The Night has 1000 Eyes in Hardscrabble, Wondrous Durham

The Durham Bull, looking like something from Miles Davis' Sketches of Spain.

Yes, I've been stitching. Been sketching. Been working with thread and fabric and fiber.  But I've also been looking around me. Marveling at the broken loveliness of my life and of Durham.

Tobacco Town

For many years, before I ever picked up a needle and pierced a piece of cotton, I wrote. And I read wildly and widely. In my old life I had bookcases so full there were books behind the books. Layers of books. And I made photos... rolls of black and white, home developed, hung in strips from my shower. And I listened to Coltrane. And he told me that the Night has a Thousand Eyes.

Beauty in dirty brick.

Things don't work out the way one plans or hopes. (This is not a brilliant observation, I realize.) But when things have fallen apart, a creative person, an artist like me, finds new way of piecing the jumble back together. You look at what is in your immediate world and you go from there. 

Suga Belt, a piece inspired by an experience in another broken NC town, Carthage.

So, my hyper-immediate world is my body and face, thus the self-portraits.

Durham is insanely green. Eno River State Park, twilight.

And my immediate surroundings are Durham, North Carolina, which Andy called "hardscrabble and wondrous" in an email one time. This description is so perfect for Durham... it has become a lens for me. 

Yet another photo of my aging self.

And maybe it describes me at my best.

Whirligigs, Treks and Art

Whirligigs, Vollis Simpson, photo by Alpesh Patel.

The last few weeks have been full of North Carolina traveling adventures. And some stitching. And a crack on the head that has slowed me down a tiny bit.

WIP: Suga Belt, 2012

Suga Belt remains in my hoop. I'm going to experiment with some fabric layering after I finish the stitching. I'm excited and nervous about that!

And the stitching of color words for my Color Wheel of Lies project is still going. I bring the little pieces with me everywhere I go.

Writing by giddie99

Stitching Dandelion on the beach. Writing by Becky Porter Stancill.

But what has really captured my attention these days is the gorgeous surroundings of my adopted state North Carolina.

Went to Oak Island one weekend.

From the Oak Island boardwalk.

Dawn, Oak Island.

And to Asheville and the Smokey Mountains the next.

Balsam Nature Trail, Mount Mitchell.

Clouds gathering at Mount Mitchell, highest peak east of the Mississippi.

And then hunted for whirligigs, created by North Carolina outsider artist Vollis Simpson in Johnston County, NC.

Lacuna, NC, whirligig by Vollis Simpson.

Horses in the sky. This whimsy inspires my TOYS swap piece for the Phat Quarter Swap.

So many gorgeous scenes to inspire my own art. I imagine stitched faces in the sand, washed ashore on drift wood or among the ferns and firs of boreal mountain trails.  And spirograph-like stitched wheels in the sky.

Ah, North Carolina, you are a beauty!

In My Hoops... Suga and Colors

Stitching in my bed on a sunny morning, chez moi.

Been traveling a lot on the weekends and I will continue to travel for a few more weeks.  (Valleys, seas and mountains.)

Working on lots of things...

Hope no one is sick of my hips, because they're back... with a little piece called Suga Belt. More to come on that story from Carthage.

Suga Belt, 2012. Kona Cotton, stem, back and satin stitch.

And the pile of color words keeps growing. The bigger piece is taking shape in my mind, if not in actual physical space!

I'm STILL loving stitching up other people's handwriting. It feels decadently intimate.

So if you'd like to contribute a color word, let me know. I have a pile of words and fabric and thread and I want more handwriting.

C'mon and play!

Playing with Keefie.

Big Yes! Isle of Wight Fest by Sewphie T

Lucky me hosted the most recent Mr X Stitch/Phat Quarter swap. I chose the 1970s as the theme. Artists from all over the world ran wild using the 1970s as a starting point and, so far, the pieces have included meditations on science, music, cultural history, fashion and craft of the 1970s. And new work keeps being added.

By Sewphie T, 2012

I’ve been blown away by many of the pieces. This is especially true of the amazing embroidery that I received from Sewphie T, a master needlewoman from the U.K. 

