A Little Needle Book...

has been a recent focus over the past month or so. I had  a nice little piece cotton that I batik waxed and dyed  over the summer that I have been coveting and have finally put to use.





I layered it over  a piece of hand dyed and frayed indigo - using that double layer for the cover.

For the needle pages, I used some beautiful boiled teal and dusty blue wool.  Inside the front cover is a little pocket with a ceramic blue button.  The pocket will hold my small scissors.

The cover button is some kind of stone. I found it when I was visiting Asheville for a workshop a few months ago.  It is really beautiful with all of its imperfections.

In contemplating personal symbols for Jude's workshop, I realize that leaves hold a deep personal meaning for me.  They are in all of my work.  Even here.

I don't very often make things for myself, but I do just love this.
Final thought: Early this morning while I was outside quietly taking in the beauty accompanying the emergence of Spring - Gizmo was basking in the early morning sun and rolling in the dew.

A glorious day in North Carolina.

A Slow Cloth....

......of personal symbols is what I have been working on in Jude Hill's Whispering White workshop.

A discussion has been ongoing about the character and meaning of white and how personal that can be. As a girl growing up in Ohio with parents of a country upbringing and European roots, white cloth had significant meaning and place in my family - and really, still does.

I have quite a collection of natural bleached and bleached cloth -  from which I tore up some strips and created a woven base.  I have decided for my first cloth, I would explore the use of personal symbols.  Something I've been thinking about lately,  

So for now, I will play with this idea of personal symbols, sketching some things out, maybe cutting out some shapes, stitching them out, and then making the decision as to whether I will keep this woven base as one unit - or, in the alternative, cutting it up into six or nine pieces, and layering the individual sections on to frayed pieces of light linen or lawn cloth and work on them as individual units.  

Something to consider.

Enough about white.

Let's go get dirty!