February 2013: What is there to be afraid of?

That's the real title of my latest project but I will come back to that in a moment.

Last week I had a serious case of stitcher's block. Actually it's still there, but I can't let it stop me. It's not a lack of project ideas or designs or anything, but it's a matter of finding something that makes me want to actually pick up the needle. It's not a problem with motivation, it's a feeling that is grounded in something else.

So I tried a different approach. I picked up some materials that felt interesting to work with and used that as my start instead.

This is my free embroidery for February's journal project, and I call it Art from the heart. I didn't know what I was going to make when I started.  I started with a heart and went from there.

It wasn't at all inspired by Valentine's day. There was something else I was trying to remind myself of. And that is what is there to be afraid of? As the ongoing stitcher's block reminds me, what is stopping me from picking up my needles and materials and making something that flows out of me.

The lines on the heart represent how I feel about perfectionism. They trap us in, imprison us and prevent us from being ourselves. As I mentioned, I created this to remind myself not to let the mindless pursuit of perfection stop me.


I chose to do this project as a traditional Swedish style crewel embroidery, wool on wool. Thick wool felt is a popular material to do wool embroidery on here in Sweden. 

There is resistance where the thread meets the fabric, I can definitely say. And I won't say it's impossible, but exact, perfect stitches are hard to manage on this type of material. You have to accept that the overall effect is more important than the individual stitches.

We've had a little visitor a couple weeks ago!! This was exciting since owl-sightings are so rare.

This little pygmy owl stopped by one morning and sat in the bird box for about 10 minutes. I saw it go in. 

The owl is smaller than a cardinal. So small, but yet this bird is a predator of other little birds and small mammals.

No doubt it was here looking for breakfast. The peanuts and sunflower seeds flow freely here, so the little birds are always at hand.

July Embroidery Project

Hi all,
I am posting my July embroidery journal project today. It was a bit of an experiment! The idea of red stuck in my head. I wanted to do something with summer fruit. I ended up with currants, raspberries and cherries represented in this little project.

I was a bit free with my interpretation as you see. Actually I really wanted to do just the currants like in one of the photos I pasted in my little book using a bunch of beads, but it didn't quite work out.  I covered some wooden beads with crewel threads, and they were too big to fit with the smaller beads, so they became cherries.  I wrapped up the stems in some thread and attached them.  They are a little floppy, but I like how they look. I will definitely find a way to use that idea in another project.

My lines of currants actually look kind of cool. They look realistic, so something esel I can use too.

I have made a couple watercolors too with red fruit and a mushroom. I'll get those scanned. I'd say I've learned a lot about working with colors! I don't know if I will continue making more color pages with other colors, maybe. This was mostly a fun exercise to do while I taking a break from the usual tasks.

I will say though, that I feel myself noticing the color around me much more. It's so easy to just dismiss things as being one solid color, but they aren't, and the light changes the color we see.

Color Journal

I recently purchase a book about exploring color by Julia Caprara. The book has a number of exercises to help you learn to work with color. One of them is making a color journal. I have to confess though that I find doing journal exercises to be a bit contrived, but I wanted to give it a try anyways. So the best thing to do though in this situation, is to do the exercises in a way that suit you.

I chose red to begin with. It's my favorite. I decided to save myself the step of carrying my camera around everywhere looking for red, and instead picked a few photos from my hard drive. Mostly they ended up being fruits (I like to take photos of them while they are on the vine!!) But there was one butterfly and a lamp with a red glass. I did a couple little drawings with colored pencils to go with two of the photos.

I haven't done much more yet, but the other photos are shown below. I have taped them on some pages in the book.

Lots of red! I could probably find even more photos, but I just decided to stop there. I am not done with the red though! I wanted to try doing something with some paints and do something with some bit of embroidery. I'm not sure how far I will go with the color journal idea. If I feel like I am learning something from it, then I will go on, but there is much else to do too that teaches one about color!

It's vacation season here. I keep on stitching and drawing and taking photos, but computer time is limited!!! Summer is altogether too short! I be checking in soon again though. Until then keep on stitching and creating art!