When I made the swap lists I actually felt a little guilty for assigning Sewphie to me. I so admire her work and skill. She does stumpwork! (Good god, stumpwork! That is some serious needlework in my book.)

Sewphie’s Isle of Wight piece… it is breathtaking. Based on a photograph from the 1970 Isle of Wight music festival, the artwork is covered in her delicate, fine stitching. The variegated thread resembles tie-dye. It is hard to describe the slightly haunted look on the subject’s face that Sewphie has somehow managed to capture. Uncanny.  I am awed by it. Inspired.  I have never made such tiny stitches in my life.

Sewphie writes about this gorgeous piece on her blog.

Having this in my own home to look at whenever I want is amazing. The quality of her work will serve as my guide in my own stitching.

I’m hosting the next Phat Quarter Swap, which will open for signups on the 31^st of August. I picked the secret new theme especially to encourage playfulness and creativity. Please join us! For more information, check back on Mr X Stitch and in the Phat Quarter group on flickr.

For now, spend some time with Sewphie T’s beautiful artwork (which was recently featured on the cover of &stitches) on her blog and her flickr stream.

Big, breathless Yes to Sewphie T and her amazing work!

"Big Yes!" is a blog feature where I share, with the artist’s permission, a piece of textile art that has opened my eyes to the possibility of what we can create.  When faced with things that are truly beautiful or moving or that fill me with awe, I try to say yes. More than that, Big Yes.

My Tiny Great Curve

I finished my Tiny Great Curve self-portrait today. Ah....

Tiny Great Curve, 2012.

Been working on this piece for a long time, in fits and starts. It's based on a photo that my I designed and my friend Alex shot of my last year.

Detail of layered feather stitch for my hair.

I made it just for me. And I realized that I've been making things mostly for other people, which I love to do more than anything, but it is nice to have something I can keep for myself.

Stitching various edits of the fantasy jungle.

When I first started the piece I hadn't expected it to feature the dream-jungle background. In the last few months I've been sketching for the piece quite a lot -- the wild riot of fantasy plants and vines just felt right. I think it's my dream of living in a wild, natural place, which has certainly been my life in the last year.

Detail of leaves and blanket on my hip.

I really pushed myself to use stitches that I haven't in a while... or ever. The piece includes stem, fishbone, feather, french knots, chain, Pekinese, back, blanket, button hole and closed fly stitch. The ground fabric is Kona cotton and the thread is a limited palette of Valdani perle cotton in size 12. 

I feel like I know my own hips better after stitching them for so long!

My dream framed.

And here is a song for you, my friends. Sometimes, the world moves on a woman's hips.

Brassiere Enflammé for Phat Quarter Swap

So, my piece for the Phat Quarter 1970s-themed Swap arrived in doaflip's hot little hands, deep in the wilds of England. And she said she likes it and has it hanging in her home. Dy-no-mite!

Brassiere Enflamme, 2012.

I decided to continue on my imaginary prohibition sign series and designed a sort of "burn your bra" or "no bra" symbol, to riff on the 1960s and 70s mythology about bra-burning radical women who weren't going to take it anymore.

With good old Do Not Enter, 2010, my 1st stitched prohibition sign.

Now, we all know this "burn your bra" idea is a fabrication in and of itself and statements by feminists of that error were far more subtle than that. I'm playing with the myths. imagery and ideas about "women's lib" from my 1970s childhood. As a 2012 feminist, I'm proud of what 19th and 20th Century feminists worked so hard for.

Detail of thick backstitch.

A couple of notes about this piece: The bra that I used for the design is somewhat anachronistic. It's not the pointy bra of the 1970s. It's based on my bra -- that sort of foamy, push-up, rounded style made popular by Victoria's Secret.

Sketch of my bra, early in the process.

I'm also one of the few women I know who likes wearing my bra! I remember my abuelita encouraged it and said that Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor (her ideals of femininity) always wore theirs, even to sleep. Now, I have a much less sexualized ideal of female beauty than my abuelita, but I retained her passion for the benefits of the well-fitted bra. (And yes, I sleep in mine.)

