Open -- Says Me

The newest prayer flag "open" -- to new ideas.  I intend it to encompass listening with a more open attitude, to refrain from settling into any particular mind set, something I'm inclined to do.

I've been practicing stitching on gauze-like fabrics (I'll be taking Karen Ruane's class in May and this is one of techniques I really like, so I decided to practice a little in advance.

Stitched a grid onto the fabric, cut a square out of the muslin, and attached the grid.  Then some feather stitching on top.  You can see right through the sheer gauze.   Does it look like a window to you?  It does to me, so I decided to use "open"as the word for this flag.  Open a window, let in some fresh air.

I've stitched on three of these pieces so far and will be doing more--maybe today.  The other two are more lacy, and at least one, would be great for costuming a doll.

However, the creative steam may be running out.  Not the steam for experimenting, but the ideas of what to do with the randomly stitched and fabric-resist cloth.  What to do with them?  They are currently joining all of the other pieces that I loved making, but find myself at a loss when considering the next step... of using them in some way.

The door to my storage cabinet is covered with stitched and eco dyed cloth of various sizes.  Some have been there for about 6 months.  They still please my eye, but are waiting for inspiration.

Rain yesterday, lots of it.   After checking the fountain this morning, it became evident that a lot more bailing will need to be done (Murphy's Law), but since it is fresh rain water, I should be able to use it for eco dyeing.  Except...I'm feeling really lazy and unmotivated today and may retreat to my reading chair with a book.  :)

Company in the Casa and TAST Stitch

Spring Break for Bryce Eleanor, no kindergarten on Friday.  We took a nice walk.  Our walks go something like this:  Bryce Eleanor runs.  I judge that to be far enough and yell, "Freeze!"  I catch up, then release her to run again.  Repeat.  I get to walk at a reasonable pace.  She gets to run and work off energy.  We both have a good time.

We also played with blocks and puzzles, of course.  And she (not I) dismembered Erin and Amelia's old Barbie dolls.  I'm useful when she wants them re-assembled.  Not sure but what there is some resemblance to Dr. Moreau in this process as I doubt all of the legs are on the original bodies.

I'm just thinkin' that the rolled up legging looks a trifle gang-like. Other four-year-old members would probably include Paddy and John David.  Terrors, all three.

Her dad came to pick her up around 4:30 to take her to soccer practice.  I'm sure she worked off the rest of her excess energy there.

I've been doing more reading than embroidering lately, but did get the weekly TAST stitch worked into a couple of prayer flags in progress.  This week's stitch is the barred chain stitch. I think it would have worked better with a very fine perle cotton than with the embroidery floss.

On eco dyed muslin and silk.

On plain muslin.  I also tried to imitate Deepa's honeycomb chain stitching in the right hand corner.  Not an impressive attempt; will have to work on it.

Another Flag Complete

Ho, Ho!  I've finished this week's TAST stitch (whipped wheel) and my prayer flag!  "be still" is a mantra I frequently repeat to myself; it has multiple meanings for me and always seems to calm my mind.

I love the little scribble looking lines that came out in this piece of eco dyed habotai silk.

I used eco dyed scraps again for this one.  And included Cy's wheel, something I had been meaning to try anyway, so this week's TAST stitch was perfect.  I didn't use as many spokes, but I'm going to try more spokes soon because I love the way Cy's wheel looks.

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:)  She calls it Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder; one of my teacher friends several years ago called it CRS (Can't Remember Sh**).  Diagnosis it as you will, I suffer from this disorder and evidently had early onset.  (via Kinship in Color and Wool)


Actually, I don't always forget, sometimes I just decide that I'd rather read or sew than clean out the pantry, etc.  Still, when I walk into a room and forget why I walked into the room, I'm frustrated.  Do you do that?

After reading Moonwalking with Einstein (I reviewed it here), I am trying to pay more attention to what I do.  So much of my activity is sort of on automatic pilot.  Memory requires effort, and I'm pretty lazy.

It is a lovely Friday here.  Perfect spring-like weather with temperatures expected to reach the 80's again today.  Some part of me is thinking that it is just too warm for the time of year and worrying about an extra long, extra hot summer.

