Stitching Pomegranates, 6.

Getting close to the end of stitching the pomegranates, however the leaves remain and more outlining.

This one is a branch towards the top of the tree.

Last one of the pomegranates to go under the needle tonight. 

I'm still reflecting on how to get the branches into a whole tree with the background. I'll figure it out when I get there. I have faith that it will work out...

Color Study: Brown.

On the Wings Cloth, brown seems unappealing to me. I've been resisting brown. Maybe, just maybe I should re-consider brown, look closer.  Of course, I resist collecting, which is a good thing. I have too much "stuff", but there remains the garden with lots of space. Sometimes things come together quite unintentionally.

The brown snails have been a pest, however, one day it occurred to me that their shells are striking. I do like spirals. Movement. A paradox, going towards the middle, the movement stops abruptly. Going out it unfurls.

So when I find an empty one now, I put it on the scale on the patio table outside the kitchen door with shells, a fossil rock and rusty metal. As a collection, the spirals are mesmerizing and the variety of browns is pleasing. This setup might be good as a still life, something to draw with the addition of a bit of watercolor. However, I'm thinking it would take more time than I really want to spend.

A Flurry of Wings.

Following Jude Hill's example, I sewed a few simple patchwork wings, squares and triangles, with two different pink fabrics, one light, one darker, and the blue pinstripe. Each print has several secondary colors.

The blue pinstripe of the patchwork wings will blend into the background. 

I'm liking this better now, with the addition of the wings that blurs the straight lines a bit. Used scraps of the tea-dyed fabric to make the wing shadows. I have left the lower right hand corner of the brown strips unstitched for the moment. 

This is developing into a bird's eye view of land and sea, but not just any bird's eye. This is Icarus looking down from his high altitude with joy and exhilaration, just before he realizes that he should have listened to his father, Daedalus, and not gone so close to the sun, just before the plunge. I'm trying to figure out how to put in the Minotaur's labyrinth that Daedalus built on Crete in the lower right hand corner. For Daedalus was not innocent. Although he sought to escape to freedom, he himself had built a strange prison or cage for another creature, albeit a monster. How to express this mix of darkness and light?

Stitching Pomegranates, 5

They're all the same, yet every one is different.

Another one goes under the needle tonight. The sleeve shape remains. 

This is one of the larger sketches

Roses, 2.

I decided to darken the background further by working in a tile style with triangles. Liking triangles a lot, lately. Or maybe I've liked triangles for a long time, they keep coming up.

The beginning of "pin and stitch". Used a dark maroon thread, complement of green, on a black solid, a black with dark brown pattern, and a batik fabric. The maroon shows up well.

I'm going to try writing directly with the machine this time instead of writing with a colored pencil first.

The triangles emphasize the grid; I'll write on top of the triangles.

Stitching Pomegranates, 4

I have a total of 11 sketches of branches. This will go on for quite some time. Little by little.

I machine stitched patches to the white background that was originally a shirt in order to fill the background in a bit. Will probably hand stitch into the background, maybe do some reverse appliqué as well.

To stitch next. The armhole shape becomes part of the overall design.

I've already laid down the red thread.

This is also an experiment with different fabrics and how they take the color of the threads. The dark pomegranate will show off the lighter colors very well, but may require some extra work for the middle colors. I'm wondering if it will balance out ok with the other pomegranates or create a hole.

Stitching the Land

I continue to stitch the land for the Wing Cloth.

I like the stitching.

It's the colors that I don't care for.

Well, particularly the tea-dyed brown.

From experience I know that colors I find ugly can be extremely useful when mixed with other colors.

I machine sewed the sides to the central panel instead of hand sewing them because I was longing for some nice, straight lines.

At this point, I said to myself, "This is the worst thing I've EVER done." Admittedly, that is a good sign because it means I'm exploring new territory. Painful all the same. No idea where this is going.

Needleturn: First Steps

A blouse/tunic that started to have holes serves as a canvas. I have one front finished.

The other side. This is the first step: deciding which way the labyrinth will flow and then with safety pins, attaching strips and pieces of fabric.

I considered working from the top down, but I have a pocket placed at the bottom (the dark maroon). So I'll be working from the bottom up. I can always add on other strips later, so length doesn't matter too much.

















Sometimes I look at the fabrics and have no idea where to start. The trick is to begin at the easiest point of entry. In this case, the lower left edge seemed the most accessible.

Once I had stitched down the far left edge, I could take out the safety pin and begin cutting the dark red. Then I cut and stitched down a short strip of the blue.

Then I turned back the bottom of the blue, which was still unstitched, to get at the maroon and stitch it down.

Once the maroon was stitched down, I went back to stitching down the dark blue.

