Scratched to the End

Daily scratchings have rolled to an end.

I have always liked this thready sample from years back.

Long Bullion knots and shiny beads

on loose weave fabric stitched to create holes and lumps and bumps.

I used to manipulate fabrics

and have a dog-eared copy of Colette Wolff's

"The Art of  Manipulating Fabric"

Gathering surfaces into textures

used to be my thing

....some dyed and some painted.

I used to stitch on onion bags too.

The snow rolled in after Christmas this year

One day it was warm and mild

then we got over a foot of snow.

No wind this time

but lots and lots of snow.

And now our world has turned white again....

....well this is Canada after all!

Now I have four years of Daily Scratchings

yards, and yards 

and it is time to move on.

I have been musing about a similar daily routine

should I go huge?

With huge I would be stressing about a resolved design. 

Perhaps I should stitch pages of a fabric book

and write like a journal on alternate pages.

Should I stitch small individual experiments?

Small might allow for 'play'

but then it might end up in many small pieces

suitable for another show.

I have been going back and forth over all these ideas.

Scratching Into December

Do months have colours for you?

For me December is warm a warm deep claret.

Might be because it is getting cold outside

and with the arrival of each winter I seem to feel it more and more.

A sample heart made with Jude many years ago now.

Rows of samples

Perhaps you need some green in December too.

Certainly need some stars

the nights so far have been heavy with clouds

not a star to be seen.

Hope all your baking is done

and presents are wrapped.

A huge parcel arrived from Ontario

so tempted to open it ahead of time!

Scratching Under Water

November ended with a flood

but first I had to go back and add stitches.

Last week's moon just looked naked

lost in a sea of flat muslin

In my humble opinion

you can never have too many stitches.

The cloth comes to life

valleys and hills 

shadow and light

send the eye on an exploratory journey

around the image.

Then there are the regular 

neat

lines of samples from years gone by.

You don't see blue in my work very often

but

the rains came

the most rain we have ever seen.

One stream broke it's banks

If you look carefully you can see

it swooshing through the woods

and flowing into the vegetable garden.

Trouble is it didn't stop there.

It worked it's way into the basement

which, by the way, is fine again

but was very wet for a couple of days.

We thought our little bridge would get swept away

but it stood strong.

I wonder how the beavers did further down stream.

Quiet Scratching

The house is very, very quiet now that we are alone again

Quietly choosing cloth and stitch

I remember being fascinated years ago

with pulled thread work

More variety could be achieved than I expected

but still very modular

I have always liked treetops against a skyline

and now Mark is now painting tree tops

though they haven't made their way onto his web page yet!

Play with feather stitch....

You can see when I did this years ago

I was still trying to keep the stitch very orderly!

Herringbone stitch too.

How many moons do we have?

Time Scratches On

 Moving on into November

after full moons

and extraordinary high tides.

Not much to say about this
Leaf shapes woven into starry night skies
plus a leaf

machine stitched onto water soluble

from way back when.

I've changed since then. 

A sampler done oh so many years ago

sometimes feels like yesterday.

My least favourite stitch
but perhaps I should give chain stitch another chance.

The wind came up and blew high tide
right over the pier and board walk in Annapolis Royal.

Orange for Halloween of course

and a birthday celebration for the Rusty Pups.

I have always liked this little collection of

feather stitches, laisy Daisies, French knots and pinwheels.

More machine work done on water soluble.

I'm having so much fun going through boxes finding
these old samples.
It is good to look back.
We are devising a plan on how to hang
my scratchings in my small studio.
This cloth holds so many ideas for new work
that I need to have it close at hand
so that I am not reinventing the wheel
every time I start something new.

As I include these oldies in my scratchings
I am also mulling over ideas on how to record
my days in stitch next year.
This version of daily scratchings has been going on for four years now
and will be about 200 feet long by the end of the year.
It is time to change
but I am still fascinated by the idea of growing a large piece
by adding to it just a bit every day
usually as we sit and relax after dinner.

Falling Into October's Scratchings

We relaxed at the beginning of October

after having completed one trip to the Cape Breton Highlands

and we knew what was ahead....Two more trips to Cape Breton.

But also in the distance was the knowing

that a retreat with special friends was coming too.

In the meantime I wanted to preserve some samples.

Samples from my C&G days of playing with stitches.

Those above are raised chain stitch.

Starry reverse appliqué

Blanket stitch with a few French knots thrown in.

Nowadays I use blanket stitch a lot

and not one of my current versions was included

in this 1990's sampler!

Today I try to be looser, freer, less restrained....

perhaps even stitching with gay abandon!

Again from the 1990's curvilinear stitchings.

An interruption of simple running stitch

flowing rhythms

Stem stitch marching across silver cloth

I like stem stitch

I like grey

perhaps not metallic grey

Scratching Through to September's End

This morning my wind-shield was not covered in frost....

.....it was ice

Brrrrrr

The softest cloths I have ever made

Chenille made from muslin and silk

I am weaving plans for next year's scratchings

Hopefully I can make them work

Special Day

Back in the nineties

a piece of triangle experiments

A not so successful sample

It is Jude Hill whom I have to thank
for bringing me back to handwork
and for teaching me to just sit down
and stitch even on the smallest scraps of cloth.

Though I have to say that after hanging the show
me thinks I need to work larger.
Perhaps bringing together smaller pieces
but definitely dyeing larger pieces
and
if Hurricane Joaquin doesn't ruin things
I hope to leave large bundles of cloth and windfall
in the stream this week.