The First of Many Exciting Things to Come for 2016

2016 has started with a lot of excitement for my family and I.  We just welcomed a little girl into our family! A few weeks ago, I started a quilt for our Eliza in the same style as I did for our son (which you can see in process here and finished here).  I'm using the same organic cotton jersey from Alabama Chanin and using the same double-layer jersey reverse applique with backstitch outline Alabama Chanin technique.   

For Zay's, I used our backyard as inspiration incorporating backyard animals and plants for the motifs and chose fairly bold color combinations.  For our Eliza's quilt, I am actually using the colors that I had leftover from the fabric packs I had purchased from Alabama Chanin for Zay's quilt.  They are a mix of pale pink, magenta, beige, buttercream, lemon chiffon yellow, soft gray and a mint green.  I've also chosen to do the backstitching with variegated Valdani pearl cotton thread.  I thought the variegated thread was a nice difference and also gave a bit more of a feminine touch or detail to it with the soft color transitions.  I liked the contrast between the two quilts with Zay's using much bolder colors and Eliza's using more pastels. 

For the motifs on Eliza's quilt, I am drawing inspiration from the Victorian language of flowers and flowers that have a personal meaning to me or her.  I've included carnations and snow drops as they are the birth flowers for January.  Dogwood blossoms as they are the state flower for North Carolina and one of my favorite signs of spring.  Many of the flowers were chosen for their meanings from the Victorian language of flowers.  Some of the ones I have included are:

Carnations for "beauty, health and energy"
Chamomile for "energy in adversity"
Clematis for "mental beauty and art"
Crocous for "youthful gladness"
Forget-me-not for "true love"
Hibiscus for "delicate beauty"
 Honeysuckle for "bonds of love" and "devoted affection"
Jasmine for "you are cheerful and graceful"
Oak leaves for "bravery"
Strawberry blossoms for "perfect goodness"

As you can see below, I have a lot more squares to finish and I have not figured out the final arrangement or piecing layout either.  Basically, I have a good bit to go on this one.  The technique goes rather quickly though and it is a project that I can pick up and set down easily.  Also, I have not washed any of these pieces so the trimmed edges have not yet curled which will help open some of the areas like the stems and leaflets revealing more of the back color. Since I took these photos, I have finished 3-4 more blocks as I took this with me to the hospital!

You Are So Very Beautiful - Collaborative Craftivism

I wanted to share with you the You Are So Very Beautiful craftivism project.   It was created by Betsy Greer of Craftivism.com and organized into a collaborative craftivism project with Mary England of Uncustomary Art.  These mostly (though not all) stitched affirmations will be left for people to see and find throughout the city in a guerilla-style art drop in February.  They are currently collecting affirmations to spread around the city of Baltimore to remind people of how wonderful they are.  If you would like to learn more or participate by sending in affirmations or going to Baltimore and helping place them in the city, see the links that I have below!

Here's the link to Betsy's You Are So Very Beautiful project:  Craftivism: You Are So Very Beautiful 
Please check out her story and the reasons and how she created this beautiful project.   ---

Without getting too into the nitty-gritty of personal experience, I will say that sometimes the competitive nature of humans is disheartening.  Why is it that we are much more likely to choose to bring someone down than to choose empathy or encouragement?  So, when I saw this project, I was  excited about its possibilities.  I have wanted more ways to use my stitching as an encouragement to others.  I want to do a better job of showing others that they are loved, cherished, beautiful, talented, etc. 

This project really struck a chord with me as a project that illustrates the generosity of spirit in the stitchers that I have met throughout my life.  It never ceases to amaze me that in such a cutthroat and competitive world, there still are those gentle and kind few that despite disappointments and heartbreaks continue to choose to share their experience and stories joyously with the ones around them.

