Living in an Ice Covered World

At break of day the sky was heavy with dark, dark clouds

Except for a brave sun trying to rise above the South Mountain.

Our world has been completely icebound for two days

Branches drooping with the weight.

Everything encased

Everything bending over from the weight

Broken branches scattered on the ground

Rusty Pups were able to walk on deep ice covered snow

Not me

but I tried

and after a second each step would suddenly break the surface

and I was up to my calves in snow.

Thank goodness the driveway took my weight

and so we walked back and forth

for half an hour

then gave up

frozen fingers and toes!

Relieved to get back in the warmth

prepare breakfast 

and....

....get down to a day's stitching on a new smaller peony piece.

Bringing colour back into a cold icy weekend.

I hope you too are all warm and safe inside.

A stormy weekend of power cuts

is no fun at all.

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!

Blue on Blue and a bit of Rust

Blue on the design wall

 Pinned over lots of colour waiting for attention.

Rusted blue linen tablecloth

My old denim dress torn into strips and couched down into rocks

Rocks are circles

Blue shibori moon

Moons are circles.

Moonlit rock circles

Loving the shibori moon

Need to do more of that.

Blue

Rocky shoreline

Beneath full blue moons

We are circled by rocks

We have a coastal community in Nova Scotia called Blue Rocks.

Rust can always be found amidst shoreline rocks.

It needs to rest right now as I decide

if more stitching is needed.

I am a fan of excessive stitching!

Whether to stitch inside the rock circles

or

surround the rocks with stitch.

Don't know yet.

But for now I've had my fill of blue!

I hope you too can play with a colour you you never use!

Tree lines Moving into the Backwoods Piece

 Been photographing tree lines

Hoping they will help with the Backwoods piece

currently in progress

Work has begun on the woods

No rocks in sight yet!

Tree lines are starting to appear

Stretching high above the shoreline log clutter

They will be paler

I am following the changing season

Cooler weather is here

The sun, she is moving southward

Time for the woods to sleep their Winter sleep

This is what I call the shoreline log clutter!

The backside

Never the wrong side

Usually the best side.

Perhaps we should all show the world our best side today!

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.

 

Feeling Unstitched

Since this all began

I've been stitching windy gusts around my windswept tree

happy to have work at the stage

when rhythmic stitched meditation can take over.

After a day's stitching

an important part of my process

is to pin the piece on a design wall

take a quick look and react.

Usually this means trying out bits and pieces of cloth or thread colour

and leaving them there overnight

to react to them first thing in the morning with fresh eyes.

On Monday night however

my immediate thought was

Oh, my goodness, I have to unstitch all that wind!

.....

I went to bed.

Next morning my reaction was just the same.

So I started unpicking.

How much unpicking you may ask

....well....

I started first thing Tuesday morning

Handy Hubby then decided he had to

vacuum all the rugs

and then

shampoo all the rugs.

He did that by lunchtime.

I unpicked for two days!

The Rusty Pups thought it was pretty boring.

I found it quite calming.

Once I have made a decision like that

I commit fully.

I should tell you why....

That Monday night

it hit me that my beautiful elegant tree

was being overwhelmed by those messy winds.

When I started the wind was an important part of the story

Now I am relegating it to background noise!

So today I will start calming the wind down

and feel secure in the knowledge that I have done the right thing.

Perhaps my windy stitching didn't work

because

for the past few weeks I should have been

with these two little monkeys

whom I haven't held in my arms for ages now.

Usually I get to visit them at least twice a year.

I wonder when I will see them next

in these days of uncertainty.

I know many of us are wondering the same thing.

Love my little honeybunches

See you on FaceTime tonight!

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!