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.

In hoops

So, what's in my hoops these days?

Stitching other people's words and handwriting inspires me.

I'm back to working on two earlier art projects that have been in slight hibernation as I've been making gifts: The Tiny Great Curve self portrait and my Words project.

Tiny Great Curve on my lap.

The Tiny Great Cuvre is mostly an experiment in texture stitching and using grades of similar color to make shapes around the curve of my hip. I've stitched and pulled out my stitching several times. As frustrating as that can be, it is OK because it is a learning process.

Detail. I will fill it up with luminous chain stitch
in grays and purples.

And despite the challenges of redoing the same curves over and over, I'm enjoying watching the shapes, color and textures form on my fabric. This piece is an image of me, just for me. And there is so much freedom in that.

Box of flosses and thread for the Tiny Great Curve.

The piles of words continues to grow in my boxes.

I was unsure how to approach my beloved
word piles until Miami.

I was in Miami recently and saw (again) The Record exhibition at the Miami Art Museum. (It originated at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, where I saw it in 2010.) The sketches of Japanese artist Taiyo Kimura gave me some ideas about how to organize the batch of 23 words I've been working on relating to color.

Focusing on 23 words for colors.

The number 23 has personal significance to me and bringing that number to these little scraps of fabric and the isolated words they contain has helped me see a pattern. And I love patterns! More to come with that.

Relaxed, free, Summertime me, back from Miami
and ready for new adventures.

In addition to these art projects, I have sketchbooks filled with ideas. And I have the summer to play with them. This is exciting to me. Headed to Austin tomorrow to spend time with my brother's family, including my two teenaged nephews Kels and Hudson.

I will be out in the world stitching and collecting ideas and connecting to the people I meet, but new and old. And my hoops with fill up even more. As will my heart.

My heart cannot take it

Do Not Flake on Me is done, sent and delivered to the Northern California stitch artist Lisa Leggett as part of the Phat Quarter Spring Swap from MrXStitch.

Do Not Flake on Me, 2012

It was great fun to stitch up another "Do Not" embroidery. I've written here before about how much I love taking the hard graphics of hazard signs and turning them into soft stitch. This piece reminded me how much that aesthetic appeals to me.

Do Not Flake on Me snugged up to Do Not Enter, 2010.

Yes, it's a snowflake and a prohibition circle. I have come to hate the cold. Living alone for the first time in my life, I negotiated the darkness and chill of my first winter by myself in the world. It was hard. Even though this was a mild winter, I spend far too much time shivering, wrapped up in an electric blanket in my poorly insulated apartment.

My simple sketch.

As I was stitching the piece I wished that the cold, dark nights of winter be gone, both literally and figuratively.  Let it be Spring again and, dare I say it, Summer. Let there be warmth in the air and in my heart. Let there be music and friendship. To much heartbreak in recent years. Let the winter be gone.

Thick red fill stitch surrounded by fine gauged chain stitch. 

And it is gone. There is warmth, again. A fragile warmth, but it's building. And the warmth is coming from me. I am making it for myself, with the help of my friends and family. And I am hopeful. 

Stitch-speration at CAM Raleigh

Happily, I have lots of Stitch-speration in my life at the moment.

Wild colors and outlines at CAM's ArtHouse party. O & Andy.

On Friday I attended the uber fun ArtHouse 2012 party at CAM Raleigh, the year-old contemporary art museum in Raleigh. Aside from enjoying myself wildly (chatting with break dancers, pulling on the mustache of an Hunter S. Thompson wannabe, having a custom, airbrushed trucker hat made for me by an artist, speaking to everyone who caught my eye and grooving with my seriously hot squeeze and my girl Juline) I took great pleasure in the artwork they had on display as part of a silent auction fundraiser.

Many artists were represented, but if I had to describe a particular commonality between the artwork, I'd say it was heavy on hard lines, colors and graphics. And images like that are particularly inspiring to me... I want to turn the hard edges of designs into soft, wonky stitches onto fabric.

Tehran Techno by Behrouz Hariri, 2012

I was giddily surprised that I won the sole auction that I bid on, taking home this wonderful print called "Tehran Techno" by Toronto-based artist Behrouz Hariri. It is simply amazing to have this in my house to inspire me!

Detail from Do Not Flake on Me, 2012.
Soft stitching on hard edges. 

Finishing up my swap piece for the Phat Quarter Spring swap. ALMOST done. Just need to finish a ring of fine chain stitch, wash the piece and hoop it.

As usual, I have too many ideas for next projects. Oy!

Do Not Flake On Me (Pretty Please) WIP

Working (ever so slowly) on a new "Do Not" embroidery. 

I like to sit on my bed and stitch.

This is a created design, not an actual, real life "Prohibited" symbol. I combined the classic red prohibition symbol -- rendered in the red, glossy, thick, brick-like back stitch that I love -- with a slick snowflake design that I found and altered from an out-of-print Japanese graphics book given to me by my fiber arts friend, Naomi, who we call "yarn whisperer." 

Little Hans, 2011. An altered prohibition sign.
 (It is actually a call to wear a face mask in the lab, but I changed it into a riot cop siluette.)

I like altering and changing the meaning of hazard symbols. I also like stitching them as is.

All in six-strand DMC 321 and 310 on white Kona cotton.

This is for the Phat Quarter Swap on the MrXStitch. The theme of the swap was Spring. And as I was sketching for this piece it kind of morphed into something new... a warning symbol NOT to flake on me. I'm done with flakey people.

Detail of brick back stitch. 