Instagram!

Check out more fabulous work from the Phat Quarter 1970s Swap on flickr. I'm hosting a new swap for Mr X Stitch that opens at the end of August. Fun new theme! Stay tuned...

Blogging about Cute, Blogging about Art

In addition to producing this blog of (mostly) my own work, July has found me with some new writing gigs on some other sites that are meaningful to me.

Twins by Carrie_76

I can't tell you how excited I was when the wildly talented and energetic Jamie "Mr X Stitch" Chalmers asked me to take over the weekly Too Cute Tuesday posts on his essential needlework site Mr X Stitch.

Transfusion from LeighLaLovesYou.

Big Yes to being a curator of needle art! I confess that I'm not terribly attracted to traditional representations of "cute," so I'm grateful that Jamie has really let me play with that term and select work that may push the boundaries of what "cute" is all about. Babies getting transfusions, a raw, new born squirrel, demented twins... It is amazing to look at all of the work that is out there and think about what makes it both cute and fresh. Unusual.

Danielleorama's New Born Squirrel.

Over Memorial Day Weekend I went to Miami for my squeeze's birthday and we saw the Nasher-produced exhibition The Record: Contemporary Art and Vinyl at the Miami Museum of Art. I'd been floored by the show when I saw it at the Nasher Museum here in Durham back in 2010. (And I was lucky enough to record the audio guide for the show!)

Photo by J Caldwell.

I wrote a blog post about the experience of seeing the record hung in an entirely different space for the Nasher blog.

Turntable 2010, a piece I made that was inspired by The Record.

Writing and photography were my first loves for many years. So writing about needlework and art, two things that I care so deeply about, is incredibly meaningful to me. And hey, if anyone out there would like me to contribute in that way to their blogs or projects, just give me a shout!

Now, back to stitching and sketching for me.

In Hoops... In Rainbows

Detail from Brasserie Enflammé,  2012.

Been quietly sketching and stitching on three projects.

Stitching while waiting for my car to be serviced.

My 1970s-themed piece for the Phat Quarter Swap from Mr X Stitch (which I'm organizing!)

The pile of colors & handwriting grows!

My Color Words project, which has taken a new turn... I'm thinking of a stitched color wheel.

It is a great joy to stitch up other people's handwriting.

And the Tiny Great Curve piece, which I'm working on sketching the background for. I want something dreamlike and filled with plant life. Think of a Henri Rousseau jungle in muted colored stitch.

Sketching late at night.

I've been sketching and practicing stitching leaves in different threads.

Fishbone stitch, on linen. Thick & thin thread.

Mixed in with dry days the corporate desk job, I've been cooking, reading, watching films, hanging with my squeeze and other friends and spending lovely time with my nephews Kels & Hudson (ages 18 & 13) who are in town from Austin.

Me & Kels, Motorco, Durham, NC.

Summer life.

I Heart Feather Stitch

Such an elegant, simple little stitch, feather stitch. Both long-armed and plain.

Long-armed feather stitch +  a little chain stitch to depict my hair. Pearl cotton size 12.

I've used it recently in two entirely different ways... to depict the chaotic mess of my hair on the Tiny Great Curve piece.

Long-armed feather stitch on a straight grid.

And as a straighter, more grid-like border on the Lunatic Squirrel tea towel for Monique.

It looks so varied, depending on the straightness or curve of your center line. In both cases, it looks organic and vine-like.

Stem, chain, back, button hole, blanket & Pekinese stitches. So far.

I just adore the experimenting with stitches on the Tiny Great Curve.

From the most recent issue of &Stitches, I learned the Pekinese stitch, which I slipped into the bottom row of the mattress. (This is a wonderful issue and I strongly encourage you to check out Carina & Nicole's work. Plus there is a worthwhile interview with Jenny Hart!)

Back to needle, thread and fabric. And lovely stitching.

Am I a mantrap? Nyet!

I had a special request from a particularly hot man to stitch up the word MANTRAP.

