Friday, January 29, 2016

Thread of Days



January is gone! I started this in November right around Thanksgiving. A day spent in the creek at my parents' house started the fossils. Then a tangle of things after that.

I was inspired to work on a sort of journal kind of stitching after following the last few months of Lynn Harrigan's daily calendar project on Instagram. For one year, Lynn beautifully documented the weather and experiences of each day in thread.

This project of mine grows by week rather than by day. I really wanted to work on something about process. No pulling threads out or worrying too much about how it turns out, I will just keep drawing and stitching.

I wanted to put things I might put in a sketchbook directly onto the cloth and then stitch them into it. I have been using a bit of walnut ink saved from fall for the occasional shading.


My firstborn had his 12th birthday last week and on we go. I thought I would say a lot more about all the imagery, but I don't really need to now. January is gone and it's all I can do to keep up. It's all in the threads and that's the point.


Maybe just a bit about the most recent stitches...a memory of last weekend's walk by moonlight through the pasture and woods. An idea of my wonderful park ranger at heart husband. We had friends, kids, and dogs along with us and could see well enough with the moonlight reflected off the snow. 

The little drawing of the woven bits = just a fragment of some recent developments.

16 comments:

  1. Your work is exquisite and absolutely lovely.

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    1. Hello and thank you, Stephanie. I am enjoying stitching on this and just following wherever it might lead.

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  2. Love the shading with walnut ... and your stitching is beautifully executed throughout. I particularly like the craters on the moon and am intrigued by the woven bit.

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    1. The walnut ink is so fun to work with. I have a bucket of dye from fall in hope I might be able to make a bit more. Thanks, Liz.

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  3. "it's all in the threads and that's the point"

    oh, oh, YES. So much, Yes.

    LOVE to you....

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    1. ...to you too, grace. We will see where it all goes.

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  4. exquisite work Susan, love your sense of line

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    1. I enjoy the linework very much. Thanks so much, Mo.

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  5. Oh wow. I LOVE this. Congratulations.x

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    1. Thanks very much, Judy. Trying to hold on to a few of the things as they fly by.

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  6. Have been following along on IG but so nice to see your stitching all together here. Lynn has been a tremendous inspiration to me too.

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    1. Hi Beth! So happy to have you here. I enjoy instagram so much but might be working my way back to this place too.

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  7. I love the exquisite low contrast delicacy of this piece, and the enigmatic images. That walnut shading is just perfect. I am glad to see you posting again. You always inspire me.

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    1. Thanks so much, Dana. I would like to get back to being here more often.

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  8. somehow missed this, absolutely love it all: the idea of record-keeping-in-stitch and the actual stitches themselves...so, so beautiful

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    1. Hi Saskia! Thank you. I have been stitching along, but not making it over here to talk about it. Hope all is very well.

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