What my Beggar's bowl looks like today

"A bowl, whatever its shape, is open. Open for possibilities."

(Sue Bender in "Everyday Sacred")

This is what my Beggar's bowl looks like today: the inside is almost finished, the outer side not yet.

(If you are new to the blog, you can read about the beginning of this project here and here.)

And once more I would like to point out that I do find "Everyday Sacred" to be a book worthwhile reading - it speaks in a slow way and with a low voice about the essentials in life ...

My crazy quilt Beggar's bowl taking shape

My bowl is taking shape - although it's hard work for the fingers to get the needle all through.

As the fabric scraps are not only for decoration but also stabilizing and shaping the bowl, I have to use a lot of backstitches for quilting and holding them down and must pull them quite hard. Although double and firm, the thread breaks now and then.

It's slow sewing - and almost meditative.

A textile Beggar's bowl as a What-if project

Well, I think the herald angels have now sung enough for this season and it's about time to go back to normal again ...

It's been lovely to spend the holidays with kids, friends and family - and now I'm equally enjoying getting back to work, taking part in your projects and sharing mine with you.

Reading 'Everyday Sacred' by Sue Bender lately inspired me trying out a textile variation on a Beggar's bowl - as a what-if project, raising the patched and quilted surface to a sculptural form, using textile media only, adding the scraps of fabric for decoration as I go.

I took a woolen cord, as you use it for weaving sturdy, woolen country carpets as I had this at hand, but I'm sure it would work in a similar way with bundled or plaited strings of rags. (An other alternative would be to crochet a basic bowl with rag string or fabric rope.)

I built up the bowl going circularly upwards, like a potter would do with strings of clay, me of course having to secure the straps with long pins and then attaching it with thread.

I kept the bowl quite small and flat for this first try - the flatness allowing me to twist the bowl inside out for easier application. I want to keep the patches and the quilting rather rough and raggy for this surface and am using odd scraps and black cotton thread.

The expression "Beggar's bowl" goes back to the tradition of Buddhist monks, who will accept whatever given in their bowl as nourishment for the day.

I think this is a wonderful allegory to a what-if project ...

(Please have a look at Renates What-if blog too - she's doing some other interesting what-iffing with raised textile surfaces.)

Red miniquilt ready!

So I've got the red miniquilt ready - in the end I added some miniature squares, fastening them with a french knot only - the smallest squares are tinier than 1/4" (6-7mm)! - and the whole quilt measures about 11x11".

Yggdrasil and a red miniquilt

This is a detail on quite a large project, which I am working on right now. It's called "Yggdrasil", which is the tree of the world in the Nordic mythology. At the moment it's as long as 230 x 35 cm, but I expect it to shrink a bit during the final wet felting procedure. It can be used as a wallhanging or as a tablerunner for a long table (like mine!). It consists of six pre-felted segments on which I've punched the dark leaves and which I'm now embellishing with threads of hand-dyed wool.

Below you can see the red miniquilt, which I'm also working on - this piece is somewhat easier to take along, as it only measures about 28x28cm ... I found it among my fabrics, just half-way finished - had forgotten about it - and decided to go on with it now. The technique even fits in a bit on the Whatiffing- and quilting-by-going theme - and the different shades of red remind me of Christmas, especially combined with the green squares at the corners!

Embellishing, recycling and whatiffing

Today I was quite busy, finishing this "medieval" book which I have punched with grey wool on woolen cloth, decorated with metal net, other metal details and some glass beads. It's lined with natural linen and holding a sketchbook made out of thick, handmade paper.

I also embellished a small picture for a friend's wedding book (the text says: "May love make you free") - I'm an untalented photographer, the colours and texture look a lot better "in real" ...




Furthermore, I sew a cover for my kitchen bench using a piece of blue felted cloth I had in my stash and recycling an old woolen bed-inlay I got from a neighbor. No big deal, but as this is my favourite working place to sit in the evenings, I'm both happy to have a cosy warm bottom as well as to have recycled something quite spacetaking from my stash!

And then I had to try out a little "skatching", inspired by Jude. But I'm afraid I wasn't as consequent as she is with piecing each little space extra - I cheated here and then and let the fabric slip under the next piece where I found this to be convenient ... OK, I will have another try the other day!



Later on, I wondered: "what if" I would punch small pieces of pre-felt to a sketch on linen ...? I will see where that leads tomorrow.

"It's just another patch ..."

Inspired by the book "Plain and Simple - A Woman's Journey to the Amish" by Sue Bender, which I read this weekend, I just had to try out a basic ninepatch in rather old and worn blue fabrics. (Size approx. 7"x7" = 18x18 cm)

I sew it entirely by hand, keeping it, well - plain and simple. It felt a bit like meditating and I enjoyed it very much.