rainy day stitcher

 We were awakened this morning at 5am buy a soul stirring thunderclap that had Sweetie shivering in my armpit until even she gave up hope that I could protect her and dived for her storm haven under the bed. It's gonna be an all-day rain,

In the good company of the Buddha and his Fish, and under the spell of music from WFUV.org ,I'm settling into miles of machine stitching on LDE.  It's been some time since I've done a lot of free motion stitching so I did some warming up first but it really is like riding a bicycle..

...only I was one of those unlucky folks who had to really focus on maintaining my balance on a bike...none of that crazed "look ma, no hands stuff" for this kid. Scabs galore was more like it.  Working hard at being good at something that seems to come so easily to others can be galling if you let it.

No one could ever tell how wonky my inner gyro really was as I whizzed by, braids flying but teeth gritted.



I guess most of you have figured out that this is going to be one of my QN entries so there won't be any good photos until after Judgement Day.  That is of course, assuming I'm satisfied it's finished by the deadline.

(just took a measure..36"x 60"...not so huge after all)

black and white lightning

inspiration and instigation for using all the black and white things I have been making continues to strike

"Los Dados Encantada" was born this morning at 11:43 ...there are spots of blood everywhere - the base piece had five pounds off pins in it and I was in a spazrush to see these shapes fall into [the right] place..



more pictures when the time is ripe

switching gears smoothly

 I went out on the deck last night around 3am and caught two shooting stars scratch across the night sky like matches being struck. signs and portents.



While I was at HoAnn's yesterday couple of batik fat quarters leaped off the rack and grabbed me by the throat and forced me to used my coupons to spring them from the store.  I went there for a yard of white polar fleece and a giant cookie cutter and came home with degenerate cloth!

Once I came to my senses, I plunged them both in the black dyepot and later worked them over with softscrub. This morning it was evident that they take part in the WIP via the Machine now that I am confident that I can integrate both kinds of stitching in this one.

Now it's back to the dyepots - the humidity has lifted and the sun is hot - it's going to be a beautiful day and I want to wring the max out of it.

lashes

2:45am and I'm wide awake in anticipation of several hours worth of thunderstorms passing through the area.
 If I am tired enough, maybe I will sleep through them but I doubt it. The air is so thick outside that the freight train announcing itself in the distance sounds more like an ocean liner bellowing for a tug out past the lights of the harbor.

I've found a way to stitch many marks, bold enough and quickly enough to use on large pieces - this passage is roughly six inches across - was done with six strands of floss, doubled  in a split chain and then wrapped with the same 12 ply..it really sits up and signals.

I stitched this while listening to/watching an hours worth of  "America in Primetime" on PBS. A dialogue about the nature of storytelling. It has me thinking of ways to bring the sprawl of this piece under control, get it talking.

a mad hand

"Memory's Feast"  2009

I've been working on the large  black and white piece and find myself getting grumpy and unsatisfied with my hand stitching. Twice I've sewn long passages only to spend an hour picking the stitches out. Mulling it over, I looked back over some other pieces with hand stitching and found some reminders about Keeping Things Loose, Not Getting too Trixie and few other examples of the exuberant hand...hard to maintain when you are looking at Acres of work. Every day I have to take it out of the hoops and get it up onto the design wall to make sure that the stitching isn't getting too precious.  other lessons...don't forget the last minute shreds and white fleece makes great batting if you need it.