Makeovers

Meet 'Lolla Lee Lou', so called after the Dr. Seuss bird, because of the feathery finery and saucy feel of those plumes. She is needlewoven onto an abalone shell and is my project for the class I'm taking. Other students had a whole range of different ideas for their needleweavings and I am looking forward to seeing some of them tomorrow. I also completed this piece today,

and enjoyed drawing with thread and needle here and there.

I'm calling this 'Ephemeral and Eternal' - for the process of change that is life.

Street Art

When I looked down enroute to the beach I saw a giant feather formed from pine needles and water that reminded me of the large feather I sewed on my piece. 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...

Making Tracks

The stitches are slowly securing more items down and tracks are appearing in the snow here and there... although I lost half a day to work on this because of a migraine. 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.

Knotty and Nice

Yesterday I laid out the leaves, feathers, pinecones and other things I found on my walk onto a rectangular linen piece with a handstitched edge - a garage sale find from awhile back. I am thinking about the tradition of stitch and the women who passed their handmade treasures to their daughters and granddaughters. Since it is a feminine art, it seems appropriate that offerings from mother earth join with this cloth to continue their life and the cloth's in a new form. It is snowy white like the snow I walked through. 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...