This font has a lot of promise!

So I stitched on a tea towel. Because nothing is hotter than a tea towel.

DMC Pearl Cotton in 321, size 5.

And then I translated MANTRAP into Morse Code and stitched it on the back.

My Pops knows Morse Code and used in in the Navy.

The same hot man also gave me this magnet about women spies.

My Pops still thinks my mother is a hot spy.

Do I look dangerous? Do I look like a spy?

He is both hot and Cold War. I like it. 

Consider this tea towel your warning!

Alert! Alert! Durham has been over run with lunatic squirrels!  I see the seething monsters lurking in the shadows on my morning jogs, plotting to take me down and pierce my throat with that single sharp fang.

Plotting your doom with their dead eyes.

Let this tea towel serve as a public service announcement. Because nothing says, "Run for Your Life, Fool!" like red gingham, no?

Stitched this up as a little wedding gift for the talented Monique (she designed my blog banner!) and her new husband Dan, a ridiculously cute, cool couple. The kind of people you'd hate if they weren't so genuinely warm.

Chain stitch in variegated Valdani cotton thread, color M26.

Monique's family is from The Netherlands, so I clearly identified the deranged animal in Dutch, with the help of master stitcher/blogger/designer Nicole of Follow the White Bunny and &Stitches fame. (Be sure to follow Nicole on Twitter, too. She is a generous tweeter about her creative process!)

Long-armed Feather Stitch border.

"De Getikte Eekhoorn van Durham." Sounds even more terrifying in Dutch, doesn't it? People who think Germans have the scariest words for the most innocuous things need to plumb the depths of the freaking Dutch language. Ja! We're talking Biblical, medieval woodcut scary.

Can gingham ever be stitched into without irony?

Hmmm... Perhaps average adults don't fear gingham, squirrels or the Dutch language. Screw average and take cover. De Getikte Eekhoorn is out there, mofos.

Tiny Great Curve... a bit more fill stitch

Playing with different fill stitches on my Tiny Great Curve.

The finished piece will only be 4x6".

This weekend I've done a bit more chain stitch, some wrapped back stitch, blanket stitch and button hole stitch. This is a great little experimentation project just for me!

And now, Saturday night beckons...

Experiment: Twisted silk strands, a hexagram and a bit of linen

I love the messiness of the silk against the tight weave of the linen.

Naomi (of the fabulous blog String Geekery) gave me two hanks of raw silk attached to some strips of fabric in deep reds. It was given to her to incorporate into her amazing spinning, but the colors aren't right for her. The deep reds and burgundies make me giddy.

The strands get wrapped up in my fingers.

Early this morning I stretched out the tangled hanks and cut of a few strands. I found a bit of linen in my stash. I wanted to play.

The feel like the softest hair.

 I used the I Ching strictly as a pattern creator and threw coins to come up with this simple series of six lines to stitch. (This is not spiritual guide for me, although I like the poetry of hexagram names: this hexagram is K'un, oppression/exhaustion.)

On a pile of textures.

It was like stitching with human hair. I loved the way the strands bunched and knotted. Very different from the factory-perfect pearl cotton I usually stitch with. 

Now I want to try more unusual (for me) threads. And I have two questions for you, stitch artitsts:

What are your favorite threads to stitch with?
What pattern generators do you employ?

Please be generous!

Breaking into color with words

My stitched color word project has gone vibrant.

When I can't sleep, I stitch.

I'm now mixing colored fabric and threads in with the white cotton and red pearl cotton. I envision a huge grid of them, but I don't know.

Seven writers.

I've been collecting color words from friends, family and colleagues. The weird intimacy that comes from stitching up someone else's handwriting has only become more compelling to me over time.  It's ratcheting up my nerdy word obsession with the addition of textures and color and stitch. I can't stop.

I don't want to stop.

Rinsing "cherry." Experimenting with stitching in the same color as the background fabric.

Initially I was going to work with 23 color words, but I keep wanting more.

Take it with me everywhere and notice colors, words.

