An (Almost) Matching Pair...

...of landscapes, made from a monoprint and a ghost print.  I talked about the ghost here.  This is the main print...

I'm popping the ghost print down here, for easy comparison. 

There's lots more texture in the main monoprint, much easier to see what's happening in the main body of the 'land',  It's clear that there are a lot of curving lines, so the stitch reflects that.  I like using blanket stitch, it encloses and defines areas of space in a much better way than a running or back stitch is able to.  I did use the same thread in these areas on both quilts, but the sky in this main piece reads as much darker than the ghost print, unsurprisingly, so I used a darker thread in the sky.  The treatment, though, is the same, seed stitches scattered around the blue areas.  I did consider adding linear stitch, but decided that it would distract from what was going on below it, and I didn't want to do that.

So, there you are...two nearly identical landscapes.  It's interesting how different the stitch makes them appear, though it's clear that they are related.  I've got a couple more monoprints in this palette to work on, and it will be interesting to see how they turn out in comparison with these.

Chugging Along Nicely...

...with Borderlines... though the cat is attempting to intervene...Mollie is nothing if not consistent.  She's been sitting on there for the past ten minutes...just as well I'd taken all the photos I wanted before she sat down. 

I've now completed the stitch in the bottom section, and am therefore feeling somewhat smug.  I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with the upper section, but given that Mollie's now lying all over it, that's a problem for another day. 

I've used two different, but similar, variegated hand dyed threads, one below the paper motifs, and one to the side.  The one below is dark, and the stitching curls in on itself, echoing the way in which the right hand side of the paper motifs has been stitched.  

Spot the gap.  The stitch on the top reflects the torn and uneven nature of the motif; the stitch on the bottom...doesn't.  In fields, a gap like that might be filled with trees; in abstract, I've filled them with vertical stitch, which in my mind, suggests those trees.

To the right of the motifs, I've stitched diagonally, given that there were several lines of vertical stitches there already, and I didn't want to repeat that.  The diagonal reflects the circular motif above it.  I didn't want too big a block of stitch in that area, so used the motif as a natural stopping point, as well as a directional guide.

And now, Mollie is up on the arm of the sofa, expecting me to move the laptop so she can snuggle into my lap; turns out I'm more comfortable than the quilt.  I will have to make my mind up about the upper section...but maybe not today.  Or at least, not consciously.  Doubtless there will be a certain level of unconscious problem solving going on in there while I get on with Other Things.

Pacing Myself

You may  have noticed it's been quiet on the blog this week.  My sister had a party at the weekend, and I'm still paying for it in reduced energy, so very little sewing.  I thought you might like to see how the Borderlines piece is progressing (I talked about it here), so...

Regular stitching, irregular sizes, round and round, I hope it suggests a field.  And then some much more intense stitch in the lighter area of paper.

I hope it supports the texture of the paper, which sadly, you can't really see clearly from the image.  It's really quite fragile, though it has a rough look. 

The real challenge, though, is the background.  All that white.  I really don't like white, don't use it much at all.  My original intention was to use a dark blue/pinky purple hand dyed thread as the background, in a similar fashion to the yellow stitches in the image above, but now I'm not so sure.  Maybe a variety of different colours, grouped in different ways; rectangles, or circles.  Rectangles are more likely...to reflect the idea of a patchwork of fields.  If that isn't enough, I dare say I could use a wash of either a herbal tea or a watercolour paint... but I think I'll wait to see how the stitching turns out. 

Ideas tend to shift and change, to develop, as the work goes along.  I like that.  Art is a living thing, in its way, a relationship between the maker and the thing he or she is exploring.  It ought to change as more is learned, more uncovered.  It's all part of the process.

Prep And Play

It's not all stitch, you know... sometimes you have to do a bit of prep work.  Yesterday, I sat with one of the pieces I'm working with and selected the threads to use with it.  And then I wound the skeins into balls.  I never used to bother, but they get horrendously tangled, which is wasteful.  My grandmother was a knitter; I can remember sitting, arms outstretched, with a hank of wool wrapped around them, as she wound balls from it.  It's not so simple when it's small skeins of thread, and no human available to hold them.  The first two went fine, though... the third, not so good.

From this, to this.  It tangled from the very beginning, and got progressively worse.  Sigh.  My own incompetence, I'm sure.  I did consider ditching it, at one point, but remembered I might need more than the one skein, so persevered; it's ready to stitch with now, as are they all. 

I thought, after that, I deserved to play a bit.  In the UFOs there was something I'd prepared when I was still teaching, as a possible sample for a possible course on abstract work.  Three ovals, cut from Evolon, and then cut into randomly, like this. 

They're placed on grey hand dye, one of the few bits remaining to me (yes, I know, I've got a shelf full of fabric for dyeing' anyone want to come and play with me?).  Looking at this image, it strikes me that this would be a good way of making semi abstract flowers... but that wasn't my intention here.  I wanted to rearrange the cut pieces to make an interesting pattern.  The evolon has fusible on the back; it's a cross between Matisse papercuts and tweets quilts, now that I think about it.  There really is no idea that's completely new.

Looking at these, I decided the individual elements were too thick, and so cut into them again. 

That's better.  This, is better still...

I may fiddle with it a bit more, add some space between the individual elements, perhaps adjust one of them that's pulling my eye as an exception to the way the others have been cut (see if you notice it, a kind of textile Where's Wally?).  Or maybe I'll leave it as it is.  I like it. 

Oh, Wow!

It was just a plain brown envelope.  And then I opened it, and look what was inside...

Threads from Stef Francis...thank you, Stef, they're wonderful.  I really did look at them and say, 'oh wow'.  I bought them really to go with one of the pieces I showed you earlier, Borderlines, the piece with the textured paper.  That wasn't to hand, but these were.  Firstly, the piece I showed you yesterday:

The brown is really strong against that print, and I'll use it on the marks.  The orange, not so much...but it is a gorgeous thread.  And then there's this, which I wrote about here:

Now, I wasn't intending to put much in the way of stitch on here, but looking at the way that thread sits on this piece, I'm now not so sure... perhaps a stitched border round the very edges of the piece...perhaps more... I don't know, but I'll be having a good think about it.  I rather wish I had more of that coloured evolon; it would be interesting to make a pieced top from repetitions of this 'block'.  Life isn't like that, of course, but I may well follow through on this idea once the workroom has settled down a bit. 

And talking of the workroom...the shelves are now where they're meant to be, though I'm still working out what to keep, where.  I promised you a sneaky peek, and here we are...

Thread and fabric mostly along the long wall; paint, drawing materials, feathers and other embellishments tucked away in the corner.  The painting will go up in front of my sewing machine; it's a calming image called 'Goddess'.  My rulers will go up on the walls, too, and doubtless a couple of framed textiles, eventually.  What I don't have, is a design wall.  I had one in Norfolk, and rarely used it.  I did contemplate a blind on the front of one of the bookcases, but the boxes stick out too far.  Besides which, most of the work I'm likely to be doing in the future will be small scale, not much bigger than a napkin.  So I'll be doing what I advise my students to do:  stick it on the floor, and stand up...if you're careful, stand on a chair...just don't fall off.  Or, more likely, I'll take a photograph, and contemplate that.  Works every time: it's the distance that's important.

Things are coming together, finally, both with the work and the room.  If only I could find a new body...