Everything

Everything -

The trees,

The wind,

the mountains,

everything inside us and around us

wants to reflect itself in us.

We don't have to go anywhere to obtain the truth.

We only need to be still,

and things will reveal themselves in the still water of our heart.

 from

Thich Nhat Han's book

"Your True Home"

Searching New Beginnings

I have to prepare five pieces for a show this summer

and as usual have been procrastinating

but now time is running short.

Better get started.

They all have to be a certain size

(don't you hate restrictions!)

My thoughts are to demonstrate all the colours

that can be achieved with plant materials.

So at the moment it is a matter of pinning

bits and pieces to the design wall.

Taking time and acting on that little voice

that says 'what if....'

For a couple of days I even acted on the "what if I I make a bunch more pebbles!"

But I don't like the result pinned up against a beige strip.

They still look best against the grey linen...which is a different project.

I think this last one will be the first to be basted together.

My second thoughts are to continue in the rocky theme

couching down rock outlines in an attempt to make

something that might look like a line drawing.

But of course things change as they evolve.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.