The piece is for talented Lisa, who promised not to look at my blog while this is a WIP so that she can have a surprise when it arrives at her little studio in Northern California.

Now, off to the corporate salt mines.

Girl Thunder Takes DC!

Meet America's latest superhero... Girl Thunder!!! 

Girl Thunder at the U.S. Capitol.

Girl Thunder waiting for her beer.

Stitched up this thunder bolt cami to match a gift I made my squeeze and I could not love it more. I feel like a superhero when I wear it.

Silver chain stitch surrounded by red pearl cotton 5.

I can't imagine having more fun this weekend than I did with my uber cool art girlfriend Juline! I tagged along with her while she attended a workshop at the Hirshhorn Museum. (Juline is one of the smartest, wittiest and talented working artists I know.) I gorged myself at the art museums in DC. So much stitch-speration to be found!

Out the back window of the Carolinian on Amtrack.

We road the rails from Durham, which I highly recommend. 

DuPont Circle is a dramatic little Metro stop.

The freedom of walking around the city with Juline, stopping at any art exhibition that caught our eyes...it was inspiring and energizing.

Synecdoche, Byron Kim, 1991-Present

Juline showed me some her favorites contemporary and modern pieces at the National Gallery of Art. We hung out with the Calder sculptures. (Don't forget to see the Calder exhibition at the Nasher!)

We were both taken by the Byron Kim's Synecdoch, 1991 - Present, which features the flesh shades of a variety of people on panels and arranged in grids. The hues are so varied and delicate. Juline and I both love grids and codes, and the affect of seeing skin tones lined up like this is breathtaking.

Right now I'm working on a swap piece for the Phat Quarter Spring Swap. And I have about thirty other ideas, sketches and projects stewing.

In the light tube moving walkway at the National Gallery.

Having people like Juline in my life is a gift. She inspires me with her own mind and creations and also with the creativity of others that she exposes me to.

Big thunderbolt.

 Go Girl Thunder!

Happy Girl Thunder!

Books & Stitches is out!

Issue 2 of the fabulous stitching ezine &Stitches just came out and Nicole & Carina have outdone themselves with this one.

I love the theme of books and stitching. In particular I enjoy the tutorial from Jessica Kelly of Paper Stitch who makes lovely pieces of art with embroidery and vintage books. I have purchased Jessica's artwork for a gift and I'm the proud owner of a piece. Check out her etsy shop.

I've been a huge fan of Nicole & Carina since I first started stitching and they used to blog for Feeling Stitchy. I remember being particularly taken with a gorgeous piece Nicole made for a Phat Quarter music swap last year featuring her take on Ophelia.

Ophelia, 2011, by Nicole Vas van Avezathe

I could not have been more thrilled when Nicole asked me to contribute to the second issue of the ezine! My piece takes a more art than craft approach to embroidery and finding inspiration in art galleries and exhibition catalogs.

So please check out the newest issue. And tell your friends!

Chaos, bolts & chain stitch

There are many stitchers who favor neat, even stitches. While I admire the fineness of orderly stitching in other people's work, I must admit that I like a little more chaos in mine.

Silver chain stitch for my thunder bolt.

And I love using chain stitch--heavy and uneven--as a fill stitch.

I adore layering and piling the rows of chains next to each other, as I've done in this thunderbolt for a cotton camisole I've made for myself. More photos of the finished work, soon. I feel like a 1970s superhero in this design. Like a Girl Thunder.

A little red, chain stitch outline.

Boom.

More Spirograph tanks for me

Detail, stitching through Sulky Solvy.

My retro obsession continues unabated (just like the "domestication of the dog," to quote Homer Simpson) and I've been stitching myself spirographs. Lots of spirographs.

Me outside my office.
(Thanks, Jess, for taking the photo!)

Sporting a double, pink and orange spirograph on a navy cotton camisole to go along with the red one I stitched on a black cami. My new summer uniform.

Pearle cotton in pink and orange.

I think I got back into Spirographs last summer when I met a guy who had a spirograph-esque tattoo on this inside of his wrist. I love the elegance of the loops and the throwback feel.

Feels like Summer.

Now I've started a new camisole with a special image on it inspired by my squeeze... And I'm back to my word stitching project. AND I'm excited about the new Phat Quarter swap I'm sign up for from MrXStitch. I'm geeked about the piece I'm designing on the theme of Spring for the fabulous Lisa who blogs at A Cuppa Tea With Me. It is a mashup of sorts.

Go, stitching!

Sweetie darling & 70s retro mashup

Going through a 1970s nostalgia phase. Spirographs, Twister, Barry Gibbs' tight white pants and sexy Jesus mane... and woodgrain fabric. Can't get enough of woodgrain fabric.



I like the knot under the "i."



Made my girl Keefie this little "sweetie darling" hooped action on some precious woodgrain cotton.

"Sweetie darling" comes from Absolutely Fabulous. Back in the 2000s, Keefie and I drank vodka gimlets and fought off the boys together. And we loved those ill-behaved English women, Patsy and Edina, from AbFab. We were each other's sweetie darlings.



The stars are star stitch. Convenient.



A 1970s image involving Keefie... her family being evacuated from Tehran when the Shah was overthrown. I envision helicopters taking off at twilight, filled with tanned, bell-bottomed Americans in 22k gold jewelry.  And for some reason, in my fantasy, the Eagles' Hotel California is playing in background, pierced by the chopping roar of the helicopter blades. Coppola is slated to direct my reverie.

Go figure.

Keefie (left) & me at a recent Caps v. Caines game.