Tag: Stitch: Dyed thread

I get by with a little help from my friends

~ Liz A ~ 15 Comments

In the wake of epic fires in Australia, Barry Smith posted today about his latest project to spread peace. Inspired, I penned a soon-to-be-stitched response on my current work in progress …

Also this past week, Dee Mallon posted about putting her Deb Lacativa threads in a box (note: Deb is currently having a sale). Imitation being the sincerest form of flattery, I didn’t hesitate to imitate …

And how wonderful that the box was part of a welcome to the neighborhood gift from our across-the-street neighbors (along with an apple pie that is long-since gone).

Last, but not least, Fiona Dempster sent some treasures she and Barry made over at Deckled Edge Press, which are now residing on the nifty seating-cum-display-shelf in our breakfast nook …

Oh wait, there’s one more thing. My former neighbor, Connie Akers transported me to the monthly FASA (Fiber Artists of San Antonio) meeting, where we heard Jody Alexander give a phenomenal talk about Boro. I am fortunate to have two of Jody’s books in my collection (KEEP and The Boro Aesthetic), but there’s nothing like seeing (and touching) cloth up close …

There is so much inspiration to be found in this circle of Kindred Spirits … a very good thing during good times and bad.

A new point of view

~ Liz A ~ 18 Comments

The houses are so close together in our new neighborhood that thirty of them would fit on our five acres in San Marcos. This now is the view from my stitching chair …

There are no prairie grasses here, but for the first time ever in my 63 years, there are also no trees in the backyard. And so, because this window looks south, I will be able to watch the sun and the moon as they trace their arcs across the sky. I can’t wait for next Tuesday’s full moon (with fingers crossed that the clouds clear off in the meantime).

Most of the boxes are now unpacked and we are slowly choosing where to hang the artwork we have accumulated over our 45 years together …

But best of all, there is now time and space in which to stitch some windfall lichen-dyed muslin patches with Deb Lacativa’s magical thread …

Life is so very good.

Stitching a prayer

~ Liz A ~ 22 Comments

I asked crown princess Parker if she would like a hand stitched into the back of her coverlet … Nana’s hand to hold her close. And “Yes,” she said, yes she would.

So I stitched and thought. I used to call it “walking a prayer” … letting my mind wander as I combed along the edge of the sea … letting thoughts come and go, come and go …

Today, though, I stitched a prayer … each stitch a step … and as Deb’s magical threads made their way through muslin backing and gauze lining, the colors rolled up before my eyes … blue and green and grey they be, colors of the ancient sea … over and over and over …

Until each stitch became a part of a line … and the line became a part of me …

I thought how each stitch might be a letter, each letter a part of a word, each word a part of a thought …

And still I stitched … my needle juddering side to side, leaving a trail of stitches in its wake, ofttimes eschewing the preordained path …

and I wondered, “Judder? Is that really a word?” … and “Yes, yes it is,” replied m-w.com … but where did it come from and how did I know it?

So many thoughts rolled through my mind … and music … Wave on Wave … Jude’s thoughts of waves becoming my own …

Until at last the line petered out … and I wondered, “is that right … does one’s little finger really stand away like that?”

And Ellis replied …

Yes, yes it does.

– – – – – – –

Coda: I’m still very new to quilting, so it remains to be seen how the cloth will respond to having split backstitching on the a-side going into the middle and more split backstitching on the b-side going into the middle …

Of course, every so often a stray stitch makes its way through from one side to the other …

Likely as it was meant to …