the road to crazytown, it is paved in silk scraps: patchwork pieced deer and doe datura blouse

the genesis of this specimen is from a very innocuous, friendly-seeming book helpfully titled “we love color.”

“we love color.” well, so do i – what could be more harmless?

and there i sat, innocently – remember, back before the crazy, and therefore still innocent – innocently paging through this basic modern patchwork book – because did i mention it was a quilting book? – and thinking that maybe there would be a piece in there i could play with.

and then i saw this:

and my imagination immediately ran off with me. i’ve already mentioned my box of silk scraps – well, suddenly they were calling out to me, screaming even, demanding to be organized and sorted and used.

and, i admit, i was all-too-willing to listen to their siren song. the image resonated with me. i saw in it every color i see in my back yard on sunny days.

(only right this moment i can’t completely remember what the sun looks like, since this has been my view lately:

)

several very exhausting snow days later i had pieced this much of it.

at which point i sent it to my soul mate in san francisco. this was his feedback.

undaunted, i continued piecing, eventually taking apart much of the work so that i could add some richness and depth of tone by adding more blue, and getting this.

at this point there was nothing else to do but fashion it into something reliable, like my deer & doe datura blouse. sheer yoke again, obvi, because i live for the sheer yoke these days.

and — wait, what is that you say? how is the hem finished?

oh, funny you should ask, it is finished with a serged rolled hem (the only finish that made sense with all of the pieced strips and their misaligned seam alliances).

say hello to my new friend, and happy birthday to me.

the rest of the edges – neck, arms, etc – are finished with a hand-rolled hem so that i could keep the silk layers in the front yoke all properly placed and aligned.