I'm Back!!

Yes, I'm back again, after only a few days.  My favorite 'roosting' place these summer afternoons is the screen porch that looks into the oh so green forest.  

In between the trees the bluest of skies shows through. 

Its such a perfect place to put everything into perspective. 

 How small I am in this universe, how grand and wonderful and beautiful my little piece of the world is.

This is truly a time for sharing and being thankful and doing my part by enjoying and sharing the beauty that surrounds me.

"A smile is a light in the window that tells others that this is a caring, sharing person inside." - Leonard Nimoy

Spring Arrives

I'm all aflutter with Spring!  Are you??

The color combinations for Spring almost speak for themselves.  I used lavender and a lime green that looked sooo much like the new grasses growing along our country roads.

Life is good and I've begun  another circle project thinking of blue and gold for the coming month. 

" It is spring again.  The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart." Rainer Maria Rilke

CIRCLES TWO

Still going around in circles -- but its been so much fun!

Experimenting with color is something I should have started a long time ago!  Its great fun and I feel as if I'm learning so much. 

Best of all  is the searching of myself to see what colors appeal to me the most and why I am attracted to them

Its quite coincidental that this 'searching' comes in early Spring because everywhere I go I see yellow, green, pink, light blue, violet...  Its a whole new world for me to explore.

I hope you're using this 'rebirth' time of the year and discovering ways to bring it into your life.

"It is spring again.  The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart." - Rainer Maria Rilke

SPRING!!!

 

My world is green again!  The sky is a deep, beautiful blue!  The flowers are blooming and I can walk among the small, creations of nature.  Isn't it wonderful?

 This is truly the time of the year that is made for 'living in the moment and enjoying the 'small stuff'.

The lure of the outdoors may take me away from my punch needle work but that's quite okay.  The 'work' will always be there but the small beautiful spring flowers won't.  So lets all take a little break once in awhile to enjoy the beauty that exists outside our windows.

Going Around in Circles

This past month I've been going around in circles.  Literally *smile*.  What a fun way to explore color combination, simple design and have fun while I'm at it.

Hope that if you feel like you're 'going around in circles' the end results are "what fun I had!"

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


 

Hunkered down for Winter!

Good excuse to stay home and create!

Trees down, neighbors helping each other dig out, 
Waiting for a clear path to the mail box.
Beauty everywhere.

"Nature is full of genius, full of the divine; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.."
Henry David Thoreau
 

"Vignette"

New Year, new word

"vignette -- a small ornamental design filling space in a book or carving typically based on foliage"

 This past year I just could not settle into anything.  I tended to jump from place to place, idea to idea never really extending my learning curve nor my imagination.

With a new year I'm always tempted to become orderly. I have gathered together all the 'small stuff' accumulated over several years.  Earrings that I no longer wear, buttons of all kinds, charms from 'old' bracelets.  My goal for this year is to make up a bunch of 'vignettes' reflecting 'where I am right' now as well where I have been in the past. We'll see what I discover.

"Bits and pieces flung into the universe, sticking in the sky like cotton balls on a jet black velcro surface." - Bradley Chicho

"Much the Worse for Wear"?

Happily I say goodbye to this year.  Not that it was bad mind you, but my body and mind have changed (dare we mention the three letter word age???).  I'm trying to keep up with the changes but some days are harder than others.

I want the old energetic, 'go getting' girl I once was but am trying to  accept my limitations and seek grace, beauty and love .  Sometimes it comes easily and other times its a struggle.  

Do you keep a journal?  Do you make 'resolutions' for yourself, to 'evaluate' your life as we turn the last page of 2018? 

I have kept journals for years. I find it helps to just write down all the good stuff and get the bad stuff out of my system by writing it down too.


To all of my friends I wish you a wonderful new year ahead - one where you make only good memories.
Happy New Year!!!

"Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, 'It will be happier". 

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Thanks Giving -- Giving Thanks

Thinking about "Thanks Giving" and all that those words imply made me think about my "Gratitude" jar.  Filled to the brim with little bits of thankfulness.Wouldn't it be more appropriate to take it from Thanksgiving Day to Thanksgiving Day?  

This shortly passed Thanksgiving I went through the jar I've been filling and read all of the little scraps of paper. 

 Once finished I set up this jar (which is a tiny bit bigger) for filling from this Thanksgiving to next year's Thanksgiving.  

We have all sorts of celebrations and holidays in this country but I do believe that Thanksgiving should be the most meaningful holiday of all.  

My 'thankful' thoughts go to each you for taking the time to read  my words and enter my world even though we have never met in person.

"Gratitude can transform common days into thanksgivings, turn routine jobs into joy and change ordinary opportunities into blessings."

William Arthur Ward

Celebrating Winter

What fun I'm having 'building' snowmen without getting cold and wet.



 I'm celebrating Winter a bit early this year.  But sharing my studio with snowmen seems to be a high priority for me.

 Here are a few Teresa Kogut designs that I'm working (or playing) with. I highly recommend her designs.

The above designs are created by Teresa Kogut. Oh how I love 'working' these designs and seeing them appear beneath my fingers.

I promise to show you my version in frames later this month.  Meanwhile here are 'good' thoughts of Winter.

* Turning our gas fireplace on for the first time in the year.

* Spending more time in my studio because its 'too cold' outside. (good excuse huh?)

*Bundling up with coat, hat and gloves and taking a walk on the first sunny day after a week of grey, cold days.

A good excuse for hot chocolate and/or hot tea morning, noon and night.

 

" Snowmen fall from heaven one flake at a time."

A Different Me!

With Fall all around me I've gone through somewhat of a metamorphose of my own.   Its taking me into "quietude" each day while celebrating the season. 



