I’ve been making samples this week in preparation of putting my ideas into an art quilt using wool for the ArtQuiltAustralia 25 call – of I enter two, one must be ‘substantially’ of wool on both back and front sides.

Later today I’m visiting fabric store that’s new-to-me, and their location, website and prices suggest it is possibly a bit outlet-ish, which would be great. I’m looking for wool, and they have some 100% at about US10/m which sounds reasonable. They also have listed some black cotton which I’d give my right arm for at the moment, but might only have to give about $3/m. Quality’s not really relevant for what I plan to do with it 🙂 It sounds like the kind of place that might have a remnants table…. and they have haberdashery / merceria. I am always on the lookout for the large but fine needles I prefer to use surface stitching and hand quilting, or stitching in combination with machine stitch.

This morning I came across this image, made for a teaching gig a few years ago. I keep a file of the grid/blanks squares on my computer to print off and pencil ideas into sometimes, though I do tend to go back to my favourites, and there are some old friends here. My regular readers know how I love grid-like layouts and how many of my designs feature lines and defining those layouts, or dividing the whole into parts.

Making samples can teach more than just what a chosen technique and colours will look like. From handling just this one sample, I now know that (1) I’m open to ditching the metallic and using another fabric to show behind the top wool layer (2) Whatever fabric shows through those holes, it really needs to be a complete layer between the front and the back as in reverse applique, the finest examples of which are the molas of the Kuna people of San Blas Is., off the coasts of Panama and Colombia.

Though the metallic fabric is pewter finish, it looks gold here, and both the wool thread and the rayon thread actually tone well; but in keeping with the look I want to convey, the wool might come out as the preferred thread. It partly depends on what I find in this shop later today.