a stitch is just a stitch or a stitch

Long short stitch::Split back stitch

 My post today is  to show a bit of an "experiment" I did in response to a post at Jude's Magic Diary.  November 22nd. Jude did a video on dense stitching where she discussed filling in the negative space with her split back stitch.  This prompted me to ask, in the comments, " i don't know if you noticed but on the cloth that i'm working on now, LEFT, the filled in figures are done in long and short stitch. as you point out the space does provide another element...lift, dimension and it does take a while. I'm going to try the split stitch on the next figure I will be filling in but i just wondered if you have an opinion on these two stitches, different contrast kind of thing." To which Jude responded,  " what i like about the split stitch is the spliting of the stitch actually, it connects the stitch in a more durable way and makes a more integrated surface. more like a woven tapestry without too much pattern in the stitch itself.  i kind of made it up before i even knew it was a stitch. i also like how splitting the stitch spreads the thread, widening it and also allowing you to shift the position of the thread by catching it, moving it into place and then anchoring it. it hugs the cloth really nicely." Therefore, I offer the image above as a demonstration of the two stitches next to one another. Jude also mention the suzani (no relation, ha...sorry about it but couldn't help myself) stitch as another stitch that adds density. November 22nd Magic entry (for members)


Visually the stitches might look the same but technically there are some differences that I have observed. The split back stitch for one is "easier" to do in the respect that the orientation of the stitches are consistent.  The long and short stitch has to be formed in such a manner that oddly shaped corners can easily throw off the pattern.  The long and short stitch is really done best on measure canvas, like needle point and crewel. One other observation that I made and want to stress, is Jude's suggestion to "thumb" press the stitch when you make it and before you "split" it.  I initially did not do that and then I took a closer look at Jude's example, watched the video from her sidebar stitch reference and noticed that she explains the pressing.  Once I started doing that it made a big difference.  Since you will be most likely using more that one strand of floss when doing this type of fill work, the strands can twist very easily - the stitch will not lay flat on the surface of the cloth and you end up with a "skinnier" look spot...and there is some loss of the tapestry effect that you would get otherwise.  There really is a lovely texture that is created with this method...but as Jude points out, it is a time consuming stitch and you will use a lot of thread so if you want to maintain the color of the area that you are working in, have a good supply of the color.  It is a silent, slow, calming stitch that takes concentration and therefore, for me, relaxing.  I can drown out most of the noise around me as I'm holding the cloth and focusing on that little patch between hands, cloth, thread and myself. 


 I'm showing a few example of the stitches just to illustrate the technique:






           stitch comparison

I am also include the stem stitch here because that is what I used to outline the figures.  It is another stitch that my mother used a lot and taught me.  She was an absolutely magician with the Long and Short stitch.  Today sadly her hands and mind don't have the patience for such detailed work...but the clothes hold their memories well.

 I am going to have a detailed update on my cloth and memory, which I was to include here but decided to keep it separate.  But in the interim here is a shot of a corner I just finished, hoping to catch your fancy.

                                      

Can a shadow cast her own shadow back?
The "boxed" shadow is done in split back stitch,
whereas the retreating shadow is done in
Long and Short stitch. 

All little more stitching last night

I remember the days when I use to think, yay Friday.  Don't have to think that way anymore.  The days really do wander off or come on their own.  Without regularity, also known as a job, one has to really think about the days in a different way.  I have several calendars which I find myself checking for validation now...seeing if it really is the day I think it is.  I can see how and why my mother with ask me what day is it.


Today I was back in the library (my old office) doing a little more cleaning up and out.  After almost thirty years these things take longer.  It's almost as though I'm moving out of my second home.  So much trash and just plain stuff that I've kept around thinking I'll go back and read that article, or refer to that report/memo.  Conference guides and presentation proposals and then the presentations' scripts.  The grant proposal that I worked on submitted and got and the ones I didn't get but thought I'd reapply for.  Catalogs that I had marked for future acquisitions that now are so old that newer editions of those same titles have been re-issued.  When it comes down to it....we are just accumulators/collectors of little bits of memory, history aspects of our former self that we try to hang on to.  Why, because we'll forget who we were?  Maybe in some cases people have an easier time of just filing away things (in circular containers) and keeping an orderly house...but I think a lot of us too will hold on to things because for one reason or another they have a value that only we understand and probably ultimately forget.  Maybe this can explain why my mother keeps going through her things over and over again...seemly without point or really objective - she's trying to recapture something of herself that her memory has misplaced.  Someday she look in the mirror and will not recognize the person that she sees in the reflection and she'll eventually too forget my name so until that happens I guess it's okay that she keeps sorting her things remembering the best way she can - just who it was, who was that person that first saved that little object which is so meaningless to everyone but her.


Memento mori is a Latin phrase translated as "Remember your mortality", "Remember you must die" or "Remember you will die".1* It names a genre of artistic work which varies widely, but which all share the same purpose: to remind people of their own mortality. The phrase has a tradition in art that dates back to antiquity. 


*1literally " [in the future] remember to die", since "memento" is a future imperative of the 2nd person, and mori is a deponent infinitive


Well, topical subject this: Day of the Dead celebrations are acts of Memento Mori...Victorians were known for keeping photographs of loved (after their death, dressed and posed! but noticeable dead) as such remembrances.  And let us not forget the reliquaries - a little saints' keepsake for a token of memory! 
But I digress...


So I went to the office...did a little cleaning and came home to the same old same old.  

But I did want to post an update of the corner of the newest piece I'm working on...LEFT.  The bottom right hand figure is completed.  It is the image on the top of the blog page. The correct color is somewhere in between these two!  I don't have photoshop just auto correct.  The figure is totally filled in long and short stitch.  This is the only figure that will be filled.  The other figures on the cloth will be outlined and stitched in Jude's walking stitch.  The shadows will be completed and will progressively get longer.  There is the rectangular "chamber" in the middle which also probably will remained unfilled.  Progressing slowly.  


Also under the heading of, really like this.  I read this yesterday on the Mermaid in the Attic blog.  Thought is was interesting and that I'd share it with those that perhaps have not seen it or her page.  It deals with down time during the creative process.  Artists' Block kind of thing.  A little mythical and spiritual and mysterious but that's okay.  It reads very with and gave me cause to think about those times I could thread a needle of draw a little or "just what is wrong with me today kind of mood."  Hope you enjoy it.  I did.


http://amermaidintheattic.blogspot.com/2011/10/descending-into-underworld-labyrinth.html


I like mythology by the way.  There is something about the underworld that I find creative.