In hoops

So, what's in my hoops these days?

Stitching other people's words and handwriting inspires me.

I'm back to working on two earlier art projects that have been in slight hibernation as I've been making gifts: The Tiny Great Curve self portrait and my Words project.

Tiny Great Curve on my lap.

The Tiny Great Cuvre is mostly an experiment in texture stitching and using grades of similar color to make shapes around the curve of my hip. I've stitched and pulled out my stitching several times. As frustrating as that can be, it is OK because it is a learning process.

Detail. I will fill it up with luminous chain stitch
in grays and purples.

And despite the challenges of redoing the same curves over and over, I'm enjoying watching the shapes, color and textures form on my fabric. This piece is an image of me, just for me. And there is so much freedom in that.

Box of flosses and thread for the Tiny Great Curve.

The piles of words continues to grow in my boxes.

I was unsure how to approach my beloved
word piles until Miami.

I was in Miami recently and saw (again) The Record exhibition at the Miami Art Museum. (It originated at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, where I saw it in 2010.) The sketches of Japanese artist Taiyo Kimura gave me some ideas about how to organize the batch of 23 words I've been working on relating to color.

Focusing on 23 words for colors.

The number 23 has personal significance to me and bringing that number to these little scraps of fabric and the isolated words they contain has helped me see a pattern. And I love patterns! More to come with that.

Relaxed, free, Summertime me, back from Miami
and ready for new adventures.

In addition to these art projects, I have sketchbooks filled with ideas. And I have the summer to play with them. This is exciting to me. Headed to Austin tomorrow to spend time with my brother's family, including my two teenaged nephews Kels and Hudson.

I will be out in the world stitching and collecting ideas and connecting to the people I meet, but new and old. And my hoops with fill up even more. As will my heart.

My heart cannot take it

Do Not Flake on Me is done, sent and delivered to the Northern California stitch artist Lisa Leggett as part of the Phat Quarter Spring Swap from MrXStitch.

Do Not Flake on Me, 2012

It was great fun to stitch up another "Do Not" embroidery. I've written here before about how much I love taking the hard graphics of hazard signs and turning them into soft stitch. This piece reminded me how much that aesthetic appeals to me.

Do Not Flake on Me snugged up to Do Not Enter, 2010.

Yes, it's a snowflake and a prohibition circle. I have come to hate the cold. Living alone for the first time in my life, I negotiated the darkness and chill of my first winter by myself in the world. It was hard. Even though this was a mild winter, I spend far too much time shivering, wrapped up in an electric blanket in my poorly insulated apartment.

My simple sketch.

As I was stitching the piece I wished that the cold, dark nights of winter be gone, both literally and figuratively.  Let it be Spring again and, dare I say it, Summer. Let there be warmth in the air and in my heart. Let there be music and friendship. To much heartbreak in recent years. Let the winter be gone.

Thick red fill stitch surrounded by fine gauged chain stitch. 

And it is gone. There is warmth, again. A fragile warmth, but it's building. And the warmth is coming from me. I am making it for myself, with the help of my friends and family. And I am hopeful. 

Stitch-speration at CAM Raleigh

Happily, I have lots of Stitch-speration in my life at the moment.

Wild colors and outlines at CAM's ArtHouse party. O & Andy.

On Friday I attended the uber fun ArtHouse 2012 party at CAM Raleigh, the year-old contemporary art museum in Raleigh. Aside from enjoying myself wildly (chatting with break dancers, pulling on the mustache of an Hunter S. Thompson wannabe, having a custom, airbrushed trucker hat made for me by an artist, speaking to everyone who caught my eye and grooving with my seriously hot squeeze and my girl Juline) I took great pleasure in the artwork they had on display as part of a silent auction fundraiser.

Many artists were represented, but if I had to describe a particular commonality between the artwork, I'd say it was heavy on hard lines, colors and graphics. And images like that are particularly inspiring to me... I want to turn the hard edges of designs into soft, wonky stitches onto fabric.

Tehran Techno by Behrouz Hariri, 2012

I was giddily surprised that I won the sole auction that I bid on, taking home this wonderful print called "Tehran Techno" by Toronto-based artist Behrouz Hariri. It is simply amazing to have this in my house to inspire me!

Detail from Do Not Flake on Me, 2012.
Soft stitching on hard edges. 

Finishing up my swap piece for the Phat Quarter Spring swap. ALMOST done. Just need to finish a ring of fine chain stitch, wash the piece and hoop it.

As usual, I have too many ideas for next projects. Oy!