Ah, well, might as well enjoy it.   Have a great weekend!

March Auction and Good Mail

I have my bid in on this month's Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative Auction, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  There is always something exciting about an auction!  Especially an auction where the profits are dedicated to funding research for this awful disease.

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I'd won a give-away.  Well, my package arrived yesterday!  Oh, the lovely things I received from The Warp and the Weft!  Now, I have to put my mind to making something with them!

 So many goodies!  Tags and papers and ephemera all wrapped in beautiful toile tissue!

 This is evidently a new line from Jolee's Boutique for French General.

Yesterday, I ran errands all morning, spending most of my time at Michael's and the grocery store because all the other errands were quick ones, except for the one I looked forward to the most, the library-- which was CLOSED!

I had intended to check out a bag full of mysteries to read in between all of the nonfiction.  I needed a fix.  Frustrated.  So when I got home, I downloaded The Snowman by Jo Nesbo on my Kindle.  And read the entire book.  Which was, as usual, far-fetched and graphic; but I continue to read Nesbo because I love Inspector Harry Hole.  Those Scandinavians have dark imaginations for a country that looks so bright and cheerful.

Not a stitch taken all day!  And I was supposed to finish the latest prayer flag using the running stitch.  Did not happen.

Maybe I'll get it done today.

What does your weekend look like?

Trust

This week's TAST is the detached chain stitch, and I used it in Trust.

More eco dyed scraps in linen and habotai silk.  Hapa-zome prints of grass and salvia (the brown stem-- even the purple flowers,the little round spots to the side of the stem, came out brown; dianthus which is only a purple blob over which I embroidered detached chain flowers.

The term trust works well for both eco dyeing and embroidery; I have to trust in the outcome as I seldom have a plan in mind.  Of course, we also have to trust in ourselves and in others in this often chaotic life.
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Prayer Flag Project

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Valerie's Thankfulness Project has been featured at Lucid Communication!  Wonderful photos--stop by and check out the interview and the photos.

Have a great weekend!

Grounded

In yoga, being "grounded" refers to the ability to focus awareness both on a pose and on the present moment.  A grounded pose enables strength, stability, and ease in the asana and a sense of mental alertness and intention.  Being grounded helps us with proprioception, awareness of where our limbs are in space and where our minds are in time,  allowing us to correct our stance physically and keep our minds in the present moment.

Of course, being grounded also means having the basics, the fundamentals on which to build in any area.   TAST is providing me with a grounding in the basic stitches of embroidery and ways to build on those stitches through variations and additions.

Grounded has eco dyed flour sacking and a Dorset button I made several years ago.

Making Dorset buttons can be as addictive as embroidery!  I was on a kick of making Dorset buttons for cuffs for a while.

I used all of the suggestions from Tuesday Stitchers (thanks, ladies) and improved "Cultivate" -- still don't really like it because the trellis looks so messy and out of place, but I like it a lot better than I did before.

I toned down the stark white, went over the vines with some darker floss, added leaves, and lots of kantha stitching.  What I liked is using my favorite stitch; I love kantha stitching.  It is the most pleasurable and meditative stitch for me.

This week:  the chevron stitch!

TAST
Prayer Flag Project

Prayer Flag -Bloom

Bloom is linen with a strip of eco dyed habotai silk.  I used India Flint's hapa-zome technique (flower pounding) on the silk strip and just attached the strip to the prayer flag.  The flower was a pink dianthus, and I think I used vinegar as a post mordant.  At any rate, the pink became mostly lavenders and purples.

I used this one to practice the Cretan stitch.  After embroidering the word "bloom"--it just couldn't support any more embellishment, stitching or otherwise.

                                                                                                         

I don't like the next prayer flag.  I was working on this flag with nothing in mind and then decided to add the herringbone stitch (last week's TAST stitch) -- but I wasn't pleased with the addition, a kind of trellis made mostly of herringbone stitches.

