boy on the moon

 since 2001, i've been writing love letters to an imaginary boy who lives on the moon. we meet in dream, we have little adventures on his moonlit perch where we turn into wolves, lay still like piano keys and become royalty. it's all quite saptastic really.

last year when i heard we  call all the shots in our final semester, my Spaceboy came back to spook me all over again. I have a number of sketchbooks filled with all these letters and one day hope to publish a small collection of them, but i'm glad to have my graduating collection in the theme of our mega old and twinkling love.
i've mentioned before in other posts that i'm kind of a nut when it comes to making and crafting but i think i may have topped myself off this year with my first piece of the collection being a quilt. yep, that's right.
i've never in my maker life have made a quilt but like the story of my life, i didn't want to use traditional patterns. i wanted to make up a picture with pieces of fabric like you'd see in paint-by-number kits, after running into the fantastic space quilts of Jimmy McBride, i knew exactly what my own quilt would be like.

along with the Spaceboy theme, i knew i wanted to use more natural based materials and processes. at first i wanted to use reclaimed materials from old shirts to make  up the picture of the moon but thought that could take much more time than i really had. i scored a wicked discount on a medium weight cotton from Fabric By Designers on queen street and began my hunt for grays in the natural dye world.

 

pomegranate is maybe my new favorite. an iron mordant will "sadden" dye stuffs and give great dark and deep shades, with pomegranate it gives this wonderful gray color which was perfection for my Spaceboy's moon. after pot dying all the cotton, i wrote out selected letters (written between 2003 and 2005) and silk screened them onto the fabric. i've always loved the look of handwriting on fabric but to see my own and the subject being so dear to my old bum ticker, i just had to print on a cotton blend i found in the scrap bin for a new scarf...'cause i don't have a gazillion scarves or anything.

i want this quilt to be a functional art quilt but somehow give it a bit of texture to it, so i thought of maybe layering materials. i can't even remember where but years ago i scored a huge amount of cotton gauze, i tried dying it with my new friends pomegranate and iron mordant.

after a good rinse and wash, i was intensely happy with the result. after a wash, the gauze had this crinkled up textured. i didn't want to lose that texture for the silk screening sample so i pinned it in place and printed the letters, when i pulled up the screen my heart nearly popped. i'm not much for printing but i have to admit this whole process of figuring out materials for this quilt has been quite the ride for my heart. 

   

when i placed this on top of the dyed cotton, the color didn't show through as much as i liked so i may have to save the gauze for another project in mind. whether i'll be able to cram it into this last semester or not is another story... soon to be written.

at first i thought of piecing my quilt like a free form quilt with the raw edges on the outside for texture  but then remembered of my new love of reverse applique which i discovered while making my moon themed accessories last semester. after enlarging my moon and figuring out if i'd dyed and printed enough material for that, i'm glad to say i will have a very long date with my sewing machine Ed Gein Machine and reverse applique. i'll post soon again when it's done and when i'm onto the next project i have in mind for my collection which i'm already mega way pumped to get started on. just keep in mind that although i've done mostly art pieces while in this program, this time i'm going for functional eye candy. oh, and i'll be tweeting all sorts of happenings as per usual.

in other goodness, i mentioned  in my last post of the over the border trades i was doing with some pretty craftastic ladies.

  

i've sent my end of the deal off to Sarah in Ashville who is a maniac with cross stitching, how amazing is that anatomical heart! and my mega alpaca scarflette was sent off to Amber from DartHeart in Portland who sent me this awesome set of jewelry with bullet shells and feathers and a flock of hand cut sticker birds.

it's a shame that this world runs on money 'cause it feels pretty awesome to trade for goodies, which i am always up for. if you're reading this, and you're a maker, let's trade! just email me with the subject line "trades ya!" and we'll go from there.

so now i leave you with a wonderful tune to suit my in-dream relationship with Spaceboy by Elvis Perkins in Dearland

internally yours,

sister valentine