from here to there...

A few years ago I embarked on a daily stitch practice

using a purchased calendar that had an ideal layout for just such a thing, I worked at making small stitched samples each day, for about five months

I ran out of calendar was what really brought it to an end, but to be truthful, I was kind of glad

it had become very difficult - the stitching often took an hour at least, and I was running out of ideas to try

much as I was happy to be done with it, I learnt so much about what I liked, what I didn't like, and tried things that intrigued me  - and at the end, I was left with an amazing calendar I could flip through anytime I needed inspiration

I've tried to resume a daily practice in one form or another but never with any success

until perhaps now...

maybe

I've been intrigued with paint and paper and cloth and stitch in combination for some time now and so I am trying my hand at something that will combine all four

mixed media, I suppose

 each morning, after writing in my journal I take ten minutes or so and create a page

to make it easy on myself I loaded up a tray with three brushes, gesso, pva glue, acid-free double-sided tape, scraps of paper, bits of cloth and some watercolour pencil crayons

in a small sketchbook of 90lb paper, I create a background using whatever I want from the tray

there are 28 pages in the book, so for 28 days I'll make backgrounds and then on day 29, I'll work my way back to the front, one page at a time, adding stitch or any other marks etc. I desire

56 days altogether

from here to there and back again...

naturally the first one was the hardest

handmade paper on the upper left, as well as the lower centre, and the bit on the upper right was an ultra-fine handmade paper that holes in it. I glued it to the page with gesso and then painted all over the whole page

I found the watercolour pencils hard to work with - they were a craft-quality set I had bought years ago and I decided to give them one more try

I did like the effect of the "paint" on the paper with holes and am glad I have a nice big sheet of it for further experimentation

Day 2 was silk scraps from an attempt to dye silk in the ground by wrapping it around the roots of sage and oregano/marjoram and leaving it over the winter... not much mauve colour came through and the various silk bits got chewed to shreds

I stuck it to the page with gesso, added gesso all over for texture and then painted it

This time I dabbed the wet brush on the pencils to get the colour which worked much better

this piece represents my love of scraggly ragged cloth and texture

On day 3 I had very little time so painted the page, experimenting with red, yellow and blue.  I used all three colours in varying proportions in each area - in the third section down on the right you can see the pencil marks quite clearly - not what I wanted, but trying to diffuse them was taking too much water and the paper was beginning to degrade

the page seemed rather boring so I "stabbed" at it with the black, softening some of the marks more than others with water

back to texture on Day 4 with used herbal tea bags

I left the edges straight and stuck them down with gesso

this created a page full of texture and one that made me very happy

 in sticking all the edges down, gesso became visible along some of the tea bag edges but I like the look - it reminds me of plaster

a painted page again

the bit on the left was inspired by the image of a door I had torn from a magazine

a beautiful old weathered grey door

the multi-coloured bit on the right was a nod to a profusion of brightly coloured flowers in an image just to the right of said door

pale, ghostly marks, lightly made and then washed with as much water as I could get away with

by this time I was more relaxed in my approach, had enough successes under my belt, and was inclined to just experiment

Day 6 involved a left-over scrap of my linen from the stitched daily practice - I really wanted to include this, but in a simple way

this page was all about being "spare"

and playing with rectangles

these were also stuck down with gesso, which I lightly washed with grey and brown

the scrap of fabric with writing is an old favourite that I save every tiny bit of

and in an effort to be more "free", I left the scraggly threads as they were, sticking them in their place with gesso

and today, Day 7, I used the picture of the door mentioned above, a bit of a handmade paper envelope and then made a flower of sorts using left-overs of the tea bags

the whole page was lightly washed with pink and then grey

this one is my favourite of week 1

to keep things fresh, I changed out the materials on the tray today

for the next seven days I have the same adhesives and brushes, new scraps of paper and cloth, two stencils, a heavy body white acrylic paint, 6 or 7 bottles of various colours of acrylic paint, a paint scraper, an eye-shadow sponge applicator and a wooden skewer

I'm actually beginning to look forward to doing each day's page, love that when I'm finished I can turn it over and go on to the next without having to figure out what else to do

I know there's a possibility that when Day 29 comes and I have to progress with stitch etc.,  old hesitancies might start up all over again

I'm hoping though that I will already have learnt that all I need to do is put one stitch in front of the other and make way along

I See Pretty...