The words "bloom" and "cultivate" kind of go together, but I also wish I had not used the floral images twice.
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I've just read some comments about Cultivate over at Tuesday Stitchers, and although I had decided to just give up on it, I may return to it keeping in mind the suggestions!  :)
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Another Chloe-ism:

Ren: What did you learn in school today?
Chloe: We learned that dinosaurs are extinct.
Ren: And what does that mean?
Chloe: It means I can't have one.

I've written about Ren's daughters Chloe and Alison on this post.  Chloe is just so quotable.
She cracks me up!

Prayer Flag - Learn

 I love orange, and while making Learn, I realized that I had very little floss left of my favorite colors, and I ran out of them pretty quickly.   This must be remedied, and soon, because I love working with these colors.

 Details:

 I added several attempts at the Cretan stitch...along with the buttonhole and fly stitches.

Most of us are learning every day in one way or another.  (I should also use curiosity as a word choice since, after completion of formal schooling, curiosity is what engenders much of what we learn.)

We learn about things that interest us, we learn odd facts and interesting information from reading, we learn by listening and observing.

What we learn often improves our lives and our attitudes.  When we are truly interested, the learning process is a pleasure, a means to an end, and an end in itself.  We can learn about ourselves and others, about ideas, about new ways of doing things, about possibilities, about the past and about the future.

We learn from challenges like TAST 2012; we learn new stitches and new variations of familiar stitches, we learn about participants and their projects.  We expand our horizons.

I love learning!  This prayer flag represents a whisper of a prayer to continue learning, alone or with others, by accident or by concentrated study.
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Sublime Stitching offers these labels, which are amusing and oh, so true!

Hours and hours of work can often look so simple. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves just how much time was involved in our creations.

Some crafts are extremely time intensive...quilting and embroidering are two that, if the value were calculated by minimum wage alone, the price would be beyond the reach of most.

That there is pleasure in the work is what ensures that some traditional crafts are carried on in the handmade world --when mass produced items are often beautiful, as well as so much faster and cheaper.

Pleasure in the process.  I keep moving from one prayer flag to another, enjoying the process of the stitching.  Sometimes in silence, sometimes listening to music, and sometimes watching Netflix, I retreat to needle and thread, and time flows by unnoticed.

This week's TAST stitch is the herringbone stitch.  I will be adding it to a prayer flag soon.

The Prayer Flag Project.  TAST (Take a Stitch Tuesday).

Prayer Flag - Grace

"Grace" in early morning sun, still all wrinkled up from being in hoop and crushed in hands when working without the hoop.

Pressed, although still a little wrinkly.  Eco dyed scrap of flour sacking, very coarse, and not a particularly graceful cloth.  I notice now that the "flower" is still pinned on, not sewn.

Chosen from my list of word possibilities, "grace" has so many meanings:

-elegance of movement, form, expression, or proportion
-a short prayer
-the condition of being favored or sanctified by God
-to add elegance and beauty to
-to honor or favor
-to make more attractive by adding ornament, color, etc.
-poise, ease
-mercy
-benediction

from the Latin gratia - favor, pleasing, charm

The word even sounds pleasing and grace-ful.  One of my favorite poems by Yeats has the line, "How many loved your moments of glad grace" which I think is such a lovely image.  "Glad grace," now I'm wishing I'd used that phrase on the flag.  I think of "glad grace" when I look at my grandchildren.

And I love this quote:  "Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God." --Karl Barth
I think I'm going to use this on a "laughter" prayer flag...if I can fit it in.  Maybe I'll print some quotes on fabric, then add them to the flags.

This week's TAST stitch was the Cretan stitch, and I only got a few examples in this flag, partly because it was awkward.  I've continued to practice and have improved a little, but find that the creative variations of others are still beyond my reach.

TAST and Tuesday Stitchers and  Prayer Flag Project

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Next to my reading chair (and in all of my other reading stations)


-1Q84 -- up to page 700 something.  Kay, did you ever finish?
-A Place of Secrets by Rachel Hore
-Mary Gostelow's Embroidery Book (just got this in the mail from Amazon used books)
-The Dyer's Hand by W.H. Auden
-Bring Me One of Everything by Leslie Hall Pinder

A New Blog Favorite and The Prayer Flag Project

Thanks to Wendy, I've discovered a new blog, Do You Mind If I Knit?  Vanessa knits, sews, gardens, illustrates children's books, has an Etsy shop, and makes wonderful creatures like Evangeline!