As I stitched these, I was reminded of the wonderful people in my life that remind me that I am loved and was allowed to let go of some of the negativity shot my direction.  I thought of the people that may find them and I thought and prayed that these simple affirmations would be a blessing and a little glimmer of hope and light that would remind them of how special they are.  Maybe, just maybe, they needed a whisper reminder of their amazingness.  Maybe they have no one in their lives that is brave or secure enough to tell them how special they are.  Maybe they have just had a really, really terrible day/week/year and need a reminder that they can get through it.  No matter how big or small the reminder, I hope these affirmations spread a bit of joy and love to the people that make them, place them and find them. 

So far, I've finished six of these pieces to send in to be placed around Baltimore by Betsy, Mary and their team of craftivists.  I'm hoping to get to stitch some more.   Some days you just need someone to believe in you, to tell you that you are special (or beautiful or cherished or loved).  Thank you to Betsy and Mary for creating this project and collaborative stitching opportunity.  And, to the many people that will find or see these in Baltimore- You Are So Very Beautiful!

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If you would like to get involved, click on one of these links below to find out more details:

Here's the link to the Facebook event page:  You Are So Very Beautiful

Here's the link to Mary's blog post about this project:  You Are So Very Beautiful (Collaborative Craftivism)

Haystacks of Giverny

We all hear about Monet and his haystacks--unfortunately to the point that we overlook them.  I'll be honest, I overlooked them in books.  Why is it that if an artist uses a repetitive subject matter that we do this?  There is so much to learn (I am learning) from looking at the iterations, the subtle changes from this version to the next version!  Here's just a selection of some of his Haystacks. 

I had never seen a Monet haystack until we went to the Musée d'Orsay.  I was completely overwhelmed with their Impressionists exhibition and the sheer size and amount of amazing pieces on display, and yet the one piece that caught my breath, that made me really pause and wonder was Monet's "Meules, fin de l'été" (Haystacks, Late Summer).  The colors, the mixtures, it GLOWED!!!!  It was the first of many Monet Haystacks I saw that trip and I cannot get enough of looking at them since we returned.

 

 

When we were at Monet's House and Gardens in Giverny, I took a ton of photos and plan on turning these photos into a new series of work integrating the color mixing principles that I am experimenting with and learning into these compositions.  This is my first finished piece.  It utilizes my photograph digitally printed on Kona cotton from Spoonflower layered with the same image digitally printed at home on silk organza with mixtures of Valdani 6-strand embroidery floss, DMC metallic floss and stretched gilt smooth purl.  

I purposely utilized a very limited number of stitch types to really challenge myself on the color mixing aspect of this piece.  Stitch types included are:  seed stitch, detached chain, bullion knot, french knot and herringbone. 

For the haystack, I have layered flat herringbone stitch in just cotton stranded Valdani, then layers of Valdani + DMC metallic floss and finally a top layer of stretched smooth purl.  Part of me wants to put some more cut purl on there but I think I need to live with the piece for a little bit first.  

For the dahilias, I had originally planned to silk shade them.  I had thought that it would be interesting to have just a bit of more realistic stitching in the composition to contrast with the more pixelated quality of the other stitches.  However as I worked the composition, I thought it would actually feel weird and not match.  I landed on using bullion knots with French knots to capture the energy of the petals in the dahilias and also to build up the texture more as the bullion knots and French knots sit higher on the piece than the detached chain stitches. 

 

  There are over 40 different color combinations from 10 different variegated Valdani threads used in this composition, referencing not only my photographs but also the color mixing that Monet used in his Haystacks.  I worked from the shadows up for the most part, though as with any project, there are always exceptions!  There is zero white and black in this piece, and the only time I have used pure color (a single color by itself) is when I have used 1 strand of floss for the seeding.  It is also interesting to note that I have bumped up the saturation of the the floss colors in the highlights and shadows. 

 Finally, I purposely did not use a hoop to allow for the fabrics to twist and bunch in areas and allow the different layers of the digitally printed images to shift.  I'm excited to start the next one!