When You Need to

take things slowly

Observe a tiny little spiral among spent flowers

Hang with like-minded spirits

Relax with soft and gentle colours around you.

Small Pieces Sometimes Take the Longest

Funny how a small eagle piece can take so long.

This was started under Jude's guidance

about a year ago I think!

I think of him as a messenger travelling between the planets and the heavens.

Fly stitch seemed appropriate.

He can soar even above a shadowy moon and stars that remind me of quilters blocks.

A meeting place of stitches

oh, and of course some rust.

Shore Lines, Cloud Lines, Nibbled Lines

An afternoon with the beach all to ourselves.

We thought we spied a water spout

but they surely not in this part of the world.

Wonder what caused that.

Low tide reveals sandy undulations.....potential stitching lines for someone like me.

Reminded me of some logs back in the woodpile

with inspiring undulations created by tiny critters tunnelling under bark.

There are lines and markings here....

just waiting to be interpreted in stitch.

Testing the Waters

Didn't go to Jane's class with any fabric because I really don't to floral.

Would have been quite happy playing with pencil and paper for three days.

However Jane didn't object to me playing with water reflections

I popped out and bought some fabric.

It seems that wherever quilters gather there is always someone selling fabric!

After two days of cutting squiggles I was disappointed...

it looked like that op art fabric print from the sixties!

But then two things happened...

I thought of adding that blue scratchy leaf fabric.

By having about 6" inch lengths appear from behind the vertical squiggles

and placing them to form a large curve across the whole piece

the eye will have another line to follow........hopefully!

I still felt it needed another shape

Jane spotted lozenge shapes in my photo

and promptly cut some out of paper.

You can see one at the top of the first photo....

So now I have something I can work with.

Not in my usual style 

but 'twill be fun.

Thank you for a great workshop Jane.

Designing Within Shape

Years ago I found some shapes in that water photo

and forced them into pie shapes and from there into a circle.

Under Jane's guidance we all tried to get to know a flower.

We had to choose a shape and force a leaf into it.

Couldn't resist a nibbled leaf.

Tried a triangle.

Then a circle.

Didn't take much to force a lily into a triangle.

September Growth

Looking more like a sponge than a spreading fungus growth.

A village of mushrooms is growing beneath the trees.

Their rooftops look like a natural dyer has been at work in the garden.

I suppose to an ant it might look like an alien spaceship.

Something out of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'.

September Blooms

Twirling wild honeysuckle makes me think "bad hair day!"

One brown petal still clinging on to an elegant poppy topknot.

Queen Anne's Lace

even more interesting as she ages.

One rose still expecting to bloom

Perseverance

Optimism

Forever Young

Prickly wild roses grow everywhere here

but I never noticed until today their rose-hips even have thorns!