Crosses

Stitching tiny crosses in each quadrant, but concerned that there is not enough color contrast. Do they disappear into the textile? Also really wonder where I am going with this.

Some pieces are glorious ideas, fully realized in my mind before I start. Even though they may veer off course once I start doing the actual work, there is a certain exhilaration in knowing I am working toward a goal which I already love. This isn't one of those pieces! This is the sort of work where I pick up pieces which I yearn to make into something beautiful and then I hope those pieces will talk to me once I start handling them. It's an equally wonderful process, often more satisfying than the one which involves the pre-conceivd notion. But I sometimes feel a bit lost and quite unsure if I am heading in the right direction. That's where I am at the moment. 

Blue cross beginning

Preliminary Pinning ::

The two squares at the bottom were part of a linen jacket my mother-in-law bought for me while we were on an outing at Canon Beach, in Oregon. The leafy pattern was mostly blue but I discharged much of the color, with bleach. Even though this piece is starting out looking brown, I think of it as being blue. 

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Starting Stitches ::

As I started stitching the cross pieces, I wondered if this will become another exploration of crosses, a shape I want to investigate this year. Then, during that dialogue one has while stitching, before the meditative peace settles in, the word cross flew across my brain and attached itself to the word blue. And that's how it became Blue Cross. I kind of hope I'll come up with a more beautiful name for it, but I'm not terribly good at naming. One of the best names for my work was a piece called Nostalgia, but Jude Hill came up with that; she's very good with words. Maybe she'll stop by and give me an idea for this one. Or, if you have any suggestions, please do tell me!

Exhilarated

Last night was the reception for "On the Fringe" - a juried show of works by Connecticut members of Surface Design Association, at the Bruce S. Kershner Gallery in Fairfield, CT. My piece, Twelve Patch with Crosses, was in the show and, before the night was over, I was thrilled to see it had acquired a red dot. 

The thing about this piece is that it became something so incredibly different from how it started. I am accustomed to going with the flow when I sew ... the textiles and the muse conspire to guide me the way they want to go and I'm very glad that they do.

The horizontal piece, up above, started out to be a vertical 12-patch and it was going to be very minimalistic ... solid black background with stitching only on the squares. 

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But, as I was stitching, I kept feeling like I wanted to fill that black space, but I didn't know how. I kind of wanted to fill the space with stitches, but I found I was not comfortable stitching "outside the box." The more I looked at it, the more the black took on its own life and all I could see were the crosses. Suddenly, I wanted to make crosses. After all, all the cool kids (i.e. awesome stitchers) have crosses.

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ARTISTS REPRESENTED ABOVE, CLOCKWISE STARTING FROM TOP LEFT (click on a name to see the artist's website) ::: CHRISTINE MAUERSBERGER, JUDITH MARTIN, ELEANOR McCAIN, JUDE HILL, AND JUNKO OKI.

So, I plotted and I stitched ... 

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And this is where all those scraps of fabric and stitches landed ...

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Pieces of Blue

What I'm playing with today: scraps of a linen jacket, Doug's striped shirt, a piece left from making a linen dress for Adeline, a pair of linen pants, some lovely vintage polka dots ... crosses, circles, blue, squares ... linen, stripes, patterns ... groups of three, groups of nine ... some of these elements we find since the beginning of time.

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 I don't know where I'm headed with this, but I assume I'll get there. Sooner or later.