Art Quilt: We're Gonna Live in the Trees + Quilting Gloves

Sometimes a collection of materials becomes a series, of sorts. I still had scraps left over from Owl Construction, and Heartstrings and Division, all of which were made with extra pieces from Where's Owl and Home More or Less, so I pieced together one last relative, adding more scraps, based on a song by Robyn Hitchcock of the same name, "We're Gonna Live in the Trees." 


We're Gonna Live in the Trees
15.75 x 27.5" (40 cm x 70 cm)
Letterpress printing from wood type on cotton; found cotton; stenciled cotton; Japanese yarn-dyed cotton; cotton thread; embroidery; free-motion quilting

Detail:


I used variegated thread for the free-motion quilting, thinking about the patterns in bark. To finish it off, I  hand-stitched outlines of leaves.

Back:

I've continued reading many books about birds and trees and the environment and feeling more and more that we are all tightly connected. What we do in one area affects another. The frames of our buildings are wood; we are already living in the trees. Are we? Aren't we?

*

And Then There Were Quilting Gloves.

When I was free-motion quilting Owl Construction I wore the little grippy fingertips I had gotten at Daiso (a kind of Japanese dollar store) for a couple of dollars (the package has five); they are cute and have been serviceable, but they occasionally fall off. 


I also started getting hand cramps in my left hand. I had read about some quilting gloves with grippy tips; I ordered some Machingers (Amazon link) and tried them out for We're Gonna Live in the Trees. They are comfortable, breathable, and the grippy tips are just grippy enough to let me guide the cloth and even lift my hand to move it without stalling the process. I wish I had gotten them sooner. 


The sizes run rather large. The Amazon page shows a picture of how to tell what size you need, except no measurements are given! This is what I measured when the package arrived:

  • XS 6.25" (16 cm)
  • S/M 7.0" (17.8 cm)
  • M/L 7.75" (19.7 cm)
  • XL 8.5"(21.5 cm)
The size is measured from the base of the palm to your tallest finger. The XS are perfect for me and my hand measures 6.75" (17 cm). Another note: A friend tried the S/M but sent them back for the XS.

Maybe you already know about them. Maybe you even have a pair. But if not and you need a better grip on your sewing, well, check them out! And happy stitching!

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