Slow Stitch History

While I was reading Claire Wellesley-Smith's new book Resilient Stitch ~ Wellbeing and Connection in Textile Art I took a look around my home office at my little collection of slow-stitched art pieces that she inspired me to make. This one is the very first I made; I embroidered a piece of hand-dyed recycled silk on muslin to depict a setting from one of my stories. Scared the crap out of me to make it, too.

This piece I made from memory; it shows a life-changing moment I had atop a mountain in Tennessee. It's pretty close to what I actually saw that day.

I made this piece from a piece of old, pilled flannel that reminded me of my grandmother's favorite robe. The tree is one that grows in my backyard. Trees are often a theme in my work, I guess because of one of my favorite e.e. cummings's lines: time is a tree (this life one leaf).

My word embroidery isn't that great, but I wanted to express how I feel about fall -- the apprehension over the impending holidays, the depression from watching things turn brown, and how much I wish I could skip October, November and December and just go right to January.

I followed up the fall piece with one about something I do like during winter: the colder temperatures, and the occasional frosts we have here.

A piece I cobbled together while feeling particularly isolated, and trying to express that through my stitching.

One of my stronger pieces; I was feeling very determined and focused after making some very difficult decisions.

My two largest art quilts, each made during a summer of my life when I gave myself permission to play (something that's still hard for me) instead of make useful things to give to other people (my creative default.)

I'm working on a slow-stitched project now, so I continue to be inspired by Claire. It may be the only form of quilting I'm entirely comfortable with now, or maybe it just gives me permission to be myself. Either way, I doubt I'll give it up anytime soon.

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Other Stashes

Along with clearing out the spare bedroom and tidying my office and our guest bedroom, I decided to reorganize some of my stashes. This is all the yarn I have on hand, sorted by color. It looks like a lot, but lately I've been using up a minimum of half a bin every month, so this is approximately a year's supply. All of my solid color cotton perle thread. I go through a lot of this every year, too. I need a container in which I can fit all of it together, but I haven't found the right one yet. I won't show you all of my fabric -- I'm still reorganizing this stash -- but I went through everything and donated two bins of fabric I won't need to the local quilter's guild.

Goodwill Gamble #2 Arrives

My second Goodwill gamble arrived; this is one I paid ten bucks for last month. Just inside the lid was a big roll of plastic mesh that I think is for latchhook work. In the auction listing it looked like fabric to me, so that was unexpected. Someone at the seller's end was nice enough to put a note on this pinned fabric. I'll put on my gloves before I take it out to inspect it. The embroidered green fabric turned out to be 1-1/2 yards of sequinned and three-dimensional designer fabric. I'll guess this cost somewhere between $20.00 to $30.00 a yard, and it's in pristine condition. But here's a shot of everything in the lot, which is mostly crafty odds and ends with a small amount of cotton fabrics, a large amount of synethetic fabrics, and some other surprises. The original owner of these was probably a Catholic school teacher; these beads, crosses and medallions are the kind of rosary kits for kids to make at Sunday school or Bible camp (and s...

Love Means This

Invested in a couple of hand-dyed bundles from one of my favorite fabric artists. This one said "Make me into something for Valentine's Day." So I went for a quilted and embellished tote. I kept thinking about what love means to me as I worked on it. Here's the finished tote. Although I was tempted to embellish with beads and pins, I got sick and only felt well enough to do a little stitching every night. As I worked I thought about how often love seems disappointing to us, especially when it fails to live up to our expectations. But now that I've experienced love in many forms, I can say that it's made me a better person than I might have been without it. Love is a precious thing, and should be appreciated in all its forms. I am very grateful for the love of my guy, my child and my friends who have stuck with me all these years. That's you two, in case you're wondering. :) Also finally found something to do with a ve...

Valerean

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