self portrait

Self Portrait

20 inches wide by 17 inches high including frame

Detail

This work is entirely hand embroidered with chain stitch.  

The embroidery was stitched onto hand dyed cotton.

Second Detail

This work was based on this photograph taken of me, by a very good friend, a very long time ago.  Recently, our paths crossed again, and he gifted me this photo that he had saved all these years. He reminded me that he was an avid amateur photographer at the time, and even did the developing himself.  I do wonder why he kept this photo of me for over 30 years. I have my theories, and you can have yours, but I can suggest that the moment he caught does seem quite intimate.

Although the hand embroidery was extremely time consuming and labour intensive, I do find it is helpful for settling the mind and soothing the spirit.

 

The Fallen; redux

 

Although I generally don't re-post my work, I had promised to re-post the fallen when the photograph was properly taken.  Thanks go out to Sylvia Galbraith (who is an amazing photographer).  She seems to really understand what it takes to photograph fibre.  She is also an amazing landscape photographer.

So, here is "The Fallen" again, represented in the actual colours it is in 'real life'.

This is the detail shot that Sylvia took.  The stitching on the leaves was all done by hand, generally what would be understood as seed stitch, but there are also other embroidery stitches.  The arking lines on the background fabric are free motion stitches quilting through the layers of fabric.

 

Covid Posies

Covid Posies

When this lock down began, I became a bit frozen, creatively speaking.  I would walk into my sewing room but then wander out again.  Getting past that hurdle was difficult as I had a hard time focusing but what helped was sorting through my stash and organizing my bits and pieces.

What also helped was hand embroidery.  It seemed to still my anxiety about our global situation, and helped me focus on the tiny task at hand.  All the images of the virus led me to creating red embroidery circular patterns on grey felt circles.  I created 19 unique grey and red embroidered circles.

Of course, then something needed to be done with these creations.  Working towards joy, I decided they could be the centres of fun flowers.  I cut into some of hand dyed fabric to create the petals and then painted/dyed the background.

Since the embroidery was done on felt, when it was appliqued onto the background, the centres bump forward or 'pop up' which is a fun bonus!

I had too many embroidery samples for one project so stay tuned for the next one, on a similar theme.

 

sweet baby quilt

This project began without any particular destination.  I was working with scraps on hand, and tried to experiment with lights and darks, to come up with a pleasing design.

This hung, this way for quite some time.  I thought it o.k. but not great, and couldn't figure out what the problem was.  All the colours worked, sort of, but it just felt like a bit of mess.

Then I heard wonderful news, a baby girl was on her way.  This motivated me to attend to this project in a more directed way.  I decided to 'unpick' or for those of you who are uninitiated to this ancient sewing practice;  this means to pull apart all the seams that you already painstakingly made and begin anew.  I constructed this arrangement which felt much better.  Calmer, and yet still busy.  Bright but not overwhelming...

Of course, not ever able to leave well enough alone I not only decided to create prairie points (triangles all around the edge) but thought it might be a fun challenge to back the prairie points with this white satin I had on hand.  I wanted this quilt to be a tactile delight for the little one ....to be....  

The white satin proved to be a challenge, very hard to sew together all those raw edges, lots of fraying nightmares, and the wide white satin was very difficult to move around the corners.  No quilt police would find the end result acceptable, but I had high hopes that the baby wouldn't mind too much if the corners didn't  lie flat.

Once she was born, I was able to free motion quilt special messages to her in the large negative spaces.  She was born on a Sunday and so in this spot, it is written that 'Sunday's child is full of grace'.

Wherever I could, I free motioned wishes and hopes for her,  here I am wishing her sweet dreams.  The heart is appliqued with a blanket stitch in embroidery floss.

It is backed by a cotton in a rich blue, and the satin looks like a wide ruffle.

and here she is!!!

I am hoping that she will enjoy her fun, busy, less than perfect, labour of love.

 

Out for a Stroll

                                                           15.5" wide x 18" high . (framed)

This piece grew from a photograph I took of an elderly couple in my neighbourhood.  There seemed to be such a gentle warm companionship between them as they chatted together while making their way up the street, oblivious to their secret admirer.

I print the photo onto water soluble paper and then free motion stitch through silk organza.  The paper deteriorates with water and I find the semi deterioration of the paper speaks to the subject matter.

The figures were layered on top of a piece of cotton that I had hand dyed and then printed on top of with the red pattern. I left the edges of the cotton exposed (raw edge) but stitched along the periphery of the cotton.  I love fabric and the 'hand' of it and so wanted to make it clear that this work is of fabric by exposing the edge.  The work has been framed and is under non-reflective glass.

 

The Fallen

                                   

The Fallen

17" x 37"

Detail:  This work began on a hand dyed cotton cloth.  The only true colour is the first one.  I had thought to wait until I can get proper photographs taken by Sylvia Galbraith who always does such a wonderful job taking photos of my work.  However, due to COVID, I am not sure when I will be able to see her again so I thought I would post this now, to give you a sense of what I have been working on, with the hope of better photos to come.

                                               

 

Detail:  The shapes of the leaves were all inspired by actual leaves I picked up from my daily dog walking walk.  I traced them on to the cloth and then my fun began.  I love this detailed hand stitching work.  I feel like it is a bit like the work of Georges Seurat, the French post-impressionist painter.  He was well known for his style of pointillism.  Making little dots of paint colours with an incredible expertise in colour theory.  

Here is a detail from   Seurat's Parade de Cirque (1889) where you can see his images were created with tiny dots of colour.

                                                   

Detail:  I do not suggest for a moment that I have a handle on colour the way Seurat did.  In fact, I believe that I am slightly colour blind and so am always struggling with colour choices.  Nevertheless I muddle on.

Detail:  Since these photos were off in colour I had fun playing with the adjustment options, intensity, sepia, etc. which is why these images are so different.  When creating this work, I took advantage of the quilting lines to try and create movement.  A suggestion of the swirling fallen leaves.

Detail:  leaves are overlapping.

Detail ( I saturated the tones here)

Roadside

Fancy Meeting you Here

23.5 " x 18.5"

I created this piece from several different photographs I took while traveling in Africa.  Although my trip to Africa was many years ago, I still find that the photos draw me in, and invite inspiration.  I suppose that part of the reason is the 'otherness' was remarkable.  That's on the surface, but I feel that there is more to it than that.  How peaceful most appear to be.. I am not foolish and do understand that there are difficulties everywhere, and certainly the people of Tanzania and Rwanda have had no end of challenges. And yet, somehow, there was an equanimity there that I found remarkable.

Detail:  Hand dyed fabric with free motion machine stitching as well as hand embroidery.

This is another detail of the free motion.  The challenge for me it to create enough detail for interest while not transforming the portrait into a cartoon.  On this scale, (quite small) this is difficult since the work is on silk organza and cannot be undone.

most of the women we passed on the road carried supplies on their head.  It appeared as if people were always on their way somewhere, lots of pedestrians filled the roads.  People appeared unhurried but in constant motion.

One of my favourite books as a teenager was "Stranger in a Strange Land" and this was certainly my experience.  As I lay expectations upon expectations on myself and others, I envied the apparent simplicity and grace.