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.

Cool Cat. Rattled Skull.

Wool felt & embroidery floss.

Several stitching projects are in hoops around my apartment these days, but I haven't been finishing anything. Lots of little sketches and ideas. More craft and less art, which feels a little strange. But it's all good.

Made this simple, wool felt, catnip LP for a cool cat I know named Vann. Looks a little more like a hockey puck than a record, but I wanted him to be able to bat it about. Word is, he does. This makes me happy because he is such a cool cat. And every girl loves a cool cat who plays by his own rules... as long he is lovable and purrs like a slightly drunk locomotive when scratched. And Vann does.

Records are on my mind these days.

I got caught in a tempest on Saturday night and was drenched in rain and stung by hail. Literally. Struck hard on the tender scalp. It felt like the universe was bullying me. I'm not proud to say it, but I felt sorry for myself.

But Spring is here. I rallied. Back to my embroidery hoops and stitching, peeps. Back to sketching, crazy ideas, and great conversations with wine and friends. And back to sunshine. I didn't work so hard to make my life what I want it to be only to be crushed by a storm. Besides, I love storms.

Go!

Spirographs, Star Fox & other small stitching

After pulling a week's work of dense, little stitches from my Tiny Great Curve piece (which was heartbreaking by necessary), I've been making small, fun things this week.

Stitching a spirograph though Sulky Solvy.
Red pearle cotton, chain stitch.

Turned one of my zillions of summer cotton camisoles into an ode to the fabulous spirograph my my youth.

I want to embellish all of my little summer tanks!

Stitched up a set of thick, Pottery Barn dinner napkins into an ode to 1990 computer game catchphrases. (Star Fox is the cutest thing!)

Love the playful language in these crazy phrases.

I'm really enjoying this simple, happy stitching! Making little gifts for myself and my lovely peeps. More of these little stitched odes to come.

Playtime has just begun!

Summer beckons... warmth, friends, books, bootcamp, zumba (with Kate and Katherine), art, stitching, trips (DC with Juline and Miami with SF)... life is full of joys.

In a war, someone has to die

So said a temporarily out-of-work professional African soldier. So heard Danish artist Hanne Bang, who was inspired by a television news interview she saw with the soldier to create a collaborative, stitched art project titled, "In a War Someone has to Die." 

Stitched handkerchiefs. Foreground, Katherine,
background, me.

Bang is collecting embroidered handkerchiefs from stitchers around the world, each inscribed with the soldier's line in her/his own language. She will sew these handkerchiefs together to form a large installation artwork later this year.

I heard about the project on the MrXStitch site. My friend Katherine and I decided to participate. We each stitched up the line in Spanish. Spanish is my mother's first language and I had her write it out for me in her beautiful, strange handwriting. I used a brightly colored new handkerchief and chain stitch.

My handkerchief in chain stitch with little stitched flowers.

Katherine is bilingual, having learned Spanish while in Honduras in the Peace Corps. Her husband is Honduran and she uses Spanish professionally in her social work career. She stitched it up on a vintage handkerchief in backstitch. (Interestingly, Katherine's mother's first language is German. I wonder if she ever considered doing it in German.)

Katherine used a vintage linen.

I love the way that the artist's experience with the news media lead to this art project. To me it shows how being open to stories and news from around the world can inspire huge, collaborative projects.

Imagine the scene: A reporter and a camera person interview a professional African soldier for a Danish news program. The segment is viewed by the Danish artist back in Europe. She is moved by the coldness of the soldier's words and she plays with the feelings and associations that the news story stirs in her.

Brightly colored pink cotton.

Bang then reaches out to the stitching community, online and in her physical surroundings, and we all are pulled into the creation. My mother, who has no other connection to the professional soldier, the unknown reporter or the Danish artist, writes out this sentence at her kitchen table. And she is disturbed by the words her daughter stitches. But she is used to me and she is game.

My mami's handwriting.

Read more about Bang's work here.