Waving

~ Liz A ~ 19 Comments

The bottom edge of My Heart’s Compass was meant to evoke the sand, the sea, and the sky …

with raw-edged patches of blue and green, some indigo, some gifted, some stitched with words from Kindred Spirits, all cobbled together into …

Unfortunately, it didn’t quite come together as I had envisioned, so over time I tried various running, blanket, and back stitches …

It still wasn’t coming together as I had hoped, so I tried satin stitching over the raw edges …

But no, that didn’t quite work either (and has since been completely unstitched).

So I’m exceedingly happy that this latest iteration with close/d herringbone stitch is (finally) working out so well …

The cloth and stitches feel more integrated, with a wonderful texture. And it’s fun to do, even though I have to reload my needle with Deb’s thread every couple of inches.

So I’ve got most of one foot done, with about five feet to go …

It’s such a great feeling when you know you’re on the right track.

To go on … or not …

~ Liz A ~ 29 Comments

I filled the lines of cloth with Old Man Crow’s lyrics, but ran out of room before the verse was complete …

So I’m debating whether to continue the verse on the cloth below, or leave it as is.

In the meantime, here’s a little background on the cloth … it was a thrift store find, a child’s jumper that I deconstructed, resulting in the lines of what Jude calls “seam Shibori” …

BTW, the lettering was done with water erasable ink, which I have yet to wash out. And as you can see, it’s not consistent size-wise … the letters increasing in size as the pen began to dry out, causing me to re-ink the lines. A calligrapher I am not.

But I am a mender. And so, on a completely unrelated note, I saw a post on Instagram from the authors of this lovely tome …

in which they described how to mend utensils with thread …

So I did ..

Now this much-loved and frequently-used fork that my mom gifted me from a long ago yard sale, will once again be useable. And I will no longer stress the wooden handle by ab/using the fork to torque chunks of Haagen Dazs out of the container (oops).

The truth in poetry

~ Liz A ~ 20 Comments

Judy Martin just wrote an incredible post about the difference between story and poetry … http://judys-pinwall.blogspot.com/2023/02/story-or-poem.html

Likewise, Mo has an equally incredible post with song lyrics and a poem, which is to say, two pieces of poetry … https://itscrowtime.wordpress.com/2023/02/17/walking-home-with-mr-bones

It seems like I’ve danced around poems and poetry forever … it’s a challenging genre for me, but I know it holds so much truth. And so I am once again stitching the words of Old Man Crow, the better to remember truth …

We could get there so much quicker
if we just picked up the pace … His smile is just a flicker, he says “Life is not a race … it’s a song that’s in the making, a story being told … a glass of sipping liquor … besides … I’m old”

It’s even better if you read the lyrics while listening to Rod singing the words, the slow easy ramble of his guitar keeping time …

And yes, I did check with Mo first … she graciously agreed to my request to stitch Rod’s lyrics and she sent along this much-loved photo …

I’ll stitch some more today …