Billy Makes a Boro Bed

Several years ago, we got some fabulous, very expensive Keiko Goke fabric in at work.  Because Liza is so generous about employee discounts, I could get enough to make a duvet cover that made us very happy.   

Especially Billy Dog, who can't rest until he makes a nest. So duvet cover got sliced and diced and it all looked pretty grim until the "duh" bell went off in my head. I've been living the patchwork life...but the notion of making an actual patch went right by me. 

Now we have the start of a lovely boro bed.

After all, its really about how you look at it all...as a rip or as the heart of a patch?

Billy, meanwhile, is hard at work on his next project....boro futon.  With matching pillow.

 

Knowing When to Stop

I am hoping that this blog...its process of pausing to document, to notice...helps me connect all the loose threads of my life. Especially everything I am learning from Jude Hill and the wonderous stitchers over at Spirit Cloth.  Here goes.

She of No Body Fat violated our No Birthday Presents Treaty last fall.  I decided to retaliate with a bookmark that would echo my fascination with the icy blue of this winter's sky.  I saw the exact colors in some pieced scraps and a hunk of indigo and moon from Glennis Dolce. I began to stitch. 

It started with the three vertical colors on the right...but these kept expanding leftward as I couldn't find the feeling inside that said Done. Which forced more stitching...and then the white background...which forced more stitching...

7" x 4"

I finally stopped when I realized the bookmark was about to be bigger than the book. So mad at myself because I felt the precise moment when I should have put the piece down and just ran over it like a truck on a bag of potato chips. Lucky for me, Himself was in the room. He has the gift of seeing. He simply folded it in half. And it looked like winter AND a bookmark.

He saved the day. But I still wish I knew how to stop just slightly BEFORE it is time. In so many, many things...