 

A big step, for me, is to use the pattern designs of others - rather than pushing myself to create original designs. 

This has two benefits.  It lifts the responsibility of the whole design off of my shoulders and I'll be able to share with you some of the designs created by others.

These designs are by Teresa Kogut.

 

"I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself, than be crowded on a velvet cushion." - Henry David Thoreau

  

 



  

OWL PATTERNS

Owl patterns are abundant here in my studio.  I've collected these darling images over time.  Now I'm ready to go through the process of making templates for the various    'species'. What fun this is going to be.

First I enlarge the original drawing to the size I want to make. Using cardboard (the thickness "of cereal boxes). I draw the owl design and then cut out the shapes within the pattern.  I end up with puzzle like pieces which I use to draw the design on Weavers cloth.

Of course the real fun doesn't begin until I choose colors which I promise you, won't be always be the 'real' colors of 'real' owls.  Isn't this fun?

"A forest bird never wants a cage." - Henrick Ibsen

 

"Organization"

The word 'organization' can become  a challenge or a rebuff.  Hey, don't 'people' expect crafters or artists to be a bit disorganized?  Isn't that part of our charm?

At this point in my life I find that I do better if I'm working in an organized area -- of course there's always 'stuff' around (supplies, unfinished projects, etc.) but even they can be organized.  Somehow 'organization' makes me feel like I might have a bit of control over at least  one part of my life. *smile*.

Each evening, as I leave my studio, I arrange everything to begin anew the next day. Its so easy to get sidetracked if I have to stop and 'go through stuff' before I even begin the actual punching.
Happy organization to you all!

"Organization isn't about perfection, its about efficiency. Reducing stress and clutter, saving time and energy and improving your overall quality of life." -  Christine Scal

September!!!

Oh my, the first day of September -- Fall cannot be far away.  Indeed, I found these two 'first fallen' leaves on my walk while we were in the middle of August.  I had to bring them home to give myself hope that our hot, wet summer was fading away. 

Most of the month of August I was working on a Fall punch needle picture and enjoying the thoughts of pumpkins, leaves falling and crows crowing -- does their call
really mean "Summer it almost over - Caw, Caw, Caw"?

 

I wonder if Mr. Crow is wearing a bell on his cap to let us know that time is moving on and we can celebrate the beautiful days of Fall any day now.

 

We heap up around us things that we do not need as the crow makes piles of glittering pebbles." - Laura Ingles Wilder

 

 

 











Earth Bird

 

 

 

Another 'new to me' bird has arrived in my studio.  Around here he's known as the "Earth Bird".  He is covered in 'earth shaded' feathers. 

Sitting here in squelching heat and humidity this bird decided to skip Summer and go directly to Fall.

Wish it was that easy, don't you? 

Again I thank Doreen Frost for this design. She has certainly kept my fingers and punch needle busy!!

"I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn." - Henry David Thoreau



"

A Yellow Winged Blue Bird

Hmmm  -- you say you've never heard of, let alone seen, a Yellow Winged Blue Bird???  Oh my...

I'm so glad that I can introduce this new species of bird.  Related to the "Love Grows" design by Doreen Frost this little bird has come to life here in my studio. 

So much fun to work -- and to play with. 

 It seems to me that this is the perfect time of the year to discover ornithology in the form of punch needle. 

What's going on in your studio during these hot summer days?

"A heart without dreams is like a bird without feathers." - Suzy Kassem

Capturing Floss

 

 

 

 

I used to store all of my floss in these open wire baskets.  Although I tried to keep the various colors separated I often found conglomerations of shade, colors, etc. in one basket, two baskets... I'm sure you get the idea.

   

One day recently I walked into the local Dollar Store and there were glass jars sitting there waiting for me.  They were designed to look like the old canning jars of my childhood and had nice wide mouths on them.

 







 



What a joy to separate out floss colors and put each of them in their jar.  At a glance I can see the colors and shades making it much easier to determine what additions I might need and if I need to get replacements.  'Heaven' in jars!!!

"Colorful threads move through my fingers and onto cloth". -Penny

Summer Time





As July becomes a realty I finish up a new-to-me punchneedle design.  Obviously it is not geared to summer -- but I do love this autumn design and had to get busy on it, even though the Fall months are no where near. 

This design is from Doreen Frost's imagination  and skill.  I have heard people say that they prefer to create their own designs and I would have said that myself at one time.  BUT these days the idea of starting from scratch just does not appeal to me. 

As I stitched this piece the only change I made to the design was to use reverse PN so that instead of the loopy finish I ended up with a textured, almost drawn piece.

 
It so pleased me to sit here in my studio punching each stitch and watching the design become real.  Where is your creativity taking you these days?

"Let us dance in the sun, wearing wild flowers in our hair..." - Susan Polis Schutz

U TURN

After too many fiasco's with three dimensional punch needle I have made a U turn and gone back to using other artists designs and following their directions and their paths.

Its quite freeing to know that all I have to do is fill in the spaces of a drawing on Weaver's Cloth using colors chosen by someone else or of my own choosing -- but with no thought except to do careful stitching and watch the design appear beneath my fingers.

I've also discovered a Punch Needle periodical called "Punch Needle and Primitive Stitcher".  Each issue includes several patterns that I can follow and complete.

This all takes me back to the hours I would spend as a young child, laying on the floor, coloring in my coloring books, humming and happy!

"Don't ever rule out the option of U-turn in your life, because one day you will need it!  The moment you realize you are going in the wrong direction, turn to the right direction instantly, with a beautiful U-turn." 
 - Mehmet Murat ildan