Daily 41

Daily 30

So I have continued doing my dailies even though February's challenge has come and gone.  I have gotten to a point where I anticipate the creation, and I can't wait to get up in the morning to dig into something that can just evolve into whatever it wants to be. 

That's not to say that I am finding any less joy in designing. On the contrary. I think that this daily exploration-- without boundaries or expectations-- loosens up the right brain and gives me a bit of spark in my other designing adventures. 

It can be tough to come up with new ideas. My biggest fear with the cross stitching is that it would become stale, but with my daily work, I am trying new color combinations and patterns that I might not have thought about before. I am exploring different stitches in patterns that for a long time were outside of my comfort zone. I am thinking of embellishment in a different way, too.

I am embracing a little more chaos.  

And I am finding such delight in it.

the revamping of my Etsy shop

As I have slowly worked through plans for what remains of the year and goals for the new year coming,  I have found myself coming back frequently to the question of what I want to do with my Etsy Shop. 

While I had been getting a fair number of views and favorites from those that follow me, I haven't had a sale in some time. Which, led me to thinking that the shop has become stale.

With all the designing I have been doing, there just isn't enough time to create new embroidered pieces for the shop. And so, I took a look at what I have done in the past with my shop-- what was successful, what was not. I thought about the time spent to make items, and how I felt about making things, and what I find myself drawn to now.  

Earlier this month I made the decision to pull back a bit on the "Tidbits", my crocheted flowers that I have been offering on my website.  While most will be going into hibernation, I think I will still put something together each month and add it to the monthly specials. Other than that, I need to free up the time for designing and stitching and figuring out new techniques and surprises for those who are working my designs.

What I have found, however, is that I still really, really, *want* to crochet and create embellishments. It is  love that runs a very close second to my designing. So, what do I do? 

 I always have scraps-- orts. Those bits and lengths of thread and floss that have been tossed into plastic bags. Lengths of fiber that I have rescued from abandoned needlework kits at this thrift store or that. I won't even comment on the stacks of fabric and pre-cut quilt blocks and jars of beads from deconstructed jewelry.

And so I have mulled. How can I pull all of this together? How do I create fresh, fun, and beautiful things  in my needlework designing and still find a way to satisfy my want to explore other fiber and sewing ventures?

Think, think. Think, think.

It was a light bulb moment. Not anything with a huge wattage. More like a table lamp light bulb moment because I still need to sort some of it out-- okay, *a lot* of it still needs to be sorted.

I am working on a lot of embellished designs that include flowers and beads and buttons, and I am always trying to find new things to work into my designing, more now than I ever have. 

Came to a conclusion, albeit a fuzzy one. 

There *is* a place for my crochet embellishments, my trims and my sewn flowers and all those other things I experiment with. I need to approach it from a 'one of a kind' way of thinking. I think part of what had me feeling boxed in and a bit stymied was that the flowers had started to take on this mass-produced feel. I loved making them, but it was starting to feel a bit monotonous. No surprises. That's one of the reasons why I love special orders.  It breaks things up a bit. 

Clear as mud, yeah?

So I have given my shop a face lift. It will now showcase one of a kind fiber goodies, be it crocheted art yarn, trims, sewn flowers, crocheted flowers. I am going to give myself one day a week to just flat out play and create and explore. Denying myself that opportunity really only stifles my other creative projects. I know this from experience.

At the end of the month, the Tidbits (other than the embellishment packs for designs) will be coming down from the website, and my Etsy Shop will be the place to find the new, one of a kind things that have been dancing around in my head. A chance to tap into those things I really want to try and to fashion new fun from those things that others may have left behind.

End of ramble.

Shoo, off with you.

Time to play.

ort beads

I love scraps. Scraps of fabric, fiber, paper, you name it.  Orts, the bits of thread and yarn left over from fiber projects, have always been one of my favorites, and I have saved most of the bits from my work over the years- stashing them in ziplock bags and showcasing them in jars around my house. I have had this bit tacked up on this blog since the blog was created...

Orts are the tiny snippets of thread left over from sewing and embroidery. For many generations and in many cultures these bits of thread held great importance. On a base level, they represented a part of a resource (thread) that still had use as fire starter materials, stuffing, etc. But there was a higher significance as well. These were remnants of the spirit of the artists or crafts persons who used them. So, like hair or cast off clothes, orts gained a spiritual designation and were saved for special uses. They have been found in “Witch Jars” in Viking Era York and Colonial Era New England in both Pagan and Christian context. In Latin America, they are mixed in with the straw in the Christmas Manger Scene. Overall, they are considered to be lucky and full of positive energy. (Originally posted at Work of My Hands blog)

Today I was looking for something different to work on. I took out bunches of tangled up orts from one of the bags and started balling them up in my hand. Picked up a needle and filament and started shaping them, the end result, these little 3/4" fiber beads that I'm kind of digging a lot. I might go back in and add some beads, or maybe pull the whole thing together with some embroidery thread surface stitching.  They are very lightweight as they are made entirely of threads. I have some other ideas I will be exploring as well with the orts. 

crochet & loom flowers

I'm positively obsessed with my flower loom.  I've been experimenting with old lace and even some bits of ric-rac and quilt binding tape besides the vintage fabric scraps.  A lot of trial and error.  I just completed a set with yarn that I had harvested from a few old sweaters.

I crocheted the yarn into a chain, (a really long chain!) and then wrapped that on the loom and this is the result.  They're incredibly organic in feel, all just a little different. 

They are a wool and acrylic blend.

Finished up another lot of flowers for an artist on Etsy, too.