I've spent a lot of time these past weeks thinking about this exhibit - why the fascination?

I suppose it's because I don't really see clothing... I see art

I see amazing artistry in a particularly sculptural form

I see brilliant creativity in taking something we are all intimately familiar with and re-inventing it in a new way

 I see unbounded skill and workmanship in the construction details

And I see pretty...

I took many pictures, but no notes

All I need to know I can learn from the photos I took

For reasons I still don't know the red one below was another dress I absolutely adored - my second favourite of the show. I thought it was brilliant... the silk is so structural and this dress showcases that beautifully

(I have a small selection of silk fabrics of my own and since I got home I've often taken them out, unfolded one or two and then scrunched them, placing them in an upright position and enjoying how the fabric stays put - no wonder the designers love to work with it so much.)

The dress and coat you see below were also big favourites - the intricate designs of the coat paired with the simple elegance of the dress... this is one I would wear

But my favourite part of the entire exhibition was the display of the toiles...

The toile is the final "draft" of the garment, allowing the designer to ensure that the form and fit of a garment are correct before making it up in costly fabric. Usually made of a fine calico or muslin, a fabric that would unmercilessly reveal any flaws in either design lines or fit, the light-coloured fabric also allowed for making highly visible marks for required adjustments. Their simple beauty, with the workings of the design evident, drew you into the process of garment design and construction in an evocative way, allowing a better understanding of structure and shape.

That they have been preserved as much as the final garments themselves is testimony to their significance in the design process.

Haute Couture is "Slow Fashion"...

When I was a teenager in need of a party dress I sewed it. I wasn't a big fan of dress-making - zippers just about did me in, and I have taken great delight in avoiding making anything with either a zipper, a dart or facings. In fact, at the quilt shop where I work, if a customer asks me about any of the above, I tell them very sweetly that I am unable to help them because I have a personal rule when it comes to sewing,

"I only make things that are flat"

I say

"But I can find someone else who can help you"

(even though we're a quilt shop we do get the odd person who asks...)

Anyway, a year or so ago I got a hankering to sew a frock so I  hiked myself down to the other fabric store in town and found a pattern, some pretty cotton voile, and - a zipper!

It has all sat in the cupboard since then, waiting for me to work up my courage... after visiting the Dior exhibit, I think I'm ready to dangle a tape measure around my neck and give it a go.

Wish me luck! 

where ya been?

where ya been, what'd ya do, who'd ya see???

been to england, went to the v & a, saw dior

oh my, oh my

in may we headed over to england and france, with the main reason for the trip our desire to take in the 75th anniversary of the d-day invasion of june 6, 1944

along the way there was a bonus or two of wonderful things to see and do, and today's post is part one of the first thing 

the dior exhibit at the v & a museum

i bought my ticket in february, a week after they went on sale and so glad i did - they were completely sold out for all dates just one week later

 it was beautiful sunny morning in london...

one of the first items in the exhibit was this:

a seed catalogue dior's mother ordered flowers from - he loved looking through them and the illustrations influenced his designs for decades

lovely florals, exceptional colour

the exhibit was wonderfully curated, the displays capturing your attention in the most unique ways - these dresses were very high up, well above my height, but the lighting allowed you to see them in all their gorgeous detail

one "room" flowing into another, beautiful vignettes, colour coordinated for maximum impact

the embellishments were as interesting as the fabrics, as well as the designs themselves - all the elements coming to gather in perfect harmony

I think most people might have been looking at these dresses with a wishful sigh "I wish I could wear that..." - I was wishing something a little different... "I wish I could have made that..." was what was on my mind as I went from area to another, the dresses always so entrancing

the one below was my favourite - of the entire exhibit

the colours are washed out here, but the top is a pale Wedgwood blue with white appliqué/embroidery and the pleated skirt, a soft, muted grey-green

it was beautiful and delicate but had structure and line and I stayed and gazed on it for so long I lost count of the people that passed me by...

