Tiny Great Curve... a bit more fill stitch

Playing with different fill stitches on my Tiny Great Curve.

The finished piece will only be 4x6".

This weekend I've done a bit more chain stitch, some wrapped back stitch, blanket stitch and button hole stitch. This is a great little experimentation project just for me!

And now, Saturday night beckons...

Experiment: Twisted silk strands, a hexagram and a bit of linen

I love the messiness of the silk against
the tight weave of the linen.

Naomi (of the fabulous blog String Geekery) gave me two hanks of raw silk attached to some strips of fabric in deep reds. It was given to her to incorporate into her amazing spinning, but the colors aren't right for her. The deep reds and burgundies make me giddy.

The strands get wrapped up in my fingers.

Early this morning I stretched out the tangled hanks and cut of a few strands. I found a bit of linen in my stash. I wanted to play.

The feel like the softest hair.

 I used the I Ching strictly as a pattern creator and threw coins to come up with this simple series of six lines to stitch. (This is not spiritual guide for me, although I like the poetry of hexagram names: this hexagram is K'un, oppression/exhaustion.)

On a pile of textures.

It was like stitching with human hair. I loved the way the strands bunched and knotted. Very different from the factory-perfect pearl cotton I usually stitch with. 

Now I want to try more unusual (for me) threads. And I have two questions for you, stitch artitsts:

What are your favorite threads to stitch with?
What pattern generators do you employ?

Please be generous!

Breaking into color with words

My stitched color word project has gone vibrant.

When I can't sleep, I stitch.

I'm now mixing colored fabric and threads in with the white cotton and red pearl cotton. I envision a huge grid of them, but I don't know.

Seven writers.

I've been collecting color words from friends, family and colleagues. The weird intimacy that comes from stitching up someone else's handwriting has only become more compelling to me over time.  It's ratcheting up my nerdy word obsession with the addition of textures and color and stitch. I can't stop.

I don't want to stop.

Rinsing "cherry." Experimenting with stitching
in the same color as the background fabric.

Initially I was going to work with 23 color words, but I keep wanting more.

Take it with me everywhere and notice colors, words.

Not in a greedy way. In a passionate way. I love bringing other folks into my artwork. It helps me reconcile my admittedly independent side with the joy I take in feeling connected to other people.

Some handwriting is more challenging to stitch
and I love that.

Send me more color words, please.

Summertime Glacier

Moving very, very slowly on the Great Curve.

More chain stitch and a bit of blanket stitch.

Feeling like a glacier. But that is OK. Sometimes one stitches and creates slowly, sometimes quickly. Just like life. Sometimes one lives with heat and intensity and passion. Sometimes one just gets through the day.

Glaciers don't care that It's Summertime. They still move at their inhumanly slow pace.

Right now I'm a summer glacier. But the hot springs will return.