Not in a greedy way. In a passionate way. I love bringing other folks into my artwork. It helps me reconcile my admittedly independent side with the joy I take in feeling connected to other people.

Some handwriting is more challenging to stitch and I love that.

Send me more color words, please.

Summertime Glacier

Moving very, very slowly on the Great Curve.

More chain stitch and a bit of blanket stitch.

Feeling like a glacier. But that is OK. Sometimes one stitches and creates slowly, sometimes quickly. Just like life. Sometimes one lives with heat and intensity and passion. Sometimes one just gets through the day.

Glaciers don't care that It's Summertime. They still move at their inhumanly slow pace.

Right now I'm a summer glacier. But the hot springs will return.

In hoops

So, what's in my hoops these days?

Stitching other people's words and handwriting inspires me.

I'm back to working on two earlier art projects that have been in slight hibernation as I've been making gifts: The Tiny Great Curve self portrait and my Words project.

Tiny Great Curve on my lap.

The Tiny Great Cuvre is mostly an experiment in texture stitching and using grades of similar color to make shapes around the curve of my hip. I've stitched and pulled out my stitching several times. As frustrating as that can be, it is OK because it is a learning process.

Detail. I will fill it up with luminous chain stitch in grays and purples.

And despite the challenges of redoing the same curves over and over, I'm enjoying watching the shapes, color and textures form on my fabric. This piece is an image of me, just for me. And there is so much freedom in that.

Box of flosses and thread for the Tiny Great Curve.

The piles of words continues to grow in my boxes.

I was unsure how to approach my beloved word piles until Miami.

I was in Miami recently and saw (again) The Record exhibition at the Miami Art Museum. (It originated at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, where I saw it in 2010.) The sketches of Japanese artist Taiyo Kimura gave me some ideas about how to organize the batch of 23 words I've been working on relating to color.

Focusing on 23 words for colors.

The number 23 has personal significance to me and bringing that number to these little scraps of fabric and the isolated words they contain has helped me see a pattern. And I love patterns! More to come with that.

Relaxed, free, Summertime me, back from Miami and ready for new adventures.

In addition to these art projects, I have sketchbooks filled with ideas. And I have the summer to play with them. This is exciting to me. Headed to Austin tomorrow to spend time with my brother's family, including my two teenaged nephews Kels and Hudson.

I will be out in the world stitching and collecting ideas and connecting to the people I meet, but new and old. And my hoops with fill up even more. As will my heart.

My heart cannot take it

Do Not Flake on Me is done, sent and delivered to the Northern California stitch artist Lisa Leggett as part of the Phat Quarter Spring Swap from MrXStitch.

Do Not Flake on Me, 2012

It was great fun to stitch up another "Do Not" embroidery. I've written here before about how much I love taking the hard graphics of hazard signs and turning them into soft stitch. This piece reminded me how much that aesthetic appeals to me.

Do Not Flake on Me snugged up to Do Not Enter, 2010.

Yes, it's a snowflake and a prohibition circle. I have come to hate the cold. Living alone for the first time in my life, I negotiated the darkness and chill of my first winter by myself in the world. It was hard. Even though this was a mild winter, I spend far too much time shivering, wrapped up in an electric blanket in my poorly insulated apartment.

My simple sketch.

As I was stitching the piece I wished that the cold, dark nights of winter be gone, both literally and figuratively.  Let it be Spring again and, dare I say it, Summer. Let there be warmth in the air and in my heart. Let there be music and friendship. To much heartbreak in recent years. Let the winter be gone.

Thick red fill stitch surrounded by fine gauged chain stitch.

And it is gone. There is warmth, again. A fragile warmth, but it's building. And the warmth is coming from me. I am making it for myself, with the help of my friends and family. And I am hopeful. 

Stitch-speration at CAM Raleigh

Happily, I have lots of Stitch-speration in my life at the moment.

Wild colors and outlines at CAM's ArtHouse party. O & Andy.

