Q is for Quilt – Pagan Blog Project 2014

So, as-you-know-bob, there’s a tonne of stuff out there (relatively speaking, at least) about spinning and yarn as can be used in magic – spinning for trance work in Seide, for example, or using yarn (hand-spun or not) for binding or other knot-magical purposes. But, being as I’ve started sewing more of my own clothes of late, and being as one off-shoot of that is that I’ve got a small (thank goodness) but growing (er…) bag of scrap fabric sitting in my craft cabinet, I’ve started wondering if quilting isn’t somewhere in my near future. To that end, I have started wondering how quilting can be turned to magical purposes.
I mean, there’s the obvious stuff – stitching pieces of people’s old clothes together in the form of patch-work is a way of binding them together, strengthening family ties, and so-on – but I’m wondering what else it can do.
 
Creating quilts as devotional art, for example, by choosing colours and patterns that would appeal or depict your patron deities. Quilting wall-hangings that fit with a given seasonal rite as it pertains to your own bioregion. The act (and final product) of quilting as a multi-layered means of ancestor remembrance/connection – both as a skill-set and with regards to which fabrics get used. Using the pattern of stitches to, say, cursive-write a spell directly into the quilt without “lifting your pencil” (that would actually be really difficult, since quilts are on the big side and needles tend to need re-threading multiple times during the quilting process). Including specific elements/components in the quilt’s stuffing or stitching different stone beads into a quilted wall-hanging might also apply.
 
Right now, the fabric scraps I have are bits of various wedding dresses (mine and my wife’s) plus some scrap fabric from a dress I made for myself, and the odd shirt or two that I’ve tailored. Not a whole lot to work with, spell-wise, but using scraps of my own clothes – stuff I’ve made for myself because I wanted something specific to fit my needs and my desires – could be a great way to quilt a glamour spell for myself, for example, using the quilted fabric (with or without some sort of warming in-between layer) to create a magical dress or skirt for myself – in the same way that I’m creating a Fetish Shawl for myself out of yarn that I’ve hand-spun and then knit into various stripes – and treating it as a means to stitch bits of my empowered, desirous Self back together.
 
Might be worth a shot.
 
Thoughts on quilting magic? Ever tried it? How did it go?
 
 
TTFN,
Meliad the Birch Maiden.

Sewing and Sprouting and Spinning, Oh My!

Hey there!
So it’s been wall-to-wall witchery around here lately. This isn’t a problem for me and, honestly, I kind of prefer it that way, but I wanted to throw some small-c crafty stuff up as well.
 
So here’s what I’m up to right now:
 
1) My Ghost recently made me a drop spindle, which I’ve been using to make (rather lumpy) silk-merino yarn using a technique more or less like this one:
 

 
Here’s a picture (recently seen on my crafty twitter-feed) of my drop spindle, and one of some of my (first attempts at) hand-spun yarn:
 

Drop Spindle made by Ghost. Because she’s awesome. 🙂

 

Two-ply on the left, single-ply on the right.

 
 
2) I’ve planted mustard greens in a pot on the window sill and, hopefully, they will actually be sprouting soon.
At the moment, it just looks like a pot of slightly sickly dirt… I’ve been watering them with the water left over from steaming greens because I figure they’ll pick up some much-needed nutrients that way but… I still have no idea how long they’ll take to actually sprout, let alone grow into micro greens and then Actual Greens. I’m thinking I may top up the soil a little with some used coffee grounds, as I hear that’s helpful for leafy greens. I’m hoping (valiently?) to see some sprouts by this coming weekend, as that will have been about two weeks from planting.
Wish me (and them) luck! 🙂
 
 
3) Sewing. Having acquired a dress-maker’s dummy, I’ve started picking up second hand blouses (or men’s dress shirts, provided they don’t have pockets on the front) in order to taylor them into something that actually fits me.
This typically means picking up something with long sleeves in a size that’s slightly too big for (most of) me, and then cutting the sleeves off and taking it in at the waist.
So far, I’ve done one-and-a-half blouses like this. A purple one with some runching up the front (that now has elbow-length sleeves[1]) that could, I confess, do with a little more tayloring around the hips; and a black blouse with white pin-stripes and some ruffle detailing (a bit like this, but with much longer sleeves) which is cut and partially pinned to make it cap-sleeved. It may end up being sleeveless, but we’ll see. I may also tak it in just a little at the waist.
I still have a gorred skirt to re-hem (I made it ages ago, but the hem-line is totally borked above the left knee. I need to take it dow and re-do it in that particular spot. Wish me luck), and some heavy purple fabric that my lovely wife got me so that I could make another winter-weight skirt for myself.
 
Anyway. That’s where things are on the arts-and-crafts-and-gardening front. I’ve still got half a collection to post to Etsy before I start doing more jewelry, and I’m always needing to restock on candles. But regardless, that’s where I’m at. 🙂
 
 
Talk to you later,
Meliad the Birch Maiden. 🙂
 
 
[1] Which may get re-modeled yet again so that it has cap-sleeves. We shall see.