cheer for the holidays

Wanted to wish all of those who drop by, a warm and joyful season.  I've been stitching away without completing too much however, 

this is the piece (well, one of the many UFO-WIPs) I'm working on at the moment.  The text is in process.  It will read, "two sided story, once told."  It's stitched on an old vintage quilt.  The heart is made from some scraps of fabric samples.  It needs work on the edges as well but it's nice in the hand. 

Last week Karen Ruane's "embroider, embellish, create" class EEC had it's last on-line lesson. (The link is the the flickr group so you can see how wonderful the work was from that group.) 

My cloth is not completed.  It's a piece I'm working on for my mum.  I don't know if I'll get it ready for the upon gift day but her birthday is in January (she'll be turning 92) so by then it should be put together. 

Here's where it's at - the pinned stage:

and the last little piece I'm stitching upon now:

This work has been very different for me.  First the colour is white, for the most part. Also, there is a lot of "fancy" stitch work going on.  But, as different as this is from the things I usually show - it is closer to a picture of my mother - soft, vintage cloth that has known something of life - and hopefully representing the beautiful life that I see in her face. 

Well, happiest of holidays - and until the New Year - thank you. 

May I be a better blogger in 2013.  

wednesdayworkwithwords

Probably better get one more in for April since April is almost going by:

Since my first  April cloth was gifted to my friend Keith for his birthday, April cloth 2 had to be born.  The cloth isn't really as wobbly as it looks in the picture, it just photographed crooked! Following are details of the piece so that you can see some of the stitches.  I left the needle in, by the way, since I'm not quite sure if it is done. I'm leaving a few open, unstitched, spots because I'm trying out some new thoughts.  One of the comments from last time noted that a little mystery was allowed for the viewer to fill in their own story if the piece isn't completed stitched out.  I like that and took note.

The oak leaf is here, in the middle.  the cloth is representing transition...as Winter transcends into Spring. The left side is the colder/wintry side. Curling and swirling, whirling winds come with the change.  A little more spare  in the amount of stitches show a little of the barren feel that the end of Winter might have.  Spring is on the right. Especially with the warmer Spring then usual, the flowers, trees and  fauna have been appearing sooner and quicker.  So the richer palette and abundance of stitching are to show the awaken of the growing season.

The leaf itself is divided into the two aspects.  The slight touch of green and woven stitch are the young growth.  The outline of the blackened lines are the cracks that have started to form on the old leaf of last summer.

 As April draws to a close, have May to look forward to.  More work needed in the garden - seedlings need transplanting and my indigo is sprouting.  Really need to hustle on that - it got colder and winder after the days of 80s which interrupted the garden schedule.  May cloth will be started, work on the fascicle project continuing, Magic  Diaries II is still in full swing and Contemporary Boro II about to commence.  The last two references are to  Jude's projects.

So, until my threads bring me back for another post...happy stitching and creating to all.

wee wordless wednesday

a few completed things during my absence and silence:

The touch of summer cloth that I showed on my last post is done.  Lots of stitches and a bit of couching to off-set the stitching. 

This is how it looked at first.

 The other cloth that I completed started out as my April cloth, but now is my Keith cloth. I'm gifting this to my former assistant, Keith, an artist and good friend. It was his birthday in March so...shhh, don't tell. There is text in the central panel where the leaf is but it is not suppose to be read, just used as part of the image.

I'm showing the back - because I've actually cleaned up my act and put a backing on the cloth and a little bit of quilt stitching to secure it.

I will make a new April cloth...on it's way

And in closing, an image from Tumbler.  This pretty much summarizes  my exploration of the oak leaf and stitching.

cheers to all

arriving with march

Emily Dickinson said, Dear March - Come In
So I invite you as well.  I've been gone a bit, I know.  But, I've been stitching away. I have finished fascicles 4 and 5. Only thirty-five more to go!  I will compose a separate blog for that but today I'm welcoming March. 