How can you look at Evangeline and not feel your spirits lifted? She delights me!  Just look at her tiny aprons and the exuberant joy of her stances...she makes me want to lift my arms and twirl.  I have tea towels...I could join her in her tea towel dance!

Jane LaFazio featured my prayer flags on the prayer flag blog:  The Prayer Flag Project: hand stitched prayer flags!  How exciting is that?  I've been so surprised and pleased by the comments about my prayer flags!  As I mentioned in a post a while back, Jane's blog Janeville was one of my inspirations in deciding to create the prayer flags.

This week's TAST stitch is the Cretan stitch, and it gave me quite a bit of trouble.  It would turn into the feather stitch or I'd fail to get the thread under the needle.  Again, I'm not to great at improvising new variations, but others are.  I've seen some wonderful and complex designs that I've admired...as I struggled to get the basic stitch to flow.

My attempts.  Actually, the ones I like best are those that are completely irregular, with changing width and length like the one at the very top.  They remind me of brain waves or heart monitors.   Also with that irregularity in mind, you don't have to be careful about placement, just soldier on haphazardly.  :)  More my style!

Anyone have big plans for the weekend?

Prayer Flags and Feather Stitch

This week's stitch has made its way into two prayer flags.

 It is always good to have something that requires you to reach, to stretch, to grow--so I chose this word as a reminder.  I want to keep reaching for something, extending in some way for better understanding, improvement, new goals...whatever.

One of the most beneficial books I've read is The Vigorous Mind by Ingrid Cummings (I've written tons of posts about this on my book blog).  Cummings recommends becoming a dilettante and being proud of it!  Expand your horizons, experiment with your interests.

Although our society has come to prefer the specialist over the generalist, Cummings recommends developing diverse interests and enthusiasms, becoming more well-rounded, and  reaching for things to expand your pleasure in life, without striving for  the perfection of the specialist.

"REACH" has some wool stitching at the top, but the rest is all pearl cotton.  I like the feather stitch, but wasn't too creative with it.  I've seen some really creative versions here at Jizee's blog.  She has 3 posts this week on variations of the feather stitch.  Inspiring!

"TINY DEVOTIONS" also ended up with a lot of feather stitch.  The butterfly is paper, but coated with a  Modge Podge.  The fabric is some of my eco dyed experiments with rings from rusted bottle caps.

The stitching on the prayer flags has been a kind of tiny devotion in itself, but as I stitched, I found myself thinking of many things that are tiny devotions in life:  slicing baby carrots for a spinach salad, unrolling my yoga mat, taking a walk to appreciate the warm weather we have been having, grooming the cats (oh, no--that doesn't count because I often curse during that chore).

  And while the Triad may consider grooming a way in which I display my feline devotion, it really has more to do with wanting less cat hair to deal with.  :)  Totally self-serving.

I've completed 4 flags so far:  Fresh, Balance, Reach, and Tiny Devotions, and there are several more in progress.  I have all of the original words and phrases I jotted down before beginning this project, but keep adding to the list.

You can see more work by TAST participants at Tuesday Stitchers, TAST Facebook, and Stitching Fingers.

More about prayer flags here

Stitch after Stitch

When I decided to make prayer flags for the TAST Challenge, I wondered how many techniques I could include besides stitching: applique, stamping, transfers, felting, etc.

So far, I've been completely absorbed with stitching.  Each evening after supper, I move upstairs to pick up needle and floss and stitch away while watching Netflix.

I've done this before with embroidery.  Spent hours and hours stitching, sometimes with a goal in mind, sometimes not.  I've embroidered tee shirts, here and here, random designs, pillows and more pillows, miscellaneous ideas, practice strips and buttons, tiny quilts,  framed pieces, slow cloth, and much, much more.

