Come Walk With Me

Come on and walk with me on this fine spring day. 

First stop is right outside my backdoor as I admire these lovely Bloodroot flowers.

Next stop is our front yard where the phlox grows over and around the rocks.

As I turn the corner down the street the first sight is this beautiful golden forsythia.

Oh my, the Tulip Tree is in full bloom...

...and I must stop to look at the blossoms up close in all their glory.

Before coming back inside I stop to admire the first Trillium of the year.

"Life stands before me like an eternal spring with new and brilliant clothes." -
 Carl Friedrich Gauss

Moving On

I had my next punchneedle piece all laid out -- the design was drawn, the threads were ready and I was ready  -- or was I?  I kept feeling this sense of resistance even while I prepared for beginning a new project.

The next morning I woke up and said 'I'm not going to do it' - my fingers are itching to pick up a regular needle and thread and make a stitchery.  My mind is filled with images of collaged fabric, embroidery stitches, making order out of chaos (but not too much order mind you).

And so I've begun a completely new piece of work -- hope you'll join me in this new adventure, I think its going to be great fun!

"Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit." - e. e. cummings

Fiber Arts Alive and Well

If you live anywhere near Asheville, NC you know that it is 'fiber' heaven for those of us interested in any of the fiber arts.  This area has a long history of fiber work - beginning with hand weaving, which was, at one time, a thriving industry.  This entire section of the south was heavily 'into' textile mills.  Sadly the mills have gone elsewhere - but the arts are still alive and well.

Recently I went, with several of my fiber buddies, to see an exhibit being held on the UNCA campus. This exhibit featured members of the FAA (Fiber Arts Alliance) which is a large organization of fiber artists of all persuasions.  There are quilters and weavers, rug hookers and punchneedlers (is that a word?), felters and doll makers, embroiderers, knitters, crocheters and probably many other specialities I'm not listing.  

Here I share some of the lovely work shown at this latest exhibit.  And I salute these wonderfully creative artists whose hands, even while I write this, are busy creating new and beautiful pieces.

"It is art that makes life, makes interest, makes importance and I know of no substitute whatever for the force and beauty of its process." - Max Eastman

Stepping Into Spring

I love the thought that the spring equinox brings balance -- day and night are poised and balanced and about to tip over on the side of light.  Isn't this a wonderful thought? 

To welcome Spring I'd like to share with you a poem by Alex Langstone

Spring Equinox Poetic Meditation

As the light finally catches

Its twin faced dark

A brief truce is called

As the balance of opposites

Merge and entwine

As new life approaches

From the cold dark earth

And the egg of creativity

Breaks at the crack of dawn

The leaping hare dance.

As the rain and wind swirls

Around the budding branches

The sunset approaches and equinoctial

Balance allows the suns rays

To burst through the bank of grey cloud

The illuminating rays of the equinox sun

Allow the daffodils to glow

As they dance in the whirling wind

Joyfully they nod to the descending fiery orb

Beyond the solitary ancient oak.

The winner of my spring giveaway is Penny at Tanglewood Threads.

"Canyon Wall"

Inspired by the red rock canyons of the southwestern deserts this piece has been growing over the past month or so.  A canyon wall shows the history of a place - much like the rings inside a tree.  Layer upon layer of sediment and rock form over eons.  Shaped by wind, rain, snow and ice -- pretty much all of the elements -- these canyons form over time in ways that we can't really witness.

This piece is 8-1/2" x 9".  Because of the size I made up three panels, stitching them together.  Stitching punchneedle together is pretty easy since the loops tend to disguise the seams. I used regular embroidery floss - plus Caron's Watercolours, Wildflowers and Waterlilies. Waterlilies being very fine silk thread I wanted to use it as a 'filament' between sections. 

This wasn't the easiest piece I've ever done but I did enjoy seeing it all come together in my own version of a "Canyon Wall".

"I speak now of that Grand Canyon which lies within each of us.  There are pre-Cambrian rocks at the center, the core, and talus from yesterday's fall; marble and granite grown hard from the pressure and heat of heartbreak and passion; crumbling sandstone, layer on layer of sediment, sentiment piled on over a lifetime's experience..." - Amil Quayle