This is a piece that I've been spending time with lately. It's inspired by a visit to the Maine coast on a stormy weekend.

It's hemp fabric that has been stitched then dyed in a soft blue-grey, then had that stitching taken out. Then I waxed an area and over-dyed it with that grey-purple color.  Then the wax was boiled out and there are layers of dyed silk organza placed on the piece.

I don't know if it's that hemp fabric, or this process, but the fabric has a quality to it  that reminds me of really old fabric. like found in an old family quilt or Japanese boro cloth....reallly faded, like a memory, like the lives that lived in the fabrics used...

Here is a shot just showing some of the textures and subtle colors I am building with hand stitching on the piece.

At times I  doubt myself and worry the stitching isn't having an effect, that it doesn't seem to add to the piece. But it's when it's layered and in varying quantities and stitch direction that, over time,  it seems to build and create the atmosphere I'm hoping to get. But I have to get over the doubt and keep going when it isn't there yet.

Then again, to be devils' advocate, sometimes, even after all the work, a piece may not have the quality I was hoping to capture...but I guess that's all part of the process. And  hopefully the learning in it all....

Here's a shot of the wintry type weather we've been having.

This was taken when I was cross country skiing at the nature center, which is  just up the road from here.  For temperatures, it's been fairly mild for VT, and not that much snow (bummer!), and pretty grey a lot of the  time.

The grey may have spurred this next activity - a yearning for color!

The photo below shows a packet of  fabric and papers that are  layered, in preparation for folding and stitching. After which I'll dye them and also take the colors out....

In the past of experimenting like this, sometimes the colors of the fabrics or papers bleed during the process, and create unexpected color impressions on the layers next to it, so I'm interested to see what these materials will do.

My upcoming residency at The Vermont Studio Center is about to start - later today, yay!  So this is one of the projects I'll work on, as well as more mixed media experiments, these next couple of weeks. It will be a welcome retreat to re-visit ideas and materials that have been mulling, but I don't quite have a handle on yet.

Growing up, both of our parents were life-long eyeglass wearers. Our Mom has worn hers all her life - from age 2! and our Dad wore his from age 11 until he passed away.  So it was a big surprise to them that both my sister and I never needed glasses.

My sister had 15/20 vision, or as we liked to call it, Cat Eyes. I had 20/25, with a slight stigmatism, one eye is nearsighted and one eye is farsighted. (not bad enough to get glasses)....But I always kind of wanted them - they seemed like they made you look smarter and sexy in a nerdly kind of way. My sis has been wearing some reading glasses for work for a little while now....and looks super extra smart and sassy in hers. She's an Editor and constantly is using her peepers for that kind of close work.

Well, flash forward. Life flashes by, time marches on and I am in what must be middle age (gasp!).  Last fall, it was taking me way to long to thread my needles.  Ridiculous!  and very frustrating, making my stitching not as much fun as it should be.
Then I was in our local drug store and passed by the reading glasses display.  Then decided to try a few on, testing which magnifying seemed to work best.

So, while I haven't gone to the eye doc for a formal review of the state of my vision, I'm happy to say these tiger print Foster Grants are helping quite nicely!  I can thread needles with ease now.  and I think I look like Lois Lane would look, if she liked to stitch and stuff....

So then this all must have been the inspiration for my partner Jim's very thoughtful Christmas gift - and what arguably is my new favorite "Best Tool Ever"!

Introducing the Mighty Bright Magnified Lighted Seam Ripper!

It is amazing!  You can switch on the very bright LED light, and it magnifies the area you're working on. The seam ripper part swivels too, so you can angle it however works best.

Check it out, in action!
It's made me want to rip out more threads than I was planning on for this one new piece I've been working on...I'll try to get a shot of the piece up here soon. It's a rust print over shibori dye on linen/hemp blend fabric.
Besides removing some warps and wefts to create open-ness, I'm also stitching a lot of texture, trying to create the feeling of looking through branches. but it's very abstract....at least I think it is. hard to know what others would think!