Currently my quiltmaking continues exploration of the ground between traditional quiltmaking and my interest in lace and leather. Readers who have been following this leather thing since I began samplising over a year ago will have also seen various old lace samples I have put up at intervals over the period of the blog, and some intriguing pieces of handmade lace from various sources but especially my trip to Paraguay about a year back. Lace has two aspects – the textile stuff and the holes between the bits of thread, and I realise I have been very interested in the ‘holes’ bit for years – I have a lovely pair of silver earings, very modern with holes punched out, and a more recent gold pair of round-ish organic shapes, slightly concave, with holes of various sizes randomly punched out: all these things plus the challenges of a piece of leather set me off on a track where I recognise leather can look lacey. Laciness lightens up a solid shape….and lighter solid shapes can appear to float.

So now these roughly triangular shapes have been glued down, I will be doing a lot of hand sewing behind the scenes today, and may even get to the quilting stage. It is about 1m square, so not too overwhelming.

I haven’t yet decided whether it is to be hand quilting or machine, but I am already planning the next quilt in this series. I want to make it very big with lots of little pieces on it … mad or brave… but it’s there and has to be done.

My client J has accepted my suggestions of colours, (blogged a few weeks back) selected the design and paid her deposit, so that will also be under way very soon.