all that cannot be let go

Every scrap of thread, fabric, or yarn I find

is just a little directional encouragement away from

an engagingly tender line.

The roots, vines, veins, sinew, filaments, and fibers that hold everything together 

are rendered from all that cannot be let go.

(detail photos of recent works - I Felt a Connection and Dearest Spring)

bit if a square

On Friday I did a bit of sun printing with squares - in between some computer work and last day of school festivities and ceremony.



I am really liking an idea of pixelated color. How that translates really well into quilting and traditional quilt block patterns but is also directly related to all of these digital images we share, send, print and lay eyes on outside of our own act of vision. I have been piecing lots of squares but wanted a few different ways of using that idea without always having to do the piecing.

Those tulip leaves I loved, stitched and painted in April never bloomed. I am working on a cloth that sort of grows out of those leaves and so I am making my own imagined bloom out of squares. I have even added bit of appliqué.

late winter daydream

alternate endings

Everything green growing like crazy and I just can't let this long winter cloth go.

 I got a little sidetracked while looking through a favorite book (Quilting, Patchwork and Applique: A World Guide) with plans to make a window panel. I have been daydreaming a lot about the shaped pieces and forms on toran and pantoran textiles made for doorways and it led to me thinking that these shapes all pieced together for hanging are really a lot like fringe. Shaped fringe.

I wasn't very happy with the original fringe on this so now it's gone and I am headed out in another direction. Now I am imagining this leading to all kinds of shaped "fringe" on lots of things. Not just squares.

hand + machine

I started machine quilting this yesterday then today finished the rest of the machine stitching and the washed and dried it. I just needed to see how it would all turn out.

I love shaking it out after drying and seeing the crinkles and wrinkles for the first time.

The results are encouraging. A few minor things on this one and then move on to a few things with a bit more green. Although it's fitting to be finishing this one up now - we are having a few cold and cloudy days here.

sparkle marks

The more I try to finish this the more stitches I want to make. Funny how that can happen.

At some point soon I will add some machine stitching. A way to include as many stitches as I would like but also actually finish it. So I think I am maybe postponing this machine step by prolonging the hand stitching. I don't want the machine stitching to change it too much, just compliment. I want it to be a structural background element, still a part of the design.

I added just a little bit of color - a warm orange/brown - to the underground.

For all the careful planning on the front, I really like the little path of sparkle marks showing up on the back.

back to a late winter daydream

 

I am spending moments between everything else stitching on this to try and get this one done. It has a bit of a wintry feel to me and I find myself wanting to stitch or splash some bright green in here somewhere, but I won't. I mean I will try not to. The seasons have changed faster than I can stitch, but this quilt is still a late winter daydream.

I have been working out the ways this will come together in the end and am anxious to see how it all turns out. All these connection blocks will be pieced together and finished out for hanging in a  similar way and I just want to know it's all going to turn out alright. At the same time trying not to rush it. The momentum of spring coming to life outside is very motivating. Go go go.

timeline chatter

I am trying to work out some of the construction for the connections blocks I am still working on.
I have it all worked out in my head, but none of it has really been tested. I snapped a few photos of some starting steps this morning, so I can keep track of what has been done and to see what works out. Reference.

and for my own future reference and the sake of personal timeline:
Along with all else here there's so much of my boys on my mind.  Little one younger than he seems -always wiser than his years keeping up with best friend big brother. Big one the first at everything new to us at the front of it all and all involved and expected in that. Suddenly 3 years between them feels like a lot again, which I have not felt since they were tiny. Having so much fun with the things we can do because they are so big but then again a tiny bit sad that not a lot of the little left. Really honestly it's all wonderful - they both amaze me every single day and I am so excited for summer. All of this tangled up in all the budding leaves, singing birds, bike rides and all things fabric and thread.

green outside the lines

I am still working on these pieces so far referred to as connections. Each of them a part of something(s) I have plans to bring together. I have been working with this one to hang on to some of that spontaneity of a sketch - with the color and the line. So between them all there will be a little bit of wandering back and forth. Everything feels a bit lighter with the arrival of spring. This is me lightening up a little.

The spirals in the tulip leaves get me every time.

and two weeks later - completely unfurled and reaching for the sky.

part seashell

I love combing a beach for seashells almost as much as looking for fossils. I love it that fossilized shells and sea creatures in our Indiana creek beds connect this landlocked midwest with an ancient ocean. I am all Indiana soil, creek water, redbud and dogwood, but there's a little bit of seashell in there too - from way back.

We've been keeping company with good friends and the ocean. All that seawater - the perspective leaves me feeling small, in good ways. Some things fade away and what's important has come into focus again. 

I am really very ready to warmly welcome an Indiana spring.

cabin fever

Feeling stir crazy today. Wondering if this muddled feeling is just a bit of cabin fever or the start of the stomach bug that's been making it's way through our house. I have spent these last two days working quietly next to my biggest boy while he's on the mend.

I woke up this morning thinking about opening all the windows and rearranging all the furniture.

acorn dreams

 Growing some acorn dreams under this blanket of snow.

Have a lovely weekend.

under the bright white

Our snow layer has been restored to bright white (again).

Thinking about the hope we hold in what lies beneath all the snow - the sleeping seeds and green.

connection

I am really excited about what I have been working on, just a little bit at a time. I have been feeling like I have finally figured something out - like I could think, draw, paint, stitch and daydream about it forever and never run out of inspiration. It's the feeling that keeps us going on anything, right? Like everything I have made up to now has led to this and that these little ideas might help me work out everything I have been stuck on. It all boils down to connection, so that's what all of these will be called for now, so I can keep track of them. I might just be working on them in the background with emphasis on details now and then. I have thoughts of one day sharing them with someone(s) around here in person, accompanying them out into at the very least the local world. I am thinking it might be nice if they hadn't already been everywhere without me.

link

:: When I posted this earlier today I thought I had it all figured out, but I don't. I am unable to sign in to comment on typepad or wordpress as I used to. I have tried everything that is suggested in such a situation but it's not working. So I have been around to visit, just unable to say hi. ::

unexpected

It's a snow globe kind of day here - very beautiful - even as I am daydreaming of spring.

...and back to the leaves

I copied the winter sketch from the previous post onto a fabric block and stitched most of the lines on the machine as I had planned to do. It wasn't quite right, I didn't like it as I had liked the drawing, which was frustrating because I was sure I had it all figured out before I started. I even tried 2 more times working with other colors, less machine stitching, still not right. Something was lost after I planned it out so carefully, or because I did.

Last night I drew branches and oak leaves directly onto a fabric block and started hand stitching the lines. I stitched a little more on it today. Feeling much better.

I always have very high expectations for the start of a new year and new work and that always makes it tricky.

I will be following some simple lines for awhile because lately it's been too easy to think too hard about everything. All is a little muddled.

It's too soon to start thinking about spring, but that's also what I am going to do.