It becomes an obsession, an addiction that lasts for a while until I've worked my way through each cycle.  I just can't seem to quit.  Until I finally do quit and move on to another endeavor.

I've finished another prayer flag--this one is for balance.  We all seek balance in our lives.  Emotional and physical and creative balance.  (balance between work and family, the checkbook needs to balance, a balanced diet, the government has certain checks and balances,
"on balance" - having considered various outcomes or aspects, "off balance," and things can "hang in the balance")

This prayer flag doesn't really highlight a weekly TAST Challenge stitch, but does use both the fly stitch and the button hole (or blanket stitch) variations.  And, of course, lots of seed stitching.  "On balance," this prayer flag was a way to keep my hands busy and calm the mind.

My new goal is to begin using some other techniques, but I'm not sure I'm ready to leave the mindless stitching.  :)

-------New Give Away over at Victorian Motto Sampler Shop!

Prayer Flag #1 is finished!  It features the first 2 stitches Sharon posted for the TAST Challenge:  fly stitch and button hole stitch.  Of course, there are other stitches, too, but I tried several variations of each of the posted stitches.

The flag is a prayer for a fresh start for the new year, but works equally well for a fresh start for each new day.

"As to those for whom to work hard, to begin and begin again, to attempt and be mistaken, to go back and rework everything from top to bottom, and still find reason to hesitate from one step to the next--as to those, in short, for whom to work in the midst of uncertainty and apprehension is tantamount to failure, all I can say is that clearly we are not from the same planet."  --Michel Foucault


I do begin and begin again, each day.  New chances, new opportunities.  I attempt and am mistaken about so many things; I hesitate from one step to the next; I am working, always, in the midst of uncertainty and apprehension.  Every day, in every thing I do.  And so I feel fortunate to be from the same planet as Michel Foucault.

Getting it right the first time and every time?  Who does that?  Beginning again is my mantra.  Trying and failing happens every day in so many ways.  Making the attempt is success.


That's why I love beginning and beginning again.  I love fresh starts.  Each day is an opportunity.  I try not to get to upset that I've tried to be better organized for most of my life (without much success), that I fail at being nonjudgmental, that I'm hesitant about so many things, that I procrastinate like crazy, all the failings that I'm willing to reveal and more that I am not.  I have another chance to do better tomorrow.  I don't mean this as an excuse, but as a hope to do better.    As Alexander Pope reminded us, "hope springs eternal" and "we are created half to rise, and half to fall." 


Begin and begin again.  Make a fresh start.  A prayer for the new year and for each new day.
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TAST Week 2 -- Button hole stitch

The 2nd stitch in the TAST Challenge is the buttonhole stitch.  I started experimenting last night, filling in as much of the first prayer flag as possible.  The button hole stitch is another simple stitch with numerous possibilities.  I've used it quite a lot in the past, both as edging and as filler.  Like the fly stitch, the button hole stitch will appear on many of the prayer flags because of its versatility and because I enjoy the simplicity of stitching the button hole.

One or two of the variations can prove more difficult, or perhaps I should say, slower (the knotted button hole and the detached filler), but mostly it is easy to get variety from the most basic form of the stitch.  I've included regular button hole, crossed, closed, knotted, alternating, wheel, detached filling, and detached twisted bar.  Further research is revealing even more variations.  Should be interesting to see what interesting versions will emerge from other TAST participants.  (Later -- I've been checking on the TAST Facebook page and finding lots of interesting variations and variations on variations!)

Still raining off and on here.  Of course, we really need the rain, but it also gives me a great excuse to avoid going out and running errands.  Time for another cup of tea, then I'll get back to the laundry.
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I managed to get several chores done, and supper is left-overs, so I have time to go upstairs and play this evening!

TAST Stitch #1 Fly Stitch; Prayer Flag #1

The fly stitch offers so many ways to vary it, and I only touched on a few.  Some I liked better than others, but that might be because sometimes I used one, sometimes two, sometimes three strands of floss.

I have plenty of room for the next TAST stitch and any other stitches I might want to add.  Oh, and maybe some beads.  I like beads.

