family

My parents are the "Fletcher" in my name (as well as my boys') and the foundation on which my sense of family has been built. They are encouraging and supportive and so when I started taking ceramics classes a year (or two?) ago, my dad surprised me by making a custom clay tool. It stamps my initials into the soft clay on the bottom of my work. He is a woodworker but can really make anything he puts his mind to - he's pretty amazing. The stamp works beautifully. He modeled it after my own configuration of hand writing/carving of my initials, but these letter forms are pleasingly clean and simple - beautifully influenced by the materials used.

Dad's stamp also works well on other materials and so I can stamp lightly onto fabric and then stitch over it.

I am working through a stack of pieces - many started quite awhile ago. Some of them have become overwhelmed with my original intention of what I hoped for them to be or mean. When that happens I eventually put them aside and now there's a stack of them - looking all lonely. In the midst of normal family chaos of day to day life it is the meditative stitch that I so often need. So they won't all turn out to be what I originally intended because I am going to lighten their load of intention just a bit. In the end I think cloth just begs to be lived with and useful - part of a family.

If only just a sense of all that can be stitched into what I make then it will be enough. All the comforts, the calm and sometimes chaotic - past and present of home. It's all in there.

appliqué, line and luna

I started appliquéing this luna moth one month ago.  A smooth and lightly painted moth against a contrasting dark and textured fabric -  not painted dark, because the fabric can become too hard to hand stitch with too much paint. Appliqué seemed a likely choice although I typically avoid it because I rarely like my results. I tend to overwork the edge and get too fussy with it trying to get that outline that I like. This time I went with my favorite backstitch line following a drawn and then needle turned edge. It worked very well except for the resulting small halo of light fabric left outside the stitched line. I can actually imagine this being something to work with and utilize later - that halo - but for this I wanted the moth really seated in the dark fabric. This edge outside the line is noticeable above on the right side of the moth.

I decided to use a permanent pitt pen fine point marker to darken that little folded edge. I could only turn the edge so far on those tail wings and the pen brought it back to the fine detail in those thinnest areas. I think I could probably darken that edge outside my drawn line before I start stitching to appliqué but it may be harder to see what I am doing as I needle turn and stitch if the edge is already darkened? May try that next and see how it goes.

 Lots more stitching planned on this cloth and I feel like this appliqué method has opened up a lot of possibilities. I do plan to wash the whole cloth when the stitching is done and imagining those inked edges may need refining after the wash and crinkle.

and it looks like I had avoided appliqué so much it wasn't yet even a category on this blog - so now it is - starting with luna.

luna

A quick little post before the weekend to sort of keep notes for myself on these things:

Portability of cloth is good. Stealing a few moments to stitch while waiting for boy to finish cross country is good. It will be the only way.

Carry an idea out till the end (even if it doesn't go quite as planned) because it might work out and become something you didn't even expect.

I have more to say on this luna stitching soon. Have a wonderful weekend.

every little stitch

Every little stitch is sort of a wish of health and happiness for those who will be warmed and comforted by the cloth those stitches hold together.

Maybe it's all those little wishes that make a quilt so comforting.

greens in the nighttime

I went ahead with the cutting out and appliqué to have that luna glow in the nighttime. The white threads woven into the black shirt fabric caught just enough of the mostly yellow paint wash to suggest the green of the leaves in the dark.

unpredictable

Fabric paint wash on wet cotton. I let it wander where it wanted because I had planned to cut out near the outside line and fold under for appliqué, but oh that "glow" of color. Outside the lines.

just that forgotten work shirt I have been saving for years...

This woven cotton work shirt finally made it a few steps closer to what I have been saving it for. I have been thinking of adding detail to cloth with cloth that already has the elements I like and with a little reconstruction - will create the patterns I want.

The back is so nice with the extra interest made by the allowance lines - flipping the angle the other way again. No striped work shirt is safe now, forgotten or not.

paint and a little predictability

I have been working with my fabric paints towards more predictable results. I am not completely against surprises but there's no going back with this once it's on there. I have been diluting the paints and applying much like watercolors with layer over layer of color. I have given up the iron and just let the paint do it's thing and air dry. I am starting to feel pretty confident in predicting how far the paint might wander and working around or with that. This is just my little test cloth but I kind of like it.

I am stitching on some of the paintings. I didn't stitch much at all over the summer and it feels good to get back to the rhythm of it. It's very calming - my meditation.

My boys are back to school. One on to middle school with different school and different schedule. We are still getting used to all the changes but all in all things are going smoothly. A look and listen outside at all the life buzzing around day and night it's easy to see and hear that summer really isn't over.

My goal is a once a week post here - until I have all the rhythm of our days worked out. Thanks to all who are still listening.