Moving Toward Year's End

Beaver Moon Dreaming

Still in progress but moving along

Thinking that they live in a watery world....

....I'm stitching swirls around the edges.

Sometimes those swirls break through stick walls

for I also know there is danger beyond their refuge.

Peace and companionship resides inside their lodge.

They even allow muskrats to share their home in Winter.

I am enjoying this stage of adding

and sometimes removing....

....as I work through my encounters with our local beavers

and the fact that they are no longer close by

because the bobcats and coyotes think they are delicious.

I miss them and the simple joy of 

finding their footprints

and worn paths on our early morning walks.

But they will surely be back in a year or two

to build up a new community.

As Winter Settles in and the New Year fast approaches

I have to admit I am no longer a 'winter person'

but I do love sunrise any time of year.

And walking with my Rusty Pup youngsters

is always a joyful adventure.

What a world we live in!

The RP's know exactly where every wild apple tree is in these woods

They think the rotten frozen windfalls are delicious!

Have to say I will be glad when the snow is too deep!

Snow snuffling

to see who is hiding beneath the brambles.

Could be a bobcat or a mouse

a snowshoe hare or perhaps a pheasant.

But the pheasant would have made his noisy escape

way before we arrived here!

Anyhoo, RP Ginger says

enjoy your day!

Surrounded by Works in Progress

Beaver Moon Dreaming

Found a few hours to stitch a few more sticks

into my Beaver damn remembering our Springtime adventures

trying to discourage a family of beautiful Beavers from

moving into our tiny pond

which would have ended up occupying our entire

eight acres had we not persisted 

every morning with dismantling the three dams

they would build every night!

This is how most of my work begins

An encounter with Mother Nature

Something that has affected me deeply

no matter the size or significance.

The Rusty Pups and I walk at the crack of dawn

Just as the day is becoming a work in progress

We walk down a meadow towards the rising Sun

and into woods that I have named the Soggy Bottom Woods.

Beware anyone who doesn't wear 'wellies' along this wet and muddy path!

As we enter the Soggy Bottom Woods

I can look back over my shoulder and catch sight of the moon

as it fades and falls towards the West.

And here's our four legged pair of works in progress
who have recently discovered the bay window in the kitchen
is a perfect place to view all comings and goings.
It is hard to believe they are only seven months old!

Circling The Mind

This piece is in my hands again after a long break.

An important break.

In the beginning it was simply a big circle of a rock

resting at sunrise or sunset

but

if life is a circle

perhaps it is more.

Perhaps it is a life

split into the person we are in public

and the one we keep for when we are home alone in familiar surroundings.

There again if a story is a circle

Perhaps it is a life circle

filling up with a thousand small stories....

....Small stories that make up all our lives.

Stories that rest on the foundation of our life experiences.

I have been told several times in my life

that my fascination with rocks

is from a need for a solid foundation

which I picture could be both physical and mental and emotional.

And then a circle, or a rock, or a life, or a stitching

always has a hidden side

a side that to me is less perfect

more spontaneous

and therefore more beautiful.

Talking of life circles

I do hope we have filled the Rusty Pup lives with rich stories.

Rusty Pup Shandy still jumps into the car

but Rusty Pup Kayla waits patiently for a helping hand.

Just after taking this photo I stumbled

trying to lift her into the car and we both nearly ended up

head over tail in the dust.

Made me realize how trusting she is.

I hope your life is full of many stories.

Returning to an Old Friend

This week I picked up an old piece and popped it into the hoop

it is like welcoming back an old friend

Feels good

A few months ago I had decided it needed a rest.

The excitement had gone out of our relationship!

I had lost interest

and there I had other commitments for the show in Yarmouth.

This week it called out to me

and I am happy to be involved again.

My ideas for this piece and stitching in general

 have evolved over the last few months.

Taking a break has done us the world of good!

As a result I am thinking it will be a much better piece.

Our relationship is strong again.

Wishing you a close relationship with your fabric and thread!

Happy Birthday to Handy Hubby!

Gee whizz

both of us nearly forgot.

Pink Rocks!

One

This is the fourth piece for a show this summer

It has been up on the design wall for about a month!

All of a sudden, one day this week

I knew what to try.....Pink!

A discharged fabric with hints of pink was ripped into strips

and pinned up into rock-like shapes.

I like that.

So then.... more pink.

That little scrap of silk

a rare pink from natural dying last summer.

Two

Decided the rock shapes looked too perfect

so cut out a section.

Three

 Then.... a day later

after discharging all morning

the new discharge had to be auditioned.

But the pink was overwhelmed....

....so got removed.

This one I like.

But let's take it a bit further

Four

 Let's try even more discharge.

Nope....to much weight on the left side now.

Going back to version three.

No pink in sight.....

....but I do have pink thread!

So I am stitching

Six more rows of pink

then it will go up on the design wall gain

to see what is needed next.

As I mentioned this is the fourth of five

Last one soon.

They need to be finished by the time I go and visit

these two little munchkins

Happy pink days!

Crossing Lines - Week Forty-Six

Another scrap of discharge

has worked it's way into a Crumb

perhaps with a shooting star?

But no, a shooting cross!

I am still playing catchup since my visit to Ontario.

Bringing Colour Back to Discharge - Week Forty-Five

A swirling, energized week

I was surprised at the colour of the threads that ended up

through the eye of the needle.

Islands In The Stream

Funny how the ice gathers....

....around rocks in the stream....

....joining some together.

Eventually the ice will meet and completely cover the stream.

After that walk I went searching through

my scraps for islands I might have created.

This was the very first piece of batik I ever attempted

many years ago at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Years after that my very first Indigo dye vat produced these.

More recently these little discharge islands were formed.

When Deadlines Are Upon Us

Some of you might recall

A couple of pieces giving me carpel tunnel.

It is oh, so tough stitching through the tight weave

of my dyed Egyptian cotton.

Every time I do it

I tell myself "this is the last time".

So instead of stitching I procrastinate....

....and now of course a deadline is here.

So this last week

with pliers in hand

I stitched and stitched and stitched.

Tried to keep the stitching minimal

but simply had to add little dots of additional colour.

Those dots took me three days.

If a piece speaks to you, you just have to listen

even if your fingers are numbed from grabbing the needle

and your wrist aches from tugging needle and thread with pliers.

To me the dots really make this piece.

Love them must do that again through gentle pliable cloth.

And of course couldn't just do one piece.

No dots here but circles instead.

Now I have to christen them

and write some wise words about them and my process!

So you won't see my scratchings today

I have to play catchup with them.

Peta The Thermofax Queen!

My hostess in Kingston

owns a Thermofax machine

and

a business making thermofaxes for us textile artists.

You can find her at

www.petabailey.com

I know I will be ordering from Peta

I know best results come from black and white

I'm having a hard time choosing

which ones I would get the most use out of

Probably not a good candidate....

but then again...why not!

I would be looking for repetition 

across a piece of fabric

perhaps discharged

perhaps coloured.

Who knows!

But I will make a decision

and order some.