For the love of mudcloth.

A mudcloth pattern a day will make the…

What is mudcloth

Mudcloth is a form of textile design that originated in northern Africa. It is a textile tradition that weaves cultural beliefs, traditions and even history. And the symbols represent anything from fertility, social status, and spiritual practices.

Mudcloth fabric was first made by artists weaving plain fabrics into squares. These squares were then sewed together and dipped repeatedly into a water bath that contained various leaves and branches. Think modern day tie dye- you have to dip your fabric in a soda wash bath for the dye to penetrate and stick to the fibers. Next, the fabrics are dried in the hot sun. The next step is where the magic happens. Over time the artists have been collecting mud from various places near and far. They have combined these muds and let them ferment. Now with this fermented mud, they can draw the stunning designs we know and love onto the prepped cloth.

From this step various things could happen. They could keep reapplying the mud to get the pattern area darker and darker. They could also apply a bleaching agent to the unpainted areas which will then turn it into colors from pale-yellow to dark brown. The fabric is washed off after each mud application and then again at the end when the colors are to the liking of the artist, the cloth is washed again and laid out to dry in the sun for a week and then washed one final time.

This process was extremely labor intensive and took many days to get one finished cloth. I have so much love and respect for the hard work that went into these traditional fabrics. As a dyer myself, I am just in awe.

So, now I make my simplified version of modern mudcloth digitally since I currently cannot do this labor intensive process. I have 15 color options available in this design and some have a denim like twill overlay texture. They are each available in a large scale which is geared towards curtains, bedding and table linens and a small scale geared towards sewing projects like quilting, clothing, bags, etc.

One of my favorite things about the designs are the versatility of them. I think they go so nicely across all sewing projects and in home decor. I may currently not be sewing, but my background in fashion design and quilting certainly help me design for projects from clothing, to bags to quilts.

Okay, so now, I have a full on confession for you. Cutting fabric and the motion of sewing, especially my free motion quilting, is extremely painful for me since two years ago. Don’t ask why things escalated so far out from my two open chest surgeries, because zero doctors have answers, but they did. So, I have had to hang up my sewing scissors and close the door to my adorable tiny sewing room that is tucked away inside of my office for the time being. It definitely haunts me, because sewing has been therapeutic for me my entire life, but I digress. The confession is that last week I realized I hadn’t started my annual entry for the IU Simon Cancer Center CompleteLife art show. I make a smaller quilted wallhanging yearly and donate them to the cancer center. Well, I was super inspired and decided whatever, pain be damned, I am going to make an entire piece in a day. And I did, and it turned out better than I had envisioned and it was so glorious to be sewing and creating in that capacity again. Well, HA! My body did not feel this way and boy, it was a really rough week and has continued this week… so worth it though. Maybe not while in severe pain, but so worth it. I will be sharing it with you soon, so stay tuned!

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Favorite series of summer:

A Book Store Cozy Mystery series by Lauren Race

Cocktails in Hell series by S.E. Babin

New self care obsession:

Salt caves and foot detoxing with infrared face lights.

My under $25 French wine list for you.

Favorite podcast episode this month: