Snowscape!

Being worried isn’t conducive to creativity. But life has eased up a little and today I was ready to begin. I’d started this piece a while ago, but wasn’t happy with it. Finally dawned on me that following and using others technique did not mean following the entire project from start to finish. If I am trying to find my voice through stitch then it necessarily follows that I need first work out what it is I want to say! DOH! So back to my mood board, looking at the pictures. Going away ,looking at different images . Coming back, choosing the ones that were calling to me. grouping them, painting, playing with words.. Snowscape finally fell into two groups. The beautiful, cold gorgeous blues and whites of a winters day and the lowering, greys and yellows in a menacing sky which say danger, snow is danger. It was the blues and whites of the perfect winter’s day which I want to react too. Back to my silk paints then for a blue blue sky. I think I need a silk painting course, the paint just seemed to seep through the fabric? Don’t know why. After much frustration I got some blue on the silk, but its not what I truly envisioned. But sometimes you just have to go with what you have got. Then I started to fold white satin for the hills, and right now I am appliqueing them to the blue sky. More to follow shortly I hope…

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Dorset Buttons

Dorset buttons are such fun to make. All you need is some thread and a curtain ring. The curtain ring is covered in perle thread buttonhole stitch, then you weave into the ring. French knots in embroidery silk are then added. I have mounted the one I made last week onto the silk background and made a Mother’s Day card.

 

I have been having a long hard think about why I am on this journey to discover my voice through stitch. It is not about faithful representations or fancy new products, it is an attempt to say in stitch how I feel about what moves me.

I love lavender, the smell , the texture and oh the sight. There are two lavender farms close by which I love to visit, the headiness of it all. I just had to try to capture this joy in a Dorset Button. Backed with a brooch fastening, this will now be a gift for a dear friend.

And whilst I was stitching the idea of sunflowers came to mind, the sheer exuberance of those magnificent yellow blooms.

Meantime I have put some silk onto a frame ready for painting.

Mist

I have added more stitches to the mist piece, and I think I have finished.

A little more detail

 

Flowers and Dorset Buttons

I have added more flowers to my moss felt. The  felt was made by wet felting,then adding texture by raising certain sections with stuffing, then needle felting to give it a firmer surface to embroider into.

And more chain stitch.

I think I need to leave it alone now, so hard to decide when a piece is finished.

So now I am playing with Dorset Buttons. This idea from the Stitch magazine.

I like it placed against the silk I painted last week.

Love to read your comments and feedback. Have a lovely Sunday.

Finding courage!

December and January were very hard months for me in many ways, but mostly about worrying over close family. Worry is not conducive to creativity, and I lost courage in expressing myself through stitch. I found myself doubting that hedgerows and grass banks in mist looked as I felt they did.

February is a new place. Worry has been given over to waiting. I wait for news on so many fronts.

I have walked.

I have walked alongside hedgerows and grass banks in mist. My eyes had not deceived me.

I found my cloth and added some more stitches. I feel better.I will stitch more. I will not be so hard on myself.

The snow from winter has given me an idea for new stitching.  I found some old fabric paints today, but did not get the results I strove for. I have placed an order for new silk paint.

I will use today’s cloth for something else. Nothing will be wasted.

Mist- in stitch

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness…

….thou hast thy music too-

White barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,

And touch the stubble- plains with rosy hues;…

John Keats – To Autumn

November days, the cusp of Autumn and Winter, mist, when the world looks mysterious and shadows loom, when frost chills the air , and goblins move across the earth…

I have had the pleasure to own two spaniels. And one day, next year maybe I shall have another dog. When you have a dog, the weather is rarely an excuse for not going out. Four times a day regular as clockwork ,along comes the mutt to say OUT NOW. Mist , damp and cold are no excuse whatsoever. And of course the dog is quite right. Once attired in waterproof trousers and jacket, wellie boots, gloves and hat I am up for it too. I learned to love the damp misty days of November when the trees drip and you can’t see more than a few yards in front of you. The earth has its own Autumn smell.

And where I go, my camera goes too. A common refrain in our home was  ” Mum, why do you have so many photos of fog and dead plants?” Well why? Because I do!

This November has been particularly misty. I found myself looking at mist in a new way, just what colour is mist, is it white, grey, or a mixture of both? But no, sometimes it is the colour of the land over which it lies. I have seen grey and white mist, but also blue, pink, orange and green mist as the sun breaks through and it begins to clear… and so the need to stitch mist took hold of me.

Lessons having been learned- plan and think things through first!! I made my moodboard.

I lived with these images, I drove through mist, I walked through mist and finally I painted mist from a photograph I had taken through the undergrowth

 

Next I painted up my fabric and began to stitch , very much a work in progress

Still stitching, I will share progress next week. all comments and helpful thoughts are really appreciated.

Linking to Lola for stitching project

 

Why?

I started my first blog two and a half years ago. I write about my family, my interests and everyday life.

Reaching out to others I have found the courage to express myself through stitch , and I have reached the point where I want to devote more time to this. I find that I gain support and encouragement from the blogging community and it feels natural to blog about my endeavors . I need to give myself the time and space to be this person. These fledgling efforts deserve their own place and a blog of their own.

I look forward to sharing my journey towards self expression.