Stitching and Snow

Overnight and during the day today we go about 15 inches of snow here in Maine. Here are a couple of brave neighbors I spotted out our kitchen window.....I didn't put even one toe outside today.

Paul took a walk with his snowshoes.....but stopped to clean off the bird feeders on his way.

I appreciate all the emails and kind words of support after my milestone post yesterday...I'm feeling the love! And go figure.....just this morning another image from the blog popped up in my Pinterest feed....this overly embellished leaf inspired piece I did after the Swirls of Color class.  

I wrote about my process here:

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2020/07/learning-curve.html

This piece is knocking around the studio somewhere....and as soon as I find it I'm going to finish it find it a home.

There's a LOT going on here.

But I like this similar, but simpler wool piece even better.  

https://joyfulputtering.blogspot.com/2020/08/wooly-leaf.html

Although there is some hand stitching in both pieces...most of the 

stitches are decorative stitches on my machine. Even some of the coaching is done by machine.

I do love to hand stitch....but I am also reminded what my sewing machine is able to do.  And I know I'm going to have to be careful with my thumb.....even after it heals.

I had spent some time hand stitching on my Stitch Camp project before my injury.....and wasn't going to post about it until I got a little further along.  I wasn't happy with some of it....and knew I could improve it with more stitches and a few overlays.  The goal is to blur the lines between the pieces and tie everything together.

Now I'm thinking there are parts I can do on my machine while my thumb is healing.   

I came across this sheer curtain piece I painted a while back....then machine stitched some texture into it with my machine.  I do love this little back and forth knotty stitch.....and I think I could use this technique on my piece in a few places.

As of this evening...it's still snowing.

Stitch Camp

I started 3 new art classes this week....two of them free.  I'm hoping to improve my hand lettering....I'm drawing mandalas.....and I'm spending a week at "Stitch Camp!" 

On a tip from Lily....I signed up for "Stitch Camp."  It's free....with a lesson each day this week from textile artist Gwen Hedley who is taking us through a small project from beginning to end.  It involves painting fabric....cutting it up and putting it back together....hand stitching....embellishing...and finally finishing.  All that in a week!  The videos will be a available for a few more weeks....so there's time built in if I get behind.  I'm already behind.

https://training.textileartist.org/stitchcamp-signup-2/

I have admired work from several different textile artists using these techniques....and I hope to translate it to landscapes and fabric collage.

This fabric is the inspiration scheme for my class piece....and several other pieces that are in my head.  It already looks painted!

It's actually from a linen blouse I found at a thrift store....and I've been wanting to do something with it for quite some time. So I'm finally cutting it up.

What I love most about it is that you can get a whole different scheme when you isolate different parts.  Although I absolutely LOVE the dark inky blue...I'm using 

the lighter colors for this piece.  The dark will show up somewhere else.  

I settled in on Monday night and painted way into the evening. Our task was to do all kinds of mark making on light colored fabric....in a limited color palette.  I chose aqua, green and coral from my inspiration fabric.

Aqua and green came right out of the tube....but I had to mix the coral....and I love my mixing paper.

Problem: The other 1/2 of my studio that I haven't tidied up yet is my painting station where I do all my messy work including gelli printing. But I made it work....and I'm motivated now more that ever to get that 1/2 of the studio a little more organized. 

I was a little unsure of of it when I went to bed....it just seemed like a big mess....and this is what I woke up to.    

In the light of day....isolating little pieces and parts I thought there was hope.  

     

Yesterday's lesson was to join several different pieces of our painted fabrics. Here are four little swatches...along with 2 swatches from the blouse....tacked together into one strip.

One of the things we looked for when we joined pieces was natural connections....like this green swatch where the paint splotch connects with the linen fabric.  We'll be able to enhance these areas....and carry over lines into the next piece with stitch.  Or at least that's the hope. 

Today's lesson was how to blur the connections between the swatches with hand stitching trying to make it look like one fluid piece of cloth. I didn't have time today....but may get a start on that tonight.  

I'm thinking of this small project as a way to practice some of these skills in a sampler type way....and I am enjoying the process in "stitch camp" so far!  Thanks Lily!

This was one of my painted fabrics....but I'm not using it yet.  The background is an oatmeal colored linen....and I'm looking forward to cutting it up and using it in something else.