Contact quilt I made last spring.

 

 

There's now a catalog of the exhibit.  I highly recommend it.  I always love a good challenge project with all the myriad variations on the theme.  This collection does not disappoint.  So many varied techniques and interpretations!

Dog Meets Quilt. Visible Mending to the Rescue!

I highlighted my first foray into the fun of visible mending just a few months ago.

Visible mending is all the rage these days in the reduce, reuse, and recycle community.  It's a way to mend clothes by adding stitching that adds to the fun of wearing them while keeping them out of the landfill for as long as possible.  It also helps the clothing tell the story of its long life and expresses the appreciation of the person or people who have worn it.

Here's visible mending of a quilt.  A repair student of mine had her dog chew a hole in her own bed quilt while I was guiding her through repairing and re-backing a Victorian crazy quilt for a friend.  She sent the story and step-by-step photos so I could see, and agreed to let me share them with you here.  Thanks, Pam!

Polka Dots!

I made a small polka dot themed quilt as part of the copyright study at Just Wanna Quilt.   The basic question is to find the line between what's unique enough to be copyrightable and what is considered too common (eg., basic polka dots).  (By the way, any and all are welcome to join the project and make all sorts of things.  Visit the facebook page to sign up.  It's a great group, lots of interesting and fun discussions on all sorts of quilt-y topics.)

That may sound all highfalutin (which I discovered is actually in the dictionary and I spelled it right!), but actually I'm just using it as a reason to play with my stash.  You know, always so fun!

So, the background is white satin from a wedding dress that was too badly damaged to be re-saleable, but good in places for fabric and trim salvage.  And the polka dots are reverse appliqué, with machine zig-zag and invisible thread.