Spirit of Autumn Solstice, stitch patterned tie-dye, mini weavings

 Yes, Autumn is here!  Cooler temperatures, soups on the stove, more blankets on the bed!  And some new things I've been working on in the studio.

Meet "Spirit of Autumn Solstice", my first standing Spirit Doll:

My friend Cinde gave me a wood pine round to see how it would work as a stand, and I'm delighted to say it worked just fine!  I cut a small length of narrow dowel and screwed it into the base after creating a recessed area for the dowel, then slid the dowel into the center of the doll's caftan behind the 'body' stick... perfect!  She is resting in the studio right now, waiting for my next trip to Sedona Artist Market to see if I can find room for her on my baker's rack.

Meanwhile, I've gotten back into stitch patterned tie-dye shirts.  I did one for a customer after Flagstaff Open Studios Tour, and loved it so much I decided that would be my main design for the fall and winter this year.  Here are a couple of examples:

These are really easy to do: spritz a shirt with water to dampen; use a fabric transfer pencil to draw curvy lines ( I usually alternate the wide and narrow curves to give it a fern-y look).  I use a large eye needle and dental tape to stitch a running stitch up the lines, then when they are all stitched, I pull the dental tape to gather the stitches snugly and tie - I purposely do even numbers of rows so I can tie 2 of the tapes together, then trim the excess tape, and repeat for the remaining rows.  Then I soda soak the garment, apply the dyes and batch.  Easy and I love how they come out!

Finally, I just finished 2 "Mini-weavings", using water color paper as my base, and diving into my sash of yarn scraps and twigs.

I intended to make this into a note card, but then I got the idea to see how it would look framed - as you can see, framed won!

I have some botanical prints that didn't come out good enough for cards, but decided the

one above (the blue paper) would work well as another background.  This one is framed 

without glass as it is a little 3D, and I wanted it to show up better.  

I think what I like about the Mini-weavings is they are a small project - one I could carry

with me to work on at Arts Connection when I'm working a shift, and they are finished

fairly quickly.  I'm sure there will be more of these coming, so stay tuned!

As a post script, I stopped at the local thrift shop today and found several frames I will use for

future mini-weavings, S C O R E!!!