Showing posts with label US and US II. Show all posts
Showing posts with label US and US II. Show all posts

Thursday, January 25, 2018

US II

I'm calling it done, with thanks to Don for touching up the frame ...


the cloth now named US II, a tribute to our 40 years together.

It was originally imagined in a much simpler form, but after the spare outlines were stitched, it began to tell its own story of the places we have called home.

First in Virginia, where we raised our kids ... rivers running through it ...


but a faded outline compared to the lighthouse at Cape Hatteras ...


long my heart's home ... where I've walked many miles by the sea, watched storms roll in, and caught the last rays of sunlight to the west where sea oats bend in the unceasing wind ...


And "can't you just feel the moonshine?"


How perfect then, that we found kindred grasses growing a thousand feet above sea level in the Texas Hill Country ...


prairie grasses that sink deep roots into limestone bedrock formed millions of years ago at the bottom of another, more ancient sea.

We share our Edwards Plateau home with abundant wildflowers ... bluebonnets, Indian paintbrush, and countless little yellow ones... all interlaced with timeless rivers ...


And I dare to say the stars at night are big and bright, here inspired by Hazel and stitched on cloth from a long-worn nightshirt ...


Lastly the sun ... on a bit of Jude Hill indigo (as are the other two) ... a smoldering memory of the 2017 eclipse as seen in St Louis ...


because our hearts live there, too.


Saturday, January 20, 2018

The cloth with no name

This is where I am today with the (still unnamed) cloth I began last month as a 40th anniversary commemorative ...


It's been a journey from my original plan, which was to make a new-fangled sampler ...


I even got so far as to stitch the lettering on the bottom half, seen here photographed with one of my new clip-on iPhone camera lenses ...


But even though I was happy with the clouds, created by loosely backstitching marks on the hand-dyed cloth ...


the lettering just didn't feel right, so I tore it out. 

Then, while looking for something else entirely, I came across a long-lost envelope of Jude Hill's indigo-dyed "planets," which sent me running off in an entirely new direction ...


I'm still not 100% sure about the frame, but considering how the size seems near-perfect, I'm thinking it's meant to be.

Addendum: As I waited for this post to load, it occurred to me that the cloth has become an un-sampler ... US 

Tuesday, December 12, 2017

Icons

Don: "What are you making?"


Me: "I'm not sure, but I'll let you know when it's done."




Monday, December 11, 2017

Grace-less

I miss Grace. And I'm sure I'm not alone in wandering over to Windthread, even knowing she's no longer there. The Rolling Stones song Wild Horses plays in my mind's ear. Grace always did say she liked Mick Jagger.

Surely she has made her way home to The Hill by now. Tay and Tazmeena and the goats exploring. Grace and Emrie getting acquainted, at long last. A family reunited.

So while waiting for word, this cloth unexpectedly demanded to be made ...


Grace will surely approve of the glue stitching that has bound these Texas-dyed cloths together with Deb Lacativa's hand dyed harem cloth backing. 

I'll let you know what becomes of it.

Saturday, December 9, 2017

US

It's done ...


and hung ...


the wonderful puzzle ...


that is US ...


a sampler in bits ...


and pieces ...


of love avowed ...


40 years ago come December 30th ...


Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Collaboration

We've enjoyed many house guests this year. In order to show why we've fallen in love with Texas, we take them on whirlwind journeys to favorite haunts and we've-been-meaning-to-see sights.

So it was that we found ourselves at Uncommon Objects
(sadly no longer on South Congress Avenue in Austin) where we scored an old Post Office box door. It's been sitting in the garage since last spring, biding its time until the perfect assemblage opportunity presented itself.  

It didn't take long. Don is now in the process of creating a piece to honor our upcoming 40th wedding anniversary. The PO box door was a perfect fit. But what to put in the window?

After poring over old photos, we decided some rust dyed cloth and stitch might be a better fit ...


Can't wait to show you where it ends up ...