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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