Do Not Flake On Me (Pretty Please) WIP

Working (ever so slowly) on a new "Do Not" embroidery. 

I like to sit on my bed and stitch.

This is a created design, not an actual, real life "Prohibited" symbol. I combined the classic red prohibition symbol -- rendered in the red, glossy, thick, brick-like back stitch that I love -- with a slick snowflake design that I found and altered from an out-of-print Japanese graphics book given to me by my fiber arts friend, Naomi, who we call "yarn whisperer." 

Little Hans, 2011. An altered prohibition sign.
 (It is actually a call to wear a face mask in the lab, but I changed it into a riot cop siluette.)

I like altering and changing the meaning of hazard symbols. I also like stitching them as is.

All in six-strand DMC 321 and 310 on white Kona cotton.

This is for the Phat Quarter Swap on the MrXStitch. The theme of the swap was Spring. And as I was sketching for this piece it kind of morphed into something new... a warning symbol NOT to flake on me. I'm done with flakey people.

Detail of brick back stitch. 

The piece is for talented Lisa, who promised not to look at my blog while this is a WIP so that she can have a surprise when it arrives at her little studio in Northern California.

Now, off to the corporate salt mines.

Girl Thunder Takes DC!

Meet America's latest superhero... Girl Thunder!!! 

Girl Thunder at the U.S. Capitol.

Girl Thunder waiting for her beer.

Stitched up this thunder bolt cami to match a gift I made my squeeze and I could not love it more. I feel like a superhero when I wear it.

Silver chain stitch surrounded by red pearl cotton 5.

I can't imagine having more fun this weekend than I did with my uber cool art girlfriend Juline! I tagged along with her while she attended a workshop at the Hirshhorn Museum. (Juline is one of the smartest, wittiest and talented working artists I know.) I gorged myself at the art museums in DC. So much stitch-speration to be found!

Out the back window of the Carolinian on Amtrack.

We road the rails from Durham, which I highly recommend. 

DuPont Circle is a dramatic little Metro stop.

The freedom of walking around the city with Juline, stopping at any art exhibition that caught our eyes...it was inspiring and energizing.

Synecdoche, Byron Kim, 1991-Present

Juline showed me some her favorites contemporary and modern pieces at the National Gallery of Art. We hung out with the Calder sculptures. (Don't forget to see the Calder exhibition at the Nasher!)

We were both taken by the Byron Kim's Synecdoch, 1991 - Present, which features the flesh shades of a variety of people on panels and arranged in grids. The hues are so varied and delicate. Juline and I both love grids and codes, and the affect of seeing skin tones lined up like this is breathtaking.

Right now I'm working on a swap piece for the Phat Quarter Spring Swap. And I have about thirty other ideas, sketches and projects stewing.

In the light tube moving walkway at the National Gallery.

Having people like Juline in my life is a gift. She inspires me with her own mind and creations and also with the creativity of others that she exposes me to.

Big thunderbolt.

 Go Girl Thunder!

Happy Girl Thunder!

Books & Stitches is out!

Issue 2 of the fabulous stitching ezine &Stitches just came out and Nicole & Carina have outdone themselves with this one.

I love the theme of books and stitching. In particular I enjoy the tutorial from Jessica Kelly of Paper Stitch who makes lovely pieces of art with embroidery and vintage books. I have purchased Jessica's artwork for a gift and I'm the proud owner of a piece. Check out her etsy shop.

I've been a huge fan of Nicole & Carina since I first started stitching and they used to blog for Feeling Stitchy. I remember being particularly taken with a gorgeous piece Nicole made for a Phat Quarter music swap last year featuring her take on Ophelia.

Ophelia, 2011, by Nicole Vas van Avezathe

I could not have been more thrilled when Nicole asked me to contribute to the second issue of the ezine! My piece takes a more art than craft approach to embroidery and finding inspiration in art galleries and exhibition catalogs.

So please check out the newest issue. And tell your friends!

Chaos, bolts & chain stitch

There are many stitchers who favor neat, even stitches. While I admire the fineness of orderly stitching in other people's work, I must admit that I like a little more chaos in mine.

Silver chain stitch for my thunder bolt.

And I love using chain stitch--heavy and uneven--as a fill stitch.

I adore layering and piling the rows of chains next to each other, as I've done in this thunderbolt for a cotton camisole I've made for myself. More photos of the finished work, soon. I feel like a 1970s superhero in this design. Like a Girl Thunder.

A little red, chain stitch outline.

Boom.