As I stitched on this corner last night, I remembered that I really do like to do this and prefer appliqué stitching over embroidery, for some reason. Possibly because it's a bit faster. Thoughts of a large labyrinth, a majestic and monumental piece, have crossed my mind lately, but for the moment a number of other pieces must be finished. Like the pomegranate tree.

Another set of wings

Sets of wings keep suggesting themselves.

I added extensions to the small triangles with an outline stitch in purple sewing thread, 2 strands. I'm not using embroidery floss on this project because I have so much thread in so many colors inherited from my mom. If I don't use it who will?

And then, I feel an obligation to use up all that thread. I can imagine my dad saying to my mom in the next life: "But WHY did you buy all that thread????" Having lived through the depression, he was a frugal person. Now she can reply: "Because our daughter needs it."

Stitching Pomegranates, 3

Most evenings before dinner I sit at the machine and do free motion stitching on pomegranates for about an hour and a half. The machine's motor heats too fast to do more than that.

I keep adding more stitching because the colors of the threads please me so much.

The next sketch to go under the needle: Less stitch gives a different look that I like as well.

More visible fabric.

I find I like the possibility of viewing the work on the blog page as I go along. Gives me some perspective.

Roses, 1.

  Went outside and sketched roses with white colored pencil on fabric sewn to sketchbook page.

Then had to immediately stitch the design since the pencil was rubbing off. Did this in light pink and light green thread. Camera is reading it as white. Tough to photograph dark fabrics.

Bird's Eye View

The Wing Cloth seems to be emerging as a bird's eye view or Icarus's view as he looks down below him. I basted the tea-dyed strips onto three different dark brown fabrics for backing, but I like the contrast and will probably let the backings show. Then I hand stitched all the seams with a running stitch that shows.

I like the emphasis of the pieced seams, which gives structure. Then I began adding stitching and a few pieces of fabric prints here and there for fields

 and roads

and mountains. A pyramid? Might have to add to that to make it look like a mountain.

Oil Tin Mosaic: finished gluing.

Used tiles. Didn't sand off the backs enough resulting in uneven surface. Sometimes that's an interesting look, but I really prefer a smoother surface...next time.

The other sides, pretty much the same. I'll use an almost black grout. The grout makes such a big difference, brings out the mosaic design.

Portable Sketchbook.

My more traditional sketchbook, 8"x6"/20cmx15cm; small enough to carry in my purse. I usually sketch in lost moments when out in the car. Not a daily practice, maybe once a week. I glued on fabric bits, then machine stitched. A bit of a trick because of the wire spiral.

Played around with markers on the reverse side of the stitching.

For me, there doesn't seem to be much crossover between sketchbook and fabric maybe because I don't give the sketching much thought. Here's looking out the dentist's French door balcony windows in an older section of Tunis, March 2012.

It occurred to me, however, that I would like to hold in my hand a sketchbook where one side of the page is drawn and the other side is a fabric interpretation.

Glue and a stack of fabric bits. This is working really small. I like it, but it's a bit finicky. Haven't progressed much on this idea. I'll get to it eventually. I also have a looseleaf notebook of the same size which I will use when I fill up this sketchbook. I can take the pages out and sew on them.

These are the ideas that preceded my Textile Sketchbook, which I will probably stick with because it's more idea-driven. I can get a better grip on it. The purse sketchbook (and any sketchbook I've done to date) is rather random. The Textile Sketchbook also serves to illustrate my main blog, giving it purpose. Random. I don't think "random" suits me very well, maybe because I feel like I must justify my use of time, which comes from a pronounced work ethic. Finding purpose may be the way of getting around the work ethic, or putting the work ethic to creative use.

Adding to Wing Cloth

I had tea-dyed some small white scraps, then machine pieced them together in bands. They were just sitting in the stash, and in the back of the mind. Thought I might use them with an antique Japanese silk rectangle given to me by a friend, but they seemed good for the Wing Cloth.

 I machine pieced together sets of wings with the blue pinstripe, which makes the wings stand out when appliquéd to the blue background. Then added triangles. Set them on the top. With leftover scraps of the tea-dyed cottons, I made triangle shapes that became shadows.

A flurry of wings. The tea-dyed bands are on three sides, which are not stitched to the center yet.

The theme of wings brings to mind the story of Icarus, whose father, Daedalus was a master craftsman. They needed to escape from Crete, where Daedalus had built the Labyrinth to contain the Minotaur, therefore he built wings out of wax and feathers. Icarus did not heed his father's warning about flying too high and too close to the sun. His wings melted from the heat and he plunged to his death in the sea. What interests me, then is the creative idea of constructing wings. No bodies necessary, it's the wing itself that counts.

So tea-dyed bands = Land, Crete. The blue pinstripe = sea. The blue skirt fabric = sky.