Monday 30 January 2017

Stone Pathways Week 4


Seven more pebbles
Already just about a month into this new year.


Pale grey pebbles streaked in white are one of my favourites.


I don't have many white pebbles.
Will have to gather some more for this project.


One of my pebbles is surprisingly purple.
Even more surprisingly I found a piece of grey/purple silk
dyed with a multitude of leaves including Sumac.


French knot speckles.

Now that four weeks are done 
me thinks it is time to attach them to a backing
and start on the embroidery ideas rumbling around in my head.
If I don't get started soon
more time will pass
and all of a sudden this will have grown so big
that adding more embroidery will become
a large intimidating challenge!
Plus at my age those stitching ideas
will evaporate
if I don't act on them right away!

I love all the daily stitching and weaving, etc
that is going on nowadays.








Wednesday 25 January 2017

Icy Ideas....Nature's Doodles


We are Icebound again.


Puddles down on the dyke are frozen smooth


Elsewhere the ice can be crunchier.


I like to record natures lines....


because....


Mother Nature does a much better job....


of making design more interesting than I do.


Line next to another line next to another.
All flowing in the same direction
but each one unique.


Shapes within shapes
and, hey
I have just spied a P for Penny!

Monday 23 January 2017

Evolving Stone Pathways



 Week three of Stone Pathways
sewn together in flowing lines by week.
Unfortunately I am not liking the idea of a long weekly strip of these patches.


I still like the concept of a pebble a day.


I still enjoy bringing out their individuality.
(My favourite one this week)
They are all still in progress
I see lots more 'stitchy' mark making to come.


Yes, I do have this strange shaped pebble.
I think of it as a duck.


Sometimes it is not the beauty of a stone that makes me pick it up.
This last one is pretty much an ugly hotdog!


So....I do not like the idea of a long piece of pebble strips any more
BUT
I love the three strips alongside my favourite piece of natural dyed linen.
So....my ideas on how to assemble the final product are changing.
That is how things work best for me.
Going with the flow.


Monday 16 January 2017

A Fortnight of Stone Pathways


I have been organizing myself
by filling a beautiful basket with squares torn from
linen, silk, damask, a pair of old baggy pants and more.


Another basket of potential pebbly fabric
mostly dyed with local vegetation.


And of course a small basket of threads.
When stitching a daily record of time
it is important to make things as easy as possible
So now I have everything at hand.


A fortnight done....well not quite....still working on them.
Haven't yet decided how to attach each week to the next.


A little bit of ruching on a speckled background.



Each pebble has it's own personality
It's own world in which to sit.



 I am thinking there would not be
too many straight lines surrounding the pebbles
in a Stone Pathway.


A speckled pebble hovering above stitched folds.


Sunday's rock sits plain and lonely
but not for long!


For now the used pebbles are lined up on a windowsill.
Perhaps I will create an installation in the garden next summer.
I see them hanging from tree branches.
But we loose trees every year through weather, disease and old age.
I have a few months of snow and ice before
the warmer weather comes!


And the pebble that started it all
happily sitting next to a liquorice all sort perhaps.

Monday 9 January 2017

Beginning Stone Pathways


One day while wondering what size this year's daily stitching should be,
My Wednesday Studio Buddy, Diane, and I
laid fabric on the floor and gathered rocks.
We kept on thinking bigger and bigger
until I ended up with something that was going to be enormous!


Once home again I realized big was overly ambitious!
After all, I plan to pick up pebbles on my daily walks
so I have to be able to carry them home!
Plus....a daily stitched journal should not take all day....
There has to be time for my larger works.


So you will not see this mighty rock in my Stone Pathways
(That is the name for the moment)
Though it could inspire something huge!


 Here are my first seven pebbles of 2017


  January first had to be special.  It is a pebble from my parent's driveway in Dorset, England.  My mother and I spent many happy hours sitting in the middle of that driveway searching for pebbles with holes.  This one even had a teeny weeny pebble lodged in it's hole.

  
Trace around each pebble directly on a scrap of cloth and cut.
Use various appliqué methods.
Some methods messier than others!

Embroider features like this one's white waistline.
Some look like liquorice!
Whoops forgot to photograph the seventh one!

I am still working on how to assemble them into weekly columns.
Perhaps some stitching will
reflect what the weather was like each day.
I just know I do not want straight even columns for each week.
Irregular freeform is what I have in mind.
Now I have to work out the how!

May your daily stitching be fulfilling.



Sunday 1 January 2017

With Wishes From Our Home to Yours


May your past be a pleasant memory
Your future filled with delight and mystery
Your now a glorious moment
that fills your life with deep contentment.


May your day be filled with blessings
Like the sun that lights the sky
And may you always have the courage
To spread your wings and fly.
(An old Celtic blessing)

and may you dance



and play with those you love
in the midst of a winter's snow.

This is a first for me
I have republished this post from January 1, 2013
because it says exactly what I want to say at the beginning of every year.
I noticed the comments from 2013 have been carried forward!
I am so technologically challenged!