the one below intrigued me as well - all those flowers

like wearing a garden

one of the rooms had a ceiling of paper(?) flowers hanging down, as well as more flowers and leaves on the floor, reaching up

the light diffused, the effect ethereal

the shadows created by the flowers dappled the walls with ever-changing light

it was magical

this was another favourite - truthfully, there were so many, but I realized afterward that I only took close-ups of a few, the ones that really struck me, and this was one of them

so beautifully embellished

and then there was this dress...

shadow applique

straight lines, simple, yet so beautiful with those large flowers showing through silk as light as air

I was so taken with this that I made sure when a month later, whilst fabric shopping with friends in London, I found some silk like this 

and what an adventure that was!

but that's another story for another day... there's more dior to show and other adventures in-between to tell you about

stay tuned...

mucking about

there are the things that I like to make and then there are the things I wish I could make...

I can cut fabric and sew it back together to make a quilt pretty well

and I can take up a needle and thread and stitch something nice

but sketching and drawing and painting - well, they... they make me nervous

every time I pick up a pencil or a paintbrush I have to take a big deep breath and then I just kind of jump in

I could go on for a while about why that might be - fear of failure, no vision, no training, no ideas, no clue how to use the supplies, absolutely no understanding of how to take a thought from my head and translate it into sketch, etc. etc.

but sometimes the urge to do it so strong I can't help myself and I just make a start...

we were down in Oregon at the end of December and in the quiet days, in a most amazing setting, Happy Hour was not just about pouring a glass of wine, it was also the time of day when we four, husband, brother and sister-in-law, and myself, would each take up our station in the great room of their large barn/home, and whilst the fireplace burned cheerily, we each puttered away at our separate interests

mine was to finally get started with paper and paint

and gesso and fabric

and sketching tools

my first attempt was inspired by a winter's day

a wash of blue on the page, then gesso - to add texture and also to help stick things down

letting that dry, sipping my wine, thinking about what could come next, realizing I had no clue what I was doing, but that I was enjoying myself nevertheless

finally I decided on stitch - it's always, always there, and whenever I don't know what to do I add stitch

feeling pretty happy with that first effort, the next day I approached it all with a plan

I loved the gates - field gates they were... wire and wood... and the fields behind them, which in Roseburg, where we were, were at the bottom of some very high hills - a lovely rolling landscape

so... more paint, more gesso, and some fabric

then a small stitched piece - gesso on linen followed by fabric, stitch and pen-work

this one I really loved

looking at it here, it's even better than I thought - I'm especially happy with the hills , and this is the very first time I have ever been in a place and made something inspired by it

pretty cool 

 I haven't done anything like this since that visit - my time has been taken up with so many other things, one of them being colour studies

I love colour studies - they're a thinking thing, and I like that

this time I added a twist - instead of working from an image, I worked with words, trying for descriptive colour

what a fabulous thing that was - working from the perspective of a word caused me to think about colour in ways I really hadn't before; very deeply and in a personal way, about what colour can evoke

when I was working on the paint portion of the colour study I found some scraps of watercolour paper to use for testing the mixed colours - I happened to turn one over and found I had already painted on it - a taupe background with three blobby areas of colour... I realized it was piece I had prepared several years ago in my quest to paint large, loose florals

I hadn't been happy with the painting I'd done and so it had gone in to the scrap bag... but as I looked at it a couple of days ago, I thought - well, nothing to lose really - add some lines and see if there are flowers lurking in there after all...

pretty rough, but there they are

I think now I might just be ready to muck with them a little bit more

the colour of love

love is Grey...

for many, the colour of love is red

for me though, it is grey

a beautiful soft grey

a baby named "Grey"

Grey Everett, my grandson, appeared in my life just over a week ago and already he fills my heart and my thoughts in so many ways...