On Friday I attended the uber fun ArtHouse 2012 party at CAM Raleigh, the year-old contemporary art museum in Raleigh. Aside from enjoying myself wildly (chatting with break dancers, pulling on the mustache of an Hunter S. Thompson wannabe, having a custom, airbrushed trucker hat made for me by an artist, speaking to everyone who caught my eye and grooving with my seriously hot squeeze and my girl Juline) I took great pleasure in the artwork they had on display as part of a silent auction fundraiser.

Many artists were represented, but if I had to describe a particular commonality between the artwork, I'd say it was heavy on hard lines, colors and graphics. And images like that are particularly inspiring to me... I want to turn the hard edges of designs into soft, wonky stitches onto fabric.

Tehran Techno by Behrouz Hariri, 2012

I was giddily surprised that I won the sole auction that I bid on, taking home this wonderful print called "Tehran Techno" by Toronto-based artist Behrouz Hariri. It is simply amazing to have this in my house to inspire me!

Detail from Do Not Flake on Me, 2012. Soft stitching on hard edges.

Finishing up my swap piece for the Phat Quarter Spring swap. ALMOST done. Just need to finish a ring of fine chain stitch, wash the piece and hoop it.

As usual, I have too many ideas for next projects. Oy!

Do Not Flake On Me (Pretty Please) WIP

Working (ever so slowly) on a new "Do Not" embroidery. 

I like to sit on my bed and stitch.

This is a created design, not an actual, real life "Prohibited" symbol. I combined the classic red prohibition symbol -- rendered in the red, glossy, thick, brick-like back stitch that I love -- with a slick snowflake design that I found and altered from an out-of-print Japanese graphics book given to me by my fiber arts friend, Naomi, who we call "yarn whisperer." 

Little Hans, 2011. An altered prohibition sign.  (It is actually a call to wear a face mask in the lab, but I changed it into a riot cop siluette.)

I like altering and changing the meaning of hazard symbols. I also like stitching them as is.

All in six-strand DMC 321 and 310 on white Kona cotton.

This is for the Phat Quarter Swap on the MrXStitch. The theme of the swap was Spring. And as I was sketching for this piece it kind of morphed into something new... a warning symbol NOT to flake on me. I'm done with flakey people.

Detail of brick back stitch.

The piece is for talented Lisa, who promised not to look at my blog while this is a WIP so that she can have a surprise when it arrives at her little studio in Northern California.

Now, off to the corporate salt mines.

Girl Thunder Takes DC!

Meet America's latest superhero... Girl Thunder!!! 

Girl Thunder at the U.S. Capitol.

Girl Thunder waiting for her beer.

Stitched up this thunder bolt cami to match a gift I made my squeeze and I could not love it more. I feel like a superhero when I wear it.

Silver chain stitch surrounded by red pearl cotton 5.

I can't imagine having more fun this weekend than I did with my uber cool art girlfriend Juline! I tagged along with her while she attended a workshop at the Hirshhorn Museum. (Juline is one of the smartest, wittiest and talented working artists I know.) I gorged myself at the art museums in DC. So much stitch-speration to be found!

Out the back window of the Carolinian on Amtrack.

We road the rails from Durham, which I highly recommend. 

DuPont Circle is a dramatic little Metro stop.

The freedom of walking around the city with Juline, stopping at any art exhibition that caught our eyes...it was inspiring and energizing.

Synecdoche, Byron Kim, 1991-Present

Juline showed me some her favorites contemporary and modern pieces at the National Gallery of Art. We hung out with the Calder sculptures. (Don't forget to see the Calder exhibition at the Nasher!)

We were both taken by the Byron Kim's Synecdoch, 1991 - Present, which features the flesh shades of a variety of people on panels and arranged in grids. The hues are so varied and delicate. Juline and I both love grids and codes, and the affect of seeing skin tones lined up like this is breathtaking.

Right now I'm working on a swap piece for the Phat Quarter Spring Swap. And I have about thirty other ideas, sketches and projects stewing.

In the light tube moving walkway at the National Gallery.

Having people like Juline in my life is a gift. She inspires me with her own mind and creations and also with the creativity of others that she exposes me to.

Big thunderbolt.

 Go Girl Thunder!

Happy Girl Thunder!