Just Play or Perhaps Beginnings?

In my year of silence not knowing if I had anything worth saying

I filled my cup with play

mostly unsuccessful

but that's not the point is it.

Touching cloth keeps my tanks full!

Challenging myself to exploring colours I normally shy away from.

My hands often picked up greens.

It is easy to return to old favourites....

....easier still to come up with dismal choices!

All who know me know I cannot work with blue

Well, I probably can but I resist anything blue

And now I have to make a piece for a show called Blue!

Trouble is whatever I come up with must be nearly 100% blue.

Not be easy for me.

A couple of clever friends have suggested that I use my normal colour pallet and then dip the finished piece in an indigo vat.

Could be an interesting experiment

Using lots of different fabrics and threads

They would all take the dye differently.

Hmmm.

Pink...not my colour either

Back to the comfort of greys and browns

Working with new new colours hasn't been my only play.

Taking apart old work

Is a slow unpicking process

A meditation

 Wondering if they have a new story to tell.

Getting Back into the Rhythm of Stitch

What a glorious Summer we had here in Nova Scotia

A Summer to remember

Everything grew and grew and grew

Wild apple trees drooped under the weight of apples the size of grapefruits.

Rusty Pups discovered they were delicious!

Bright, bold Dahlias grew as big as dinner plates 

Dancing through my flowerbed

They took my breath away

And were still going strong until Jack Frost put them to rest. this week.

Wanting to remember and celebrate this Summer

For me that is through stitch.

It will be a piece of joyful memories

Giant balls of colour and stitch.....

.... will dance across my piece with companions of every size.

And of course they will come to rest on the soil

which they will enrich in preparation for next years Summer.

The cycle of life.

I am content

I am joyful

I am dancing along with the dahlias in memory of this Summer past

and settling down to new stitchings with anticipation.

It is what I do.

When the Rusty Pups come and plonk themselves in front of me as I stitch....

,,,,and even shove their noses into my cloth as I stitch....

....informing me they feel neglected

So we stop for a cuddle

Or a walk

Or a meal.

They are very patient but there comes a time when they feel the need to interject!

I hope your companions of every kind allow you the time to create today!

New Beginnings On The Wall

Paytime on the design wall

Finding older bits and pieces that have never found a home.

Just the right companion fabrics are surely somewhere in my stash.

It might be time

I never know

But it is fun pinning bits and pieces up there as I contemplate

what unfinished pieces appeal to me after years of neglect.

Piece on the right is a new piece

put together mainly with glue!

I can't believe I'm doing this!

"Rock my World"

Beneath the design wall there is no lack of scraps waiting to join in the fun

and Rusty Pup toys also waiting to be played with of course.

"Rock my World" is to hang outside in the woods.

Not a stitch in sight....

....well, just a few!

What will become of it out in the woods....I do not know.

Ten years ago I wrapped trees with cloth hoping 

to get at least some colour.

All I got was critter and mushroom activity like this!

The elements and wildlife can be pretty vicious around here!

Freezing rain kept us from our walks for a few days this week.

But when we did walk Ginger's mission was apparently

to drag this branch along with us for a few kilometres!

I hope your day is warm and cosy

no matter the weather.

Not so Blue About Blue Anymore

Had to go buy blue threads

Now I can continue working on my first all blue piece!

I have a problem

Don't like the two rectangles slap bang in the middle there

Need to decide how to eliminate them

That might take some time!

What I do love is the texture created by my couched stones.

There will be more stones

Surprise!

A crowd of stones

in a time of isolation

 Every isolated individual

forming a community.

Where will this piece lead me I wonder

There are several new blue ideas in my head

Hope your day is full of blue skies

Messy Beginnings

Beginnings for me are always a messy business

Boxes are rummaged through

for every potential colour and texture

and there are soooo many!

Fabrics and threads end up piled onto every flat surface

After all any change in colour or texture

affects the whole story.

I am not too precious about my fabrics

Always prepared to cut into them

well....that's a bit of a lie

There are some precious ones!

Friends interrupted my beautiful mess

They came around for a day of discharging

Had to tidy up as best I could

Piled everything on the floor beneath the design wall

'Creativity is not a pretty sight"

When I make a decision to get started

As you can see my starts are usually nothing

like my initial play on the design wall!

Just stitch and the story will start unfolding

But I have to go through that messy initial auditioning.

It's simply how it works for me.

I started by stitching messy shrubs along the water's edge

Didn't like that

Too literal

So then covered the shrubbery in a mass of tree debris.

This is a piece about the Canada that I love

The tangled backwoods

interrupted by hundreds of thousands of lakes and rocks.

Rocks

Lakes

Trees

Where wildlife can flourish if we don't mess things up.

 

Early Morning Inspiration

The best start to my days

Early morning walks with Rusty Pups

Always something new to inspire.

On a dewy morning

Spiderwebs billowed in the breeze

throughout the meadow.

Walking with inquisitive pups can be a problem

When one shows an interest in something

Of course the pups want to know all about it

and so

Apologies to any siders who lost their webs.

I reckon some spiders were still working on their skills!

Some were huge and perfectly crafted.

Some were kinda baggy.

Mist was still lingering over the Basin.

 A new day

A new beginning

Slowly Stitching

Slowly stitching in my island of calm

Weeping for injustices around the world

Praying that solutions will be found

Hoping that governments will prove themselves worthy

It is surely a time when drastic systemic change is needed

It is a time to invest in change

It is a time to invest in people

And talking of change

Our garden Robin decided to place her nest atop our garden hose

and we are very grateful to her for that

because they usually nest high above in spruce trees

but this year for a change we can get to watch her.

Eggs of new beginnings

Eggs full of potential for the future

It is hard not to have a heavy heart but

 Perhaps she placed her eggs in sight to remind me

it is possible to make a brighter world

and we are living through the time of change.

I hope you find some jewels in your day

Outside and Inside, Sunshine and Shade

Happy to be sitting in the warmth of the sun
Stitching a beaver story
Watching the woods
Surrounded by birdsong
Interrupted occasionally by a wet Rusty Pup nose seeking attention

when it gets too hot we move back inside

Above the horizon the skies are forming.
For the last few years my work has always included an horizon
A dividing line
Not necessarily horizontal, sometimes vertical.
Perhaps
Because I am most comfortable feeling grounded
as I search for what is behind the horizon?
Or perhaps I am just drawn to that design element.
I don't know.

 I started stitching crosses on the silk velvet ground
Sticks can form crosses
Though the beavers seem to weave them together somehow
with mud and grass.
But then...

 ....turned to check the back and as usual
 loved the expressive free stitches on the wrong side 
compared to the disciplined front.
So....
started stitching the crosses on the back 
in order to get those unruly stitches on the front!
Love it!

As I stitched I thought of how my stitching sister,
Judy Martin, talks about her works
that can often be seen from both sides.  
In her blog post from June 13 2011
entitled 'and still maintain a normal life'
she writes
I've made many pieces over my long career that show through metaphor how we each have two sides. A side we present to the world and a much more interesting 'inside'.
This piece (and still maintain a normal life), however, 
is an attempt to just show our inner world. That too is a duality

I am comfortable stitching this piece
Happy flitting above and below the horizon
as my beaver landscape story develops.

And the ferns are reaching up towards the early morning light
as their story begins.

Be safe and gentle with each other