March cloth

Dear March - Come in - 

How glad I am -
I hoped for you before -
Put down your Hat - 
You must have walked -
How out of Breath you are - 
Dear March, how are you, and the Rest -
Did you leave Nature well - 
Oh March, Come right upstairs with me -
I have so much to tell -

and telling in the details:

detail

The cloth was first woven, ala cloth to cloth, and then stitched. The words on the cloth are there for me.  They are: 8th full moon, 3/14 pi day, 15th Ides, 2012, daffodils, after the Greek god of war, 31 days, Marze, Lentmont, 21 Spring and Ostara. Ostara is a Saxon/Germanic/pagan goddess that brings Spring. The swirls on the cloth are those March winds that have been blowing around. 

Ostara (1884) by Johannes Gehrts. The goddess flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putti, beams of light, and animals. Germanic people look up at the goddess from the realm below.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostara

 
Another day remembered on the cloth is 11:00 am, March 11, 2008.  That is for my dad.  
I got your Letter, and the Birds - 
The Maples never knew that you were coming -
I declare - how Red their Faces grew -         
But March, forgive me - 
And all those Hills you left for me to Hue - 
There was no Purple suitable - 
You took it all with you - 

I also am going to do a Ides of March cloth - seems to me each month has an Ides but we only remember March's... Still a WIP but even so:

The cloth is dyed with the indigo carmine and acorn.  It was folded during the dye process hence the lines.   

Who knocks? That April -
Lock the Door -
I will not be pursued -
He stayed away a Year to call 
When I am occupied -         
But trifles look so trivial 
As soon as you have come

That blame is just as dear as Praise 
And Praise as mere as Blame -

I also played around a little with weaving.  Jude has been talking about it over at Spirit Cloth here and here.  This brought back memories of when I use to rent a loom...about 35+ years ago when I first moved out on my own.   I would spend my evenings at a place called The Weaving Workshop weaving away.  It gave me great fun to tell people where I worked that I was going out to warp!  Anyway this is what I did.  It's about 3x5 inches. The brown thread is my walnut dyed thread.  The blue is purchased cotton.  

weave experiment

My father made the little "lap loom" if I can call it that, many a many years ago :

dad's touch

I found this a while ago, going through a draw in one of my old room's at my mom's.  It brought back more memories. 

The poems is Emily Dickinson's "Dear March - Come In"

I should be back by week's end with fascicles 4 and 5.  Thank you for welcoming March in with me.  Spring can not be too far away.  Cheers

2011+1= moving into the new year

 

The Snowshoe Hare, by Mary Oliver, from New and Selected Poems, Beacon Press, 1992.

Greetings for the new year.  I feel as though I've been lagging behind and had better post something before the first full week of the new year passes, the moon becomes full and starts waning, and the constellations that are visible take flight and realign  themselves. I picked the piece above from Mary Oliver because of a few words that would apply to those of us that have picked cloth and thread as our medium...tangles, lapping thread...across the field and into another year. 

I've been occupying myself with domestic affairs.  My mother had a few issues with heat - as in furnace went out and then the fuse box needed updating/replacement...and of course the payment of same. There is one small minor electric replacement that needs to be done but if it doesn't happen no big deal. 

Most of my time was spent at mom's during the pass week, yes we even stayed up until midnight on NYeve.  I think this was a first for us, together at the changing of the guard.  I had a small bottle of bubbly, have had it for near 30 years, so we opened it and even did a toast.  I think mom managed a sip or two and I think I scored about four before we decided, that's okay, we've done the ritual.  But she enjoyed it so...

The hands that first taught me to hold needle and thread...of all kinds.

I still think her hands are quite beautiful, even though they do show their age, and time has not been kind.  She has arthritis in her hands and has a hard time bending the fingers. She tries still to knit and crochet, though her memory is such that she is always undoing her stitches, since there are more or less  then what she originally starts out with.  But I'm going to give her a box of various thread so she might try embroidery. She use to make such beautiful cloths. 

I did occupy myself with stitching while I pondered domestic life. I finished LEFT, but will do a separate post on that.  I did finish my first cloth fascicle.  Assembled the beginnings of another and a larger cloth, 12x12.  That's large for me, since mostly the fascicles are closed, 4x4, and open page layout, 4x8.

