Spring break

 

"Like a week in the country..." lyrics to something and the cure for what ails us.  The storms only gave us a lick of lightning and thunder last night. 

The first thing I did when I got here was take the grand tour of the new treehouse. I climbed the ladder and checked out the built-in bench to prove to myself that I still could. 

I would have put it a lot higher, but that's not my call. 

This is the view from the front porch. The people across the private road farm all organic. Last year this field was filled with giant sunflowers and cabbages as big as pumpkins. Just behind him is a field where cows wander around moaning with delight over all the new green grass. 

I hope he didn't see me staggering around the front steps stooped over planting nasturtium seeds everywhere. Surefire crop if Jake doesn't mow them.

It's a good thing that fine linen is so forgiving. I had to pick out the "r" and move it. Before it looked like Slash and Bum. I'm taking my time filling in the heart. This is the first time I've attempted anything realistic in stitch and I think the swords turned out pretty well. 

title and theme

 

I love this hard-assed morning light. In a week or two it will be filtered and muted by the new leaves on the big Water Oak in the front yard. At the moment that tree is festooned with strings of yellow, pollen-laden flowers.  All parked cars are yellow. All eyes are a little red.

A new car wash nearby is having its grand opening giving away free car washes. I got one a little while ago and the attendant said I should come back again tomorrow. Jumping Jack Flash was seriously filthy.

I'm working on the layout for the Spell project but I have to stop and find a hard surface to work on. Large enough to tape the cloth down. Hard enough to allow for a good transfer. In the meantime...

This cloth was folded into thirds and hand-stitched two-thirds of the way on the sides to form what looked like something to hold paper money. 

I didn't think I'd ever use these. So full of history and mystery. But when I pulled this one from the river basket and saw the monogram, there was no question that I would use it. 

Putting the bells on a cart before the horses are even born, I'm making a cover for the novel I'm working on. Their surname is Bell. 

Where did my metallic gold thread get to?

A disturbance in the force of my household has been healed 

and it's Baseball opening day. 

Such problems

I had my heart set on using those rich dark greens and blues for the text on the Spell project, but reality spoke up loudly. "Your background is DARK, dummy!"

So, the paler blues and gold will carry the text. I'm still refining the letterforms and won't rush myself. There are too many other things to attend to.

All those on the bottom half of the picture are the rest of the recent overdyes. Some have little to no variation, but you never know what makes a stitcher's hair blow back.

They are here.

I'm putting off the first full dye session until Eclipse Day, hoping the weather will cooperate.

 Here in GA there will be 90% starting at 1:45 and peaking at 3pm. Since I need to see what I'm doing, I'll be finished flinging color by the time it starts. 

 

Sky work

 

Colin sent this moonset from the airport this morning.

It's eerie. Has the feeling one has on waking from strange dreams which is my regular headspace lately.

And this was my sunrise in the studio a few hours later. The light at this hour is always a little too much for my camera but I couldn't discard this one because Salem was approving from her new favorite station - a chair cushion behind the Janome.

I will post most of this lot on the shop page later in the week with better, truer pictures.

tasty throwbacks

 

Been a long time since I've done this heavy color saturation. Experiments on the horizon.

The rest of them will spend a day and a night out in the spring rain.