One Stitch Forward, Two Stitches Back....

I've always admired beautiful hand embroidery -- which to me, is one of the most beautiful arts. I have several hand embroidered family linen pieces that are well over one hundred years old and they are among my most treasured possessions.

A while back I bought myself the Embroidery Stitch Bible and have been working on some basic stitches by putting together a stitch journal, and translating those same stitches into this Van Gogh piece.

I'm using a combination of seed and straight stitching in the sky, straight and back stitching for the houses, spires, and mountains and tiny little french knots to form the illusion of treetops which I have just started layering in different shades of green. Jude a while back had suggested using some little bits of shimmery fabric in the sky. I think I might undue the moon (or add to it) and see about putting some bits of lame' in there.

Inasmuch as this is a learning process for me, I began to wonder "what if" -- instead of working on one section at a time -- I pick up a certain color of thread and work that color all "around" the entire piece - even if I only take a stitch or two in an area with a particular color. Will this result in greater depth and texture? I think so.

I'm enjoying working in this way as it really creates a bit of mystery. I love watercolor painting -- and stitching in this fashion reminds me of painting because I'm layering, blending, highlighting -- with thread! It's all about experimentation.

There's definitely a learning curve for me here. I'm still trying to figure out the best needles to use, how many strands of floss to use, do I like cotton, rayon or silk thread for clouds, etc., etc. My first conclusion: rayon thread is NOT fun!

Needless to say I've done plenty of "unstitching." And I can see in these photographs, I still have some "unstitching" to do.

Hence the title for this post:
One Stitch Forward....... Two Stitches Back!

Look for the Girl with the Sun in her Eyes and She's Gone....

I'm sick of sunshine. I admit it - I am stormy by nature. Rain storms, thunder storms, snow storms, wind storms -- I adore extreme weather. The more extreme the better.

I guess my craving for dark and stormy skies has driven me to pick up Vincent again. Working on swirling clouds and dark, starry skies -- is very satisfying for me right now.

I experimented with loosely stitching some black tulle down over the spires and melting the tulle for texture. I will continue stitching the spires until they are almost completely covered - only the rought melted edges of the tulle peaking through.

Originally, I was going to cover this entire piece with stitch, (utilizing the painted pictures as a thread color guide, only) however I've come to the conclusion that the painted piece beneath -- peeking through here and there gives the stitching more depth -- and I like it.

Not So Fractured.....

Jean just e-mailed me a picture of the fractured slices all put together. They are not stitched yet, just placed appropriately for the photo. I think Renoir would be pleased. My section is the bottom center. You can see the actual print of Renoir's painting down two posts below as well as a close up of my slice. Jean still has to stitch the pieces together, quilt it and bind it.



Coming up next..... more progress on Starry, Starry Night - I've done some stitching and "melting" of organza for the black sphire, and have begun stitching the little church. Also, making some serious progress on the hand pieced nine patch homespun quilt.

Hey Katie Jane...... it's on it's Way to Ohio!!!!

I know, it's taken long enough -- right?? Well, here it is and it's on it's way to you as I write this. The base is an acrylic painting on heavy white cotton duck cloth. I appliqued hand dyed batik iris shapes down on top of the painting and free motion embroidered over the iris and the leaves for texture.
I did some "fill in" quilting throughout the piece reminiscent of impressionistic brush strokes -- short and in varying directions. I used a cotton - wool blend batting and backed it with a commercial cotton. I didn't want a hard edge, so I stitched some the hand dyed fabric over to the front and free motioned over top of it.
To finish it off, I tied some variegated dyed ribbons to the top for an organic hanging element (at Kathy's request.)



In return for the iris, Katie sent me the coolest stained glass wind chimes for my garden. I've been visiting her blog for a while as I have a whole box of stained glass and haven't figured out what to do with it yet other than the mosaic table I made for the front porch. Kathy's made some gorgeous stuff and goes on some great excursions. To pay Katie a visit click here.

I've hung the wind chimes right by the front porch. In the early morning when I sit outside with the dogs and the the wind is blowing the reflection from the sun dances across the grass and Gizmo likes to chase it.

These are just beautiful Katie. Thank you so much and please know that they are appreciated and enjoyed every single day!

Finally, time to PLAY! and a Mother's Day Surprise....

After a bit of a hiatus -- we are returning to the workroom as it's girl's weekend - once again - we have the house to ourselves for THREE WHOLE DAYS. The sewing machine is fired up, the paints, pencils and pens came out of hiding and we're gettin' busy. Sabrina is in school today so I'm working on a project that I've had lying around for a while - some placemats and a table runner (a gift for someone?!?!?!?) I'm not a fan of "pieced" placemats so I found this nice little example and have
modified it to suit my needs. Instead of fall colors and a pumpkin, I'm using a folk art crow/flower print for the center, complementing colors for the edges and am going to use a floral print for the backing so they are reversible. "Piecing" is not my forte' however I am enjoying the designing process along with combining colors and patterns. I'm using commercial prints, hand dies, tea dyed (that I dyed myself) and some really cool homespuns I bought when we went to Schoolhouse Fabrics after visiting the Mountain Comforts Quilt show a while back in Virginia. I should have these done by the end of the weekend and will post more pictures.