This group was a mix of loom flowers and my traditional crochet blooms. They are just yummy!

This afternoon I *must* set down the hook and get into PatternMaker and get some new cross stitch things going. I've a stack of sketches that have been nudging me for a couple weeks now. I think they're feeling neglected!

glass & dreams

The long, crisp weekend gave me time to really dig into the stained glass design.  I still need to decide what to call this.  It reminds me of peacock feathers, stained glass, old tapestries. 

More time spent with cloth in hand, running stitches put down. 

Took me awhile to thaw out over the weekend. To find my motivation. 

Happy though, by the end of it all. 

under Amel's watchful eye

This morning I worked for awhile on this bit of cloth.  I listened carefully to see what it wanted me to do, what it thought it was meant to be.  I felt such a tug lately, to mend and make right and remember. Today as I stitched, I was taken back to a time as a child when I had this worn out old blanket-- holes, frayed edges, broken stitches, faded and falling apart-- but it was comfort. It was what I would tuck beneath my cheek when I went to sleep at night, or curl beneath with a book or one of the various stories in my head.

"That is what I am meant to be,"  it told me.

And so, under the watchful eye of Amel, (Jasper was busy guarding the orts) I continued to stitch, waiting to see if there was a particular story that I needed to stitch into the cloth. 

We will see what whispers come to me as I continue to work.

Dye pot that is cooling now.  Tea dye and flowers and greens cleaned out of the flower beds in the last handful of days. I am anxious to unwrap these later today.

Meanwhile, a little more backstitching to do on Tangled.

And another pot of coffee to consider.

slow stitching

Even though I already have so many pieces started, I felt the need to at least patch this one together so I might dream about it for awhile before I start it. The cotton subtly dyed with metals, tea, and natural materials, or just given character by the stains that come with wear. When I first dyed the old sack cloth, I was somewhat grumbly about how washed out it still felt. But...

I started to tear it and weave it and watched the barely there color flow into the next

I see this piece growing slowly, a stitch at a time. One of those pieces that I will pluck away at in those wee hours when I find my mind just wandering, craving something with less structure and more freedom.

I am debating the color or colors I might work with. The first vision I had was red. 

But then, I put a blue and a terra cotta against it. Hmmm... 

More on this as it progresses....

Now I'm off to back stitch! 

I think...

unless this beautiful worn out thing starts singing again.

da vinci & dreams

‎Another Dream Pouch finish this morning...

I can almost feel the weight if this one was filled up with pebbles picked up on a walk about. Or maybe it would serve better as a safe place to tuck feathers found on a wooded path.

I have a lot of projects I would like to play with today and through the weekend.  It looks to be a beautiful weekend, maybe even perfect to pack up the stitching bag and head out to the woods to work.  I hope to have a lot to show by the time Monday rolls around.

"I roamed the countryside searching for the answers to things I did not understand. Why shells existed on the tops of mountains along with the imprints of coral and plant and seaweed usually found in the sea. Why the thunder lasts a longer time than that which causes it and why immediately on its creation the lightening becomes visible to the eye while thunder requires time to travel. How the various circles of water form around the spot which has been struck by a stone and why a bird sustains itself in the air. These questions and other strange phenomena engaged my thought throughout my life."  Leonardo da Vinci

finishing water at night & a little more Tangled

This  was speaking to me of bigger things.  

And so, I rummaged through all things indigo and worn out, frayed scraps and bits of blue.

I listened carefully to what it was trying to tell me. Moved fabric around, pinned and unpinned and then took a step back and here we are.  A bag it will be. The stitching starts tonight.

And a few handfuls of x's put down today on Tangled,  our  snow pal with the grape-hued hat is the middle of the pile.  I hope to make a good deal of progress with this over  the weekend. 

Now I'm off to do a few things outside. A trip to the post today too...*finally* have all the printing caught up. Boxes ready to wing their way to Hoffman Distributing. Feels good to have accomplished all of that today!

dream bag

Yesterday afternoon I finished one of the Dream Bags that I had fashioned in my mind. 

Most of the bag is made with recycled & repurposed bits of this and that. Scraps that I always knew would tell a story of their own.  The cross stitched motif is one of my free form designs. The outside of the bag is hand dyed linen and the thread used is a hand dyed cotton. The bag is about 5 inches deep and 4 inches wide. It is lined with vintage cotton fabric. The fringe is also vintage. 

Cotton drawstring, and the charm is a piece of wooden ruler with a copper bail, the words on the front are a piece of vintage postcard. 

It would be perfect to hold a person's runes, a handful of crystals, secret wishes scribbled on scraps of paper. Small bits of special. 

More stitching today on Tangled...tea and maybe another dream bag on the docket. 

water at night revisited

I have been working off and on this week with this piece.  There's no hurry. It is flowing much like water without wind to move it-- a stitch at a time, randomly, or so it might seem. Water is ever changing. 

And so is this small bit of cloth. 

water at night scaled down

When revisiting the Water At Night concept this morning, I found that a night away from it changed my mind completely, which wasn't really that big of a surprise.  I took apart what I had pinned together yesterday. As I was sorting through bits of this and that, I found some scraps of silk tie left over from my silk to silk dyeing.  I started to lay things out on a smaller scale, and this is where I arrived by the end of the morning.

Now I'm off to either work a little longer on this one and then finish up my plate of grape tomatoes and chunks of smoked cheddar cheese. I think I'm going to dig into the new cross stitch design this afternoon.  I've reworked the pattern a few times now, and I *think* it's ready for the first stitches.

Whatever I finally do settle in to work, it looks to be another wonderfully productive day.