we had the joy of being included in the first week of his life, witnessing a family grow, wondering yet again at the expansive, never-ending story of love

hearts grow to bursting, love is unconfined

watching Grey's mother and father love and care for him was amazing to see, the pure delight in just looking at him shone in their eyes... 

it's amazing to me how quickly these tiny humans steal your heart, how you know everything and yet nothing about them in those early days

 my very wise friend Christine wrote eloquently of how living in the present moment is what babies do, and in that, they take us there as well... days go by where nothing but tending and gazing upon them is all that is done, really, all that needs doing

a time apart from the ordinary flow of life

what a gift to have been part of that

and now, one week on, Grey is already losing some of that newborn look, his cries are getting stronger, those delightful baby creases are well on their way

in the quiet moments during that week I sat quietly stitching away at the table, working at a piece of slow stitching, thinking about the nature of love and life... and, on an impulse, I filled this cut-out heart with blue-grey French knots

because after all, love is Grey

what's in your pocket?

I'd love to say it all started here...

England's Lake District, a year and a half ago

having such a habit begin in a place such as this would surely make it far more respected than if it began in almost any other place on earth

for in this landscape, which is steeped not only in an unparalleled beauty in nature, but also, and perhaps even more importantly, steeped in a history of poetic and artistic observation, one could easily be forgiven for gathering just about anything if it inspired one to write or paint or draw... 

but I just can't say that...

stuffing things in my pockets has been a lifelong obsession

 sticks and shells and leaves and flowers and heaven knows what else

an unusual colour or shape of an everyday thing that catches my eye

anything that strikes my fancy or sparks an idea is sure to make it's way into my pockets or handbag - whatever us handiest

several years ago I broke down and bought a gathering basket...

an ingenious contraption with a strap for putting it around your waist or over your shoulder

a hinged lid for easy emptying

a small hole in the side for easy stuffing any bit or bob that comes my way

the trouble is, I never have it with me when the really interesting stuff captures my eye... but I almost always have pockets

the stick and stone and sheep's wool followed me home from a walk in the hills above Ambleside 

I have no plan for them other than to look at them any time the mood strikes

and each time I do I see something different, even though they've sat like this, on a dresser-top, since the day I came home

a few weeks ago my son suggested we go to see the Adams River salmon run

we took my mom and step-father and it was a grand day

such a beautiful place...

though you could see the fish well enough in the deeper water, it was in the streamlets where they were most visible

As we walked toward the river I saw several birch trees downed

already cut into smaller lengths, most with the bark curling away from the trunk itself

naturally I peeled some off and stuffed it in my pockets... interesting driftwood and rocks followed suit

by the time we got back to the car and my son held out a bag he found in the truck, my pockets were bulging, and as I emptied handful after handful, his laughter grew... shaking his head the whole while

back home, I washed the bark and then pressed it, between sheets of drawing paper, weighted down with a stack of heavy books

{I had to improvise as my flower press is still full from foraging whilst in the Yukon in August!}

and last week I read about making twine by twisting the leaves of day lilies, irises and cattails

day lilies and irises are in my back yard, cattails, just down the hill at the little lake...

these are my day lilies

I've been mucking about, experimenting with how to preserve them 

after twisting, I want to weave with them, but as they dry they'll shrink and become brittle

I first thought of rubbing some kind of oil into them but plant-based oils might go rancid, and petroleum-based ones just seemed wrong

then I remembered some roses I had bought many years ago that had been preserved with glycerin

they looked dried but were beautifully soft

information online was sketchy at best so I've been experimenting 

it's kind of a goldilocks sort of thing... you don't want them to soak for long or they'll be oily, nor for too short a time or they'll be too brittle

it has to be just right - soft, but natural

I think I've just about worked out a method I'm happy with that yields the results I want

this is just one of my twisted twine - I still have to snip off the bits where I've added a new leaf, but it's coming along just fine

soothing and addicting

the irises are just about ready to pick and soak

cattails are in a bowl soaking as I type this

and there isn't a plant out there safe from scrutiny

so much fun...

and my pockets are empty and ready to go