I learn more about 'Slow Cloth'

Unusual for me, an introspective post.

Suddenly I find some very personal meaning in a piece of work.


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I started this piece for Sharon B's TAST2010 challenge. A stitch a week for one year. I realised that it wasn't going to last, so I patched on some extra pieces of fabric and stitched scraps around the sides so that I can work right to the edges and more easily hoop the piece.

It is hand stitched and it will go on for the best part of a year. That has to be a 'Slow Cloth'!.


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I will be learning new stitches, or experimenting with old favourites as I go along.


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Also, this is a perfect example of the way I like to use threads and stitches to completely change the look of a piece of fabric. The background to this piece is made up of patched together pieces from the reject bin. Ragged bits of muslin I used as sop cloths when I marbled some nappy (diaper) liners with oil paints. Looking at the heavily stitched areas, you would never know!


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Lastly, but most importantly: my brother is very ill. He has been in hospital since March 25th. This week we anxiously await the results of a bone biopsy. I am so scared that we are going to lose him, and I panic. Then I think about how scared he must be, the pain he is suffering and I am distraught.


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I pick up this piece and I stitch, and I stitch. I'm still afraid. I think about him all the time, one minute hope the next despair. But the stitching has a calming effect. For all this time, I have stitched my thoughts into that piece of work. Never before has this happened. Whatever the outcome, I don't think that I will ever part with it. For it has become my 'Piece for Jim'.


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To find out all about TAST 2010 click
here.

Monochrome

Feeling Stitchy is running a rainbow challenge. All work has to be displayed on the Flickr Group and must be hand embroidery in predominantly one colour. I think there is just one more day to go, get the details here.

I put in a couple of pieces of canvas work. I'm not sure what colour category they belong to! One is all grey and the other is mostly black and white with touches of colour. I put them in the 'black' section.


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This one was about texture and scale.


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This one was about texture and cool colours.

Wise Ones and Elders

I've added a few more to this collection, another "Wise One" and a couple of "Elders".


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I wanted to make them look foreign and exotic, without any distinct racial characteristics - not sure if I succeeded.