This is the first fascicle to be completed.  One thing I did learn, even though I managed to get the three images on the page - the collation and pagination were off.  I did them as 4x8 page spreads not remembering that once they got bound the facing image/text would not correspond.  I have fix that for fascicle two.  So as a result the negative (cut-out, text, left-side, odd-numbered) image is not with the partnered leaf-positive (leaf, image, right-side, even-numbered) page.  The front-cover image is the outline of a half-oak-leaf and the dates worked.  The back cover has a few cryptic symbols, notes, comments - that is my thinking/thoughts sketching page.  The inside of the book has a, usually six line, poem that is the voice of the leaf that is pictured on the page.  All  my leaves are female - that is the voice that I know best.  I usually write these in my head while walking mom's dog...they are reactions but my mood, the day, something I see.  (My Chekhovian, "subjects for a short story," from the Seagull) I'd probably be better off taking a notebook with me, since sometimes it a race to remember as well...but maybe that is part of the processes.  The stitching is not pre-planned. It too depends on the mood and what's in my thread bag.  I really like working with this size...and books, well, they are as natural to me as my right hand.  I became a librarian because I simply love the touch, feel, contents, smell, the totality of the book.  

I've also been placing a little "key" on the pages as I'm stitching.  They are little squares that are stitched in the colors of the sky, at some point during the day...the most prominent color of the day.  This is done from something that I saw Deb G. doing over at her blog beecreative.  Deb is part-taking in something called the sky scarf: Leafcutter Designs - Projects, Conceptual Knitting.  The idea is to knit a row a day in response to the sky.  I really liked this idea, but really, starting another new project wouldn't be wise, I said to myself.  But I did like this so much that it's in my mind, on the mental Rolodex, and I'll do it down the road.  In the meantime, however, my little "keys" are my version of the sky scarf idea. 

Emily Dickinson made forty fascicles of her poems in her life time.  So I've decided that this year I will make forty as well.  With fifty-two weeks and one extra leap day I might make it.  It took me about a week to do this.  Assembly is part of the process.  I have a few yard of a natural muslin that is 32" in width.  I can tear 4" section that easily divide into four, 4x8 "pages."  Then the leaf preparation and assembling.  The stitching and notations are made following this processes.  I have also been keeping a "paper" fascicle as a sketchbook.  

The next fascicle is also ready to go:

You can see that I have adjusted for the collation, pagination issue.  Only the center, pages 3-4 are the actual images that will be seen together after assembly, (lower left corner)  The other pages are 2 and 5, 1 and 6. They are almost all basted and ready for stitching.  The cover is also started.  This time I'm putting the "keys" on the back, as well as the contents listings, the notations; this will act as sort of a colophon.  

Oh, and just to have something to do other then the fascicle project, I'm going to do doodling on cloth, my calendar cloths, if you like.  I thought I would do a monthly cloth, 12x12, where I could try out ideas, stitching/stitches and what-nots.  I guess you could call it a sampler or my what-if project. 

This is the January cloth, pinned, sketched and experimenting with.  I'm not sure about that round circle object.  I don't see it blending in with the cloth over-all.  I think it would be better done in just thread but once it is stitched up maybe it won't be the thorn of the upper right corner.  We'll see.  

Thank you for stopping by and hope your week passed was not riddled with domestic problems but happily employing your hands with doing something creative.  

  

the old, the completed, and to be worked on: 2011+1=2012

Left the piece started a couple of month back is just about done:  99%

The project I started, probably back around middle of October or so is just about finished.  The lower left band has some stitches to finish...will be done by the stroke of mid-night 2011.  I will discuss the story and stitching after the new year. 

OakLight
Gifted to my sister....29 December 2011

This was a piece that I started playing with stitches in preparation for my 2012 little weekly challenge to me.  My fascicles project (see 2 posts ago).  Fascicle Project.  It is bases on the influence of several ideas, but mostly Emily Dickinson "self-published" bound fascicles.  The way she sewed and preserved her poems for herself.  She created 40 all together.  I'm hoping to get about forty done as well next year.  Here, below is the first fascicle.  The main character is an oak leaf, that will tell her story through the year: seasons, months, weeks, days, night, cold, heat.  Her own view from up high and from looking up.

