Fabric Scraps, a Needle, Thread, and a Town in Turkey

Appliqué is one of my favorite ways to sew

Years ago a travel poster (remember those?) of a crowded town in Turkey caught my eye. The pattern of the buildings inspired me to design a small wall hanging that I appliquéd with fabric scraps. I still enjoy seeing it on our closet wall.

15” square, hand sewn with fabric scraps and black and colored thread

It’s interesting to me now how this simple, energetic design came about. Here’s the town, below, with its distracting rock formation. That rock had to go!

The town of Ortahisar (“middle castle”), Turkey

But look what happens when you crop out a section of the buildings.

With some selection and imagination, here’s the sketch I made.

You can see that a lot of details in the sketch were edited out of the finished piece. The black lines unify the building shapes and colors.

One more example of appliqué with fanciful colors and simple shapes is the pillow we have on a chair in our sun room. (It would be meditative to repair it!)

Animal spirits enliven this pillow

Hand-sewing is slow, quiet, and creative. Chances are you have everything you need right now — fabric scraps, a needle, thread, some free time, and any design you dream up that energizes you in this intense, noisy world.

Sketch and wall hanging by Deda Edney

Photo of Ortahisar, Turkey