Textile Love: Mending a quilt

I consider myself a collage artist and book maker first, but I also have this huge love for textile art. I do everything from quilting to embroidery, slow stitch, knitting, crochet, wall hangings from textiles – those kind of things and more…

Is this something you are interested in too?

I’ve been thinking lately about where my love for textile art and craft fit within what I am sharing online. It is a huge part of me, but still I’ve felt lately like it doesn’t “fit” on instagram, like why should I share it there when most people that follow me are there for the art / art journaling stuff?

Still I feel a need to think about this subject, and create content around it. To document and share it somewhere.

So as a first, I made a video on mending my pink quilt – a quilt that I’ve used as an everyday cozy for the past twelve (!) years, so it was beginning to look a bit worn as you’ll see in the video…

Point in case: I just love everything textile! I also find a lot of inspiration watching others sew, look through fabric scraps and share embroidery – so I am starting this new series of Textile Love with iHanna! Enjoy!

Here’s how my pink quilt looked when newly finished:

Video: Mending a quilt that I made

Textile Love video number 1. I’m not sure when there’ll be an episode 2, but here is the first one with a lot of slow stitching and thinking about fabrics and mending:

I like what I like. Strawberry Obsession and Frog Love still going strong around here, as you could see in the video.

Mending textiles

Mending is an ancient way of taking care of your textiles so not to waste the precious fabric that took so much work to make. We are reminded of repairing clothes and mending socks these days when thinking about how to live a more sustainable life. For example: do you really need to throw away a whole garment just because you get a grease stain or a tiny hole? Could you mend it or cover it in some way and keep using your shirt or skirt for 10 more years? Answer is probably yes.

Learn how from great new books. Mending has recently been made even more popular by new titles like Visible Mending: A Modern Guide to Darning, Stitching and Patching the Clothes You Love by awesome Bookhou – Arounna Khounnoraj and Make Thrift Mend: Stitch, Patch, Darn, Plant-Dye & Love Your Wardrobe by Katrina Rodabaugh (who also wrote Mending Matters: Stitch, Patch, and Repair Your Favorite Denim & More a few years ago). I think these ladies present a wonderful perspective on taking care of your clothes and making them last longer. And if you enjoy stitching – even better.

Have you mended anything lately?