Earlier today I saw the Threads in the City show at the Martin Batchelor Gallery put on by Fibres and Beyond. Lots of variety and interesting pairings of the fibre artists with artists working in other mediums - a pleasure to see.
This week's class is focusing on raised stitching - from different types of applique
to couching. 
More types to come...
I was careful around these sharp points:
And this heart nest is not entirely secure yet:
I was thinking about decomposition as part of the life and death process - the running stitches seemed like they might be leaf bits or a leaf ghost echoing the shape that was once fuller. 
I also stitched down driftwood, the large feather, a stick and an arbutus leaf. I'm about half way done.
And here the stitching has begun - you could miss noticing if you only saw what you expected to...
And this morning on the beach, I again saw a mirror of what I had stitched - seaweed thread through sandcloth to secure down a log.
Ever since I saw this chartreuse silk in the class scrap box, it was flirting with me so I added felted wool, silk gauze and french knots to make a Christmas card.
Quite a bit more stitching ahead this weekend...
The snow was wondrous, and I saw many animal tracks:
And altered shapes and colours.
Here is some of what I collected, including a huge feather gift that I think is from our local heron:
Next came choosing a ground...
the environment outside began to change colour... 
With the strong wind painting the asphalt
and tires creating a line design.
Staying within the little boxes of the canvas feels restrictive, even as I know the value of trying new things and am learning how the technique might be used in novel ways. 
I added more to this piece, moving it towards a talisman:
I stitched the large foreleg and small creature without prior drawing of them onto the fabric and was more interested in the energy and feel of that, than anatomical accuracy.
I cleaned the studio this morning and spent the afternoon following this beast, who is in motion so I only captured it's tail end :) The piece is ready for basting if I can pin it down...
For some reason, this reminds me of a magic lamp.
Two thread colours through my double eyed needle - although putting both threads through one of the eyes worked just as well.
Do you remember when you stitched your first french knot? I did mine today, after first making a series of loops (interesting but not what I was after) and then Lesley showed me a few and my little baby was born in the far left corner :)
We are also exploring some open stitches:
I am enjoying seeing all the ideas of my classmates and am appreciating the wealth of knowledge they bring, in additon to all the rest of the learning!
And I've got my stitched fibre piece ready for class tomorrow, when we will post them up, to see and discuss each other's work.
Here is a back view, which has its own appeal. 
Tomorrow we will be learning more stitches.
We are to have several fabrics coloured with our colour of choice for our next class. I painted cheesecloth (top left) and next to it is felt and below are two close ups of cotton that I dyed with two different greens. I was hoping for a bit more contrast and may add some later. I do like the patterning on the cotton, though.
Tomorrow I will be part of a show opening at Satin Moon Quilt shop, along with the other members in my art quilt group. I've put four pieces in this year and expect a fun time looking at everyone's work.
I made various colour scales exploring green - the colour I've chosen to work with - to deepen my understanding of its value, intensity and temperature. I'm appreciating the learning, which is amplified by seeing and hearing about the colour explorations other students are doing. 
And I've begun stitching a design focusing on contrasts of value and intensity. Some of the fibres are strips of silk and I'm delighting in combining various kinds of 'threads', because of all the delicious textures. 
The colour green suits this class - Lesley uses a timer to keep us on track and growing!
We are exploring four types of cover stitches this week, seeing the variety we can come up with for our stitch dictionary. I enjoyed the running stitch but have much more to discover with it - as well as with the other stitches. 
Some of these remind me of the salmon I watched spawning recently:
I've covered my journal for the upcoming textile art course I am taking with this cotton that I had previously monoprinted with leftover thickened dye when I did some deconstructed screenprinting. No neutrals, there!
And here is a video of the surprise I found while at the beach:
The sun this morning looked like a keyhole. 
I wonder what wisdom might come to light? 
Some changes or surprises that I see are due to the varied time of day or season – things like lighting, what’s growing and tide fluctuation - and others arise with the weather
or might just be what I notice, meaning that the surprise might have been there before and I missed it, so it becomes one today. And there are little surprises:
and big surprises, which have to do with my valuing of them. I see gull feathers all the time and this is probably one too, but it's small size and beige spot near the tip are less usual a find and what is rarer stands out. I once arrived at this quiet, small beach to find a movie about to be shot on it, complete with props and a security guard! What I encounter also depends on how tuned in I am to noticing and acting on my intuition – like when I was drawn to venture onto the rocks at the point, I saw ten otters playing in the water – hard to see in the photo from my pocket digital camera - and not all of them are in it, but I'm glad I didn't miss that!
If I took photos of what isn't novel to me, it might still be a surprise to you. I think what captures my attention is a flag marking potential growth and learning that might surpise me all over...