A Wonderful Mother's Day Surprise....
Finally, I just had to share with you what I received from my precious girl for Mother's Day. It seems my daughter has been following my blog and decided that the perfect gift for me would be (and how right she was!) this amazing Van Gogh -- A Self Portrait in Arts and Letters, coffee table book - wrapped in custom made wrapping paper and delivered with a lovingly made card.

This fantastic gift contains about 400+ pages of photographs and translations of the actual private hand written letters from Vincent to his brother, along with page after page of his private sketches, doodles and paintings. I know I've said this before -- knowing the background of an artist or writer or history behind a work of art or piece of literature makes the experience so much sweeter, the connection so much deeper.

Thank you little girl for your oh so sweet and thoughtful gift from the heart - you know me soooo well!! XOXO

Vincent van Gogh

"We spend our whole lives in unconscious exercise of
the art of expressing our
thoughts with the help of words."

Vincent van Gogh

Did you know that van Gogh only sold ONE painting during his lifetime???

Did you know that van Gogh's life ended when he tragically shot himself in the chest?

Did you know that van Gogh painted Starry Night while residing in an "asylum?"

I never knew that.

I've recently acquired a fascination with the work of Vincent van Gogh. After I selected his painting Iris for my fractured art quilt I have been picking up books at the library , and doing a bit of internet research on van Gogh's life and body of work. It is a triumphant and tragic story -- the story of van Gogh's Life and death. (van Gogh)

With the exception of a few drawing and pottery classes, and one university art appreciation class -- I have no formal "fine arts" training, however I am able to recognize certain styles, movements and genres in the visual arts movement. What I love about Van Gogh's work is his combination of extraordinary color usage and shortened (impressionistic) brush strokes -- which blend together and make his vivid imagery come alive with movement and texture.

I think what inspires me most about his work is that it is so "uniquely" his. We have a wonderful art museum here in Raleigh, and I have to admit that even after umpteen visits, I still have difficulty at times identifying with certainty the work of many particular artists when co-mingled with similar technique. Even with the unique styles of Monet or Matisse, I still confuse their work on occasion, with other artists. But van Gogh -- ah, now his work is so very unique in every conceivable way that it would be impossible to mistake it as belonging to any another.

As a fiber artist, when I look at van Gogh's paintings I can see his bold landscapes emerging from co-mingled pieces of fabric and his brush strokes transformed into thread painted images. Much like what I (we) did with Iris, but on a more intricate level. I can also see his wonderful paintings (like Starry Night) being transferred into magical beaded images, or embroidered images. Sabrina and I were even talking about how some of his work (like Sunflowers) would lend itself wonderfully to carved clay slab landscapes or still lifes -- with the carvings from clay tools simulating his elevated, short and highly textural brush strokes and layering on the color with bold, high gloss glazes. Do you see the endless possibilities here?

Which van Gogh is your favorite? How would you go about interpreting it in "your" medium?

Impressionism......

I have been working on Sabrina's dress all day (cutting out the lining and the actual satin pieces) and HAD to take a break. Inasmuch as I am just getting ready to begin painting the background for my Van Gogh "Iris" art quilt interpretation, I decided during my break to do a bit of research on impressionism.

"The word impressionist was first used mockingly by a journalist to describe a painting by Monet in 1874 entitled Impression: Sunrise. Many artists recognized their style in the word "impressionism" and continued to use the term. Impressionist painters are highly respected today for their talent and innovative genius. Most impressionist paintings were painted between 1867 and 1886. The impressionist movement was touched off by painter Edouard Manet's Luncheon on the Grass, which was exhibited in 1863. Manet himself was not an impressionist, but his work influenced a group of painters who rejected the conventional techniques and concepts of painting. This group, consisting of Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Berthe Morisot, Armand Guillaumin, and Frederic Bazille, did not see a painting as a fixed record of an object or landscape. Instead, Impressionist painters tried to capture a moment in time because objects and landscapes look different at different times of the day. "

Again I am faced with interpreting "impressionism" with fabric (silk dupioni, organdy, burlap and batiks) -- a technique I found difficult as evidenced in my posts about the previous "art slice" quilt I did. How do you blurr the clear cut lines of a piece of fabric?? An interesting challenge and something I am going to think about for a while.

Well, back to work on Sabrina's dress I go.