It's late on Sunday afternoon and it's been the greyest of days since the colour grey was invented. Honestly, not a speck of blue sky to be seen, and now it's getting dark. So it's lights on and curtains closed. I'm in need of some vivid colour, and this painting 'A Japanese Girl' by Jacob Kramer fits the bill nicely. The zingy yellow and orange are stunning, aren't they? I only saw this for the first time mid-week, when I tootled along to Leeds Art Gallery for the first StitchArt session of 2025. We were looking at portraits this time, and were given a piece of cotton stretched over a hoop, a needle with a big fat eye and a box of embroidery thread to rifle through. The idea was that we sew a portrait, of ourselves or someone else, and incorporate images that reflect the person's likes and interests. The theme came about because of a new exhibition at the gallery, all dedicated to portraits.
First of all, my portrait of me really doesn't look a great deal like me! But I was quite pleased with the detail of the plait, as well as the reel of sewing thread. I added appliqued fabric shapes to reflect the patchwork I make, as well as a few inches of a very old tape measure that's too decrepit to be used for its original purpose any more. There's a silver coloured charm shaped like a sewing needle, and a trio of ink-stamped bees. Because - well - because I like bees! I did an introductory bee keeping course a few years ago, and one of these days I'd like to get my own hive.
Once I'd finished that StitchArt piece I had another go at Tori Chatfield's Abstractuary challenge. The prompt I picked was 'Found Objects'. I'd seen and admired the work of a textile art who goes by the name of Hens Teeth on Instagram. She works with a lot of vintage materials, including old and worn envelopes that she embroiders on to. I'd been meaning to try stitching on paper, and I found a couple of envelopes from letters sent to my late mother when she was young. They're postmarked 1954. I stitched the one with the tall flowers first, and learnt in doing so that my needle wasn't slender enough and I was using too many strands of embroidery thread. My second effort was subtler and I worked with the thinnest of needles and a single strand of thread. I stamped a couple of dragonflies on one of the envelopes, and might go back and stamp on the other envelope too as that adds a pretty detail. I'm not sure I want to continue with handsewing on paper, but it was interesting to give it a try.
Another Abstractuary prompt is the artist Kandinsky, and I'm still working on that. I drew various shapes on a sketch pad, based on one of his works, then drew a similar design on white cotton. I'm using mainly satin stitch to make the straight lines, which gives a good effect but it's not the quickest of stitches to do if you want it to look neat and even.
I'm also still fitting in my minimum of 15 minutes a day for the Ann Wood 100 days stitchbook challenge. The page began with mainly white fabric on a plain calico background, but I've been gradually covering more and more of it with running stitch, and added lines of beads too, from a charity-shopped necklace, as well as adding a shisha mirror.
That's all the crafty stuff I have to share for now as sadly real life has to get in the way sometimes. Dull hoovering and buying groceries, cleaning out kitchen cupboards and drawers. I even tackled the Mystery Drawer in the kitchen. That was where odds and ends were stuffed into. Old bicycle clips, several torches, bits of plastic that'd broken off something or other but who knew what? Single shoe laces, little plastic clips from the stalks of long-dead orchids, metal thingymajigs that could be used for taking pebbles out of horses hooves for all I know! Out everything came, and if I didn't know what the heck it was or why I was keeping it, then into the bin it went. The drawer was emptied, cleaned, lined with brown paper and refilled with only what was useful and had a known purpose. It's these small victories over household chaos that keep us going, isn't it?
Oh, I also managed a little reading here and there. I finished 'Home Going' which was terrific, very thought provoking, often very sad. I've just started 'The Earthquake Bird' so I've yet to figure out whether it's a worthwhile read or not. Let's hope so.
Okay, that's all for now. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, and we'll see what next week brings us.
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