Fascicle, 1.

The beginnings of the Fascicles project.  Each fascicle will be made up of four leaves, 6 pages with a front/back cover.  A single signature sewn with thread, probably red, since I don't use much red (read) thread and somehow I've gotten it into my head the ED used a color! Basic pamphlet style sewing: 3 holes sewn and tied through the center...leaving a frayed end, "somewhere for the eye to rest."  My very first binding teacher told me to fray the thread, leaving sort of a combed hair like effect.  This was her signature - her symbol.  Everyone who had ever studied with Joan Flasch does this same kind of tie-off, "to rest the eye." 

Text will be left and image right.  Various stitches will be used but mostly simple basic stitching.  The text for this page is: 

HappyOak

last of winter

with peace

at the door

contented, soon

i'll be no more

There will be 6 lines of text (including the name/title of the oak leaf that is speaking. I'm still trying to work out the method for including the text.  I will probably just write it without necessarily stitching it...I have planned 40 such fascicle, with 4 leaves, (8 pages): that's 320 pages of stitching.  A bit of stitching I'd say without the text...so it will probably just be "printed" in some fashion.

The fascicles will be my small relaxation project while doing part II of Jude Hill's: magic-diaries-part-2.  That will start in January and go through the end of June.  It is a subscription instructional workshop.  Wonderful things to be learned there. 

And finally:

celebrating winter solstice and holiday season

Winter Solstice Lore and Ritual

Subdued by the light, some may fear the long coming night.  But tis Winter Solstice Sabbat which occurs on or about December 21st, when the Sun is at 1° Capricorn.  This traditionally marks the midway point of the dark part of the year. Yet, fears fall off within the next few hours when we begin to see an increase in light, which is why we celebrate the rebirth of the Sun on the Winter Solstice. There are myth cycles, which tell of the Oak and Holly Kings, of the Dying and Rebirth of God, that develop dramatically on this Sabbat. This celebration is re-energized from the additional  celebrations, such as Christmas and Hanukkah. For many, the Winter Solstice Sabbat marks the beginning of a week-long family celebration which includes Christmas and New Year’s Eve.

In my favorite myth, of the Oak and Holly Kings, the two gods meet again for another battle.( During the Summer Solstice, the Holly King, God of the Waning Year, defeated the Oak King, God of the Waxing Year.) However, when they meet on the longest night of the year, the outcome is reversed—the Oak King defeats the Holly King.  Celebrating the victory of the Oak King.

So don ye, thy frocks and thy woollies, thy hoods and thy follies,  (though this year most won't see thy much desired winter________ and temperatures are temperate.) So light a torch to see ye through the hours and bring morn full of light. 

eyes through winter

Trees still pay attention though they might not attract visitors except those that seek their shelter.

Gathering ideas for my up coming 2012 project: a year of fascicles. 

first page is forming.  stitching will come through tonight to celebrate the shortest and the coming of light's return

6:00 pm

Postscript regarding the term "fascicle."  If you go to this Link: About Emily Dickinson's Fascicles you will find a short articles describing the use of the term as I'm going to regard it for my 2012 project. According to the Encyclopedia of the Book, (Oak Knole Press & the British Library, 1996, the term can be generally defined as: a single number of a work published in instalments.  Also called fascicule or fasciculus. I like to think of them as little pamphlets that Emily Dickinson stitched to fit into the palm of her hand - to hold her poems and her secrets in the drawer of the writing desk where she would sit and compose her thoughts.  In total she made 40 fascicles but many more hundreds of poems were also found on individual pages.  She was known to write on any paper surface she'd find.  A true bricoleur.  

I had a few comments that left some visitors puzzled by my use of the word so I hope this provides a little insight into how I'm interpreting the term.  

Thank you for finding you way here and stopping by.