weekend stitching

Such a cold weekend, it was ideal to stay inside, unplug and just stitch.

Dream blanket stitching

Bits of the first stained glass design. The colors are pretty muted, not as vibrant as some glass should be, but I am thinking I might offer this one in a variety of colorways. 

More stitching to be done today. Had some rather inspiring thoughts over the weekend for new designs as well. Coconut cream pie coffee in my cup and QSnaps in my hands. 

Day 9/365 Dragonfly Days

just a dragonfly...

...and pondering ravens.

As I believe I've mentioned, the raven is one of my animal spirit guides. For about the last week or so, I have been seeing ravens everywhere. Not uncommon, really, but it's never been just one.

Rather, it's been four. Always four. Every morning. I've seen four. And not just in the same spot.

I have been thinking about it a lot, and wondered what the significance was.

Couldn't be more spot on.

"The symbolic meaning of number Four deals with stability and invokes the grounded nature of all things. Consider the four seasons, four directions, four elements all these amazingly powerful essences wrapped up in the nice square package of Four. Fours represent solidity, calmness, and home. A recurrence of Four in your life may signify the need to get back to your roots, center yourself, or even "plant" yourself. Fours also indicate a need for persistence and endurance."
(from Spiritual Meaning of Numbers )

Especially these bits...

the need to get back to your roots
home
a need for persistence and endurance

I've been feeling especially restless. I have craved some sort of grounding. To reconnect, to find my creative direction.  Home? Well that is a given, and always my focus. Persistence and endurance, to get through this rough patch emotionally, financially, even physically. Not to mention creatively. 

It will be interesting to see if I see any other 'fours' popping up.

Day 8/365 Dragonfly Days

Started work on the stained glass design today, after changing up the colors yet again. I also did some research on 16th century embroidery and textiles for an upcoming collaboration with creative friends.  More on that as it progresses!

Now off to play with clay for awhile. The printer needs to cool off. Crazy hot after today's work!

just a day

Continued work today on my dream blanket. So relaxing just to unplug and stitch, and to stitch something for myself, as that is what I've decided this piece will be.  I'm putting a lot of me into it.

Day 7/365 Dragonfly Days

A few things I need to stop and pick up for the first stained glass design. Friday is shaping up to be a day of thread and fabric, lots of stitching. And coffee. Huge, wonderful pots of the stuff. 

(and printing. wow, I am so far behind!)

cloth

This morning I plan to spend some time revisiting the dream blanket I started this fall. I have had it hanging, pinned up on the studio wall, and I look at it almost every day.

 It had quieted for awhile, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, what it wanted me to do. But in the last handful of days, it has begun to whisper again.

It is too rigid. There needs to be more comfort. More storytelling. So that's what I'm going to try to do this morning.

Day 7/365 Dragonfly Days

braving road construction

Well, they are working on two of the major avenues here in town, and now they've closed parts of what are our detours as well!  I got off work at noon, and debated. To thrift, or not to thrift. I hadn't made the trek in awhile, and I really wanted to do a walk through, so I thought, how bad can it be out there. (...on a Friday. At noon. with all the roads closed...)

While sitting in one of the many 'jams' I drove myself into, I was close to coming unhinged when a dragonfly came an sat on the windshield wiper of my truck. Okay, that was without doubt (in my mind at least) my sign to take a deep breath and let it go. (For those that were not aware, the dragonfly is my animal totem and when I get one showing up in odd places, I pay very close attention! The windshield of my truck as I creeped past Jiffy Lube? Yep, that is one of those pay close attention times.)

I'm glad I went.  Found some interesting kitchen towels that I walked past once and then went back as I couldn't blink away these images in my head of what to do with them.  Call me crazy but I like the old flour-sack-cotton-full-of-grease-stains thing.  It's not really visible here, but there is a really cool thing going on with the stains. 

 I also found one little crochet piece that I might try to tea-dye along with some of the flour sack.

Also made a stop at Hobby Lobby to pick up the threads I need for the Irish Quilting Magazine piece, and was pleasantly surprised to find them on sale!

Now off to stitch, and once the camera charges up, I think I'll snap some garden photos.

Website of the Day?  The Thread Blog

~thank you for today~
for the gentle poke of dragonflies, cotton beneath my fingertips, and a garden touched by sun and gentle breeze.


Soon the child's clear eye is clouded over by ideas and opinions, preconceptions and abstractions. Simple free being becomes encrusted with the burdensome armor of the ego. Not until years later does an instinct come that a vital sense of mystery has been withdrawn. The sun glints through the pines, and the heart is pierced in a moment of beauty and strange pain, like a memory of paradise. After that day, we become seekers. --Peter Matthiessen

Creative 365: Day 44 Ribbon Bracelet

I am keeping this one for myself! Using a scrap piece of heavy ribbon, I worked beads of tiger's eye, hematite and wood across the surface, using a brass-tone dragonfly (my animal totem!) as a focal. Using ribbon crimps on the ends and brass jump rings and lobster claw clasp to finish it, I've got another fun bit of unique jewelry.

Mixed Media Monday Challenge: Personal Symbols & Myths

This week's Mixed Media Monday Challenge (from Beth!):  “Do you have any image, color or theme that seems to recur in your work? Why does this image call to you? Create a piece embracing that image, and share with us why this image/color/theme speaks to you.”

I find myself drawn to trees.  A good share of the fabric in my studio is nature themed. Leaves in particular. I spend a lot of time in the woods.  The dragonfly is my animal spirit guide and he is always popping up in my work. As he should, as he is always popping up in my life.

My piece this week is a mixed media collage. The leaves are cut from fabric and vintage handkerchiefs. The dragonfly poem from my shoebox of paper snipets that I have collected over the years. The little sterling dragonfly just one of many flitting about.

(Click on image to enlarge)