Some of the flags will be like this one, completely experimental, with no previously considered design in mind...simply filling the space with assorted colors and stitches; others will be more pre-planned.  At least that's the goal.

Still Working on Prayer Flag #1

I've used several stitches so far on my first prayer flag; lots of fly stitching, but several other stitches for the text and the leaf.  I would like to include at least two TAST stitches per flag, so I need to save room for the next announced stitch.

I ordered some linen thread and some Aubusson embroidery wool from Hedgehog Handworks.  I've never used either, but can't wait to try, and to make threading a bit easier-- especially for beading needles--I couldn't resist the brass threader!

A word about Hedgehog--I ordered on Tuesday, and it arrived today!  Also, I got a call Tuesday after placing my order, and the nicest person informed me that one of the colors I ordered was temporarily out of stock.  She suggested a substitution, and I agreed.  Don't you love friendly, courteous, thoughtful, and prompt service?

Prayer Flags

In the same way that you can overlook Christmas items when putting them away after Christmas (you know-- you have everything boxed up and put away--and then find another Christmas item that you somehow missed; it has been right in front of you, but you somehow didn't "see" it),  I see Prayer Flags on blogs I visit several times a week.

Thursday morning, as I looked through my Google Reader, I must have seen one or two because later, thinking about TAST, it suddenly dawned on me that combining the two projects would be fun.  I finally "saw" the Prayer Flags as a great means of accomplishing two things at once.

Sometimes an idea just keeps sparking possibilities, and as soon as the thought of using Prayer Flags for the TAST Challenge began simmering, the creative juices began flowing.  I was immediately jotting down questions and promising themes.

 I've posted about wanting to make Prayer Flags before--now combining the Prayer Flags with TAST makes both projects more appealing.

All day Friday, I was either thinking about, planning for, or working on  Prayer Flags; the ideas and options were plentiful.   Even when running errands or finishing up the housework, my mind kept turning things around, considering and dismissing various concepts.

While there are any number of ways ways to make flags, I have decided to use my eco dyed fabrics, linen, and muslin and to keep the colors pretty monochromatic.  I'm also making sketches of embroidery designs...drawing inspiration from my own doodles, fabric prints, my bedspread, Jacobean embroidery designs, quilting designs, etc.  Although some of them are on an old envelope and others are on a scrap sheet of paper, I'm going to transfer them to a notebook where I can continue playing with ideas.

Yesterday afternoon, I went upstairs and cut or tore fabrics into 5 x 11 strips.  When the top is folded down approximately 3" for the twine to go through, the finished size will be 5 x 8".

The above picture shows the strips with tops folded down.  

Below, I've added batting and stitched them creating the passage for the twine to run through and to keep the batting in place.

Now, I'm really enjoying myself.  I have 8 pre-flags and 6 are already stitched, and now I'm thinking about elements to add: words, phrases, applique, embellishments, etc.

Here is the link to the Prayer Flag Project (with tutorials and more) and one to the Flickr page.  I don't know if I'll sign up there, but the blog has lots of inspiration and after considering various size options, I liked the finished 5 x 8 and the simplicity.  Of course, prayer flags can be any size or shape, but using the tute makes it easy to begin and the small size will be a benefit, too.

I don't know what I'm going to do with this eco dyed piece, but I'm not cutting into it for prayer flags.

I'm excited about the new year and have been making a list of things I'd like to do in 2012.  I'm not making resolutions, but I am creating a list of reminders to post in the studio.

One of the items on the list so far is to get out the personal "history" I began several years ago.  There are so many memories that I'd like to record for my grandchildren.  When my parents died, I realized I had questions that could no longer be answered about their lives before and after they married and began a family.

  Rian mentioned doing this on her blog some time back and reminded me that I wanted to continue working on my memories.  Are you still working on yours, Rian?

The list-making will continue for a few days, then I plan to cull it down to ten or fewer items and post them where I can see them daily.  I want to include everyday improvements, travel, creative endeavors, etc.

Are you making resolutions or forming intentions for 2012?  Tell me!

Wishing a Happy and Productive New Year to all of you!