Heartfelt

These days I'm drawn to work with hearts.  Its nice that my designing goes so perfectly with the month that celebrates love and hearts and may I please add chocolate to this list?

Its slow progress right now but I hope to speed up a bit now that I've made two prototypes.  I still need to back them, add a loop of twisted Sari silk and pronounce them hangable. 

"Love is our true destiny.  We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone -- we find it with another." - Thomas Merton


 

Soft and Warm

These fiber packs arrived recently - colors of gold, grey, purple.  The gold is the color of tobacco leaves, a deep, warm tea, or perhaps an old, expensive brandy.  The grey is the color of fog, mist, a soft cat, a favorite warm sweater.  The purple is the color of mountains in the distance, a royal cape all draped and rich, an iris blooming in the garden.

I love both the way the grey softens the purple, the way the deep gold warms the grey. Today I'm  busy creating a 'light and shadows' heart with these threads and feeling both their warmth and their richness as I punch and stitch.  

"Such lovely warmth of thought and delicacy of colour are beyond all praise, and equally beyond all thanks!" - Marie Corelli

"Love Letters" - Heart

This latest heart was inspired by my earlier thoughts on hand written letters.  The colors seem to reflect the colors of summer - aqua blue and lavender all blended together. As I worked this piece I also thought about the contrast between using a punchneedle to create loop-pile embroidery and using my needle and thread to create traditional embroidery.  Punching in and out is 'physical' - not difficult, not intrusive but there is the in and out motion over and over again.  Once start embroidering the felt for the back of heart I begin a very quiet, almost still movement.  I like it because as the end of the project approaches, I'm working with silent, slow, movement across the cloth.  It seems a perfect way to end each piece.

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light..." - 

Elizabeth Barret Browning

From the Heart

I'm off on a new adventure - loop-pile embroidery-wise that is.  Recently Jude posted on her work with hearts - it seemed to be a healing time for her and of course her work is beautiful.  I had been thinking about working with the heart shape but a little voice kept saying 'its been done over and and over again'.  But then I thought, perhaps its been done so many times because it is a symbol that each of us can relate to.  Its our center, the core of our being.  Its our life force and symbolizes all that is good about us.  With those thoughts in mind I thought I'd play around a little.

Anytime I start a new project there are all the "what-ifs" to go through and the mundane questions like 'how big should it be', 'what do I really want to convey with this subject', 'how will it work with loop-pile embroidery'.  The planning began!

One of the first things that I did was to paw through my 'found objects', buttons, and 'junque' collections.  This is when I got really excited about the heart concept and the possibilities that might be before me.  Drawings have been made, patterns transferred to cloth and punching begun.  The most important piece of any fiber work (in my mind) is that my heart goes into it also.  That the time spent is time of gratitude and peace and joy -- let's see how this goes...

"Observe the wonders as they occur around you. Don't claim them. Feel the artistry moving through and be silent.” - Rumi

"Homespun Heart" Bird

I really thought that my 'heart' month was over.  But then I came up with this design and just had to try it.  Here I am, ready for spring and all things green and I end up engaged with deep pinks/corals and blue.  I blame it on Caron's 'Wildflowers' yarn titled 'teak' -- once I saw the combination I had to use it.

This is the first time I've used 'Wildflowers' for the overall bird (rather than just the design) and it was an interesting experiment because it seems to have ended up looking 'homespun' - like a rag rug that has been made into a bird.  I discovered some wonderful grey buttons that I could use for eyes. I'm now on the lookout for 1/4" buttons in various colors.  Who knows what will come next - but I think I have hearts out of my system for awhile.

"Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken". - Albert Camus

And the winner is...

I've put all of your names into a hat and asked my husband to pull one out.  Thanks to all of you who left a comment and I wish I could give each and everyone of you a special Valentine.

Our winner is: Deborah of While I Was Waiting.

Deborah your Valentine bag will be shipped out today, hopefully it will arrive before or at least by Valentine's Day.

It was great fun creating something to give away.  I'm sure there will be more 'surprises' in coming months.

"So I show appreciation for the little gifts that have been handed to me". - Terrence Howard