Saturday, January 07, 2012

Northern Drive

Yesterday we drove highway 17 through Mattawa, Deep River, Arnprior, etc down to Kingston where my dad lives. The roads were OK for this trip. Better than when our other three children had to drive them. We were taking April and Andy most of the way to Montreal. They still had a 3 hour bus ride after this ten hour drive. In the car's CD player were the newest Bob Dylan and Van Morrison. CBC radio. Conversation. Tim Horton's coffee. I stitched.

17 comments:

mansuetude said...

Its so wonderful to see the snow.
And the rhythms of tree sky earth in your lovely stitching.

Thank you.

henrietta (aka ani aka zani) said...

your stitching lays open the path for the journey...journal of the day. i just can't get enough of looking at your "cloth journal." might i ask how many strands you use when you couch the strips. i know it's a skein a day but just wondering about the strand count. when you have time, thank you

Diane Kelsey said...

Your stitching looks amazing against the backdrop pictures.

Anonymous said...

this journal of yours is such an amazing reflection of your world and time. do you choose fabrics ahead of time, knowing what your day will hold? thank you for sharing this as it grows.

deanna7trees said...

looking forward to your answers as well. it sure does look like you picked the cloth for the setting. always beautiful things here.

Sweetpea said...

Dunno why, but I just love these posts about stitching in the car - lines on the highway & lines on your cloth. I remember the slushy sounds of driving along snowy roads like that...

Deb Lacativa said...

you are so lucky you can stitch and ride. If my hands are not glued to the wheel, I'm not there. An ear thing causes nausea if I look out the side windows or ride in the back. Reading or stitching..out of the question.

Jacky said...

I love that you always stitch.

Your road trips always produce such wonderful pieces for your cloth journal.

Great music, great company to while away the long hours of travelling. When we travel to Dubbo (where Pauls mum lived) it is a 10 to 11 hour drive too. I quite enjoy the travelling, there is lovely companionship, intimacy travelling with your husband, with your family I think.
Like you I am lucky enough to be able to stitch or read in the car. Love that uninterrupted time.

Much love in 2012 Judy.

Jacky xox

Joe Lewis said...

I like this stuff, looks like a rag rug but isn't,

Joe Lewis said...

i like this stuff,

Velma Bolyard said...

your cloth echos the landscape.
10 hours.
oh my.

Nancy said...

I agree with all here. Also, what is the backing fabric you stitch to? How thick is it? This is so calming.

Karen Thiessen said...

Wishing you travel mercies!

Judy Martin said...

I agree that the fabric in this particular panel of my stitch journal, "not to know, but to go on", matches the landscape we drove through on Friday, Jan 6.

I did not pick the fabric for the drive. I did not know for sure that I would be doing that drive on these dates until about two days before hand. So that was lucky. Synchronistic. The fabric choice.

One thing that is a bit unusual about this fabric choice is that it is the same fabric (a rayon-linen blend that I've had in my stash for about 15 years) for the entire panel - and each panel covers about 13 days. I've started to use larger pieces of cloth rather than scraps lately. I like the look of the thread making a difference rather than anything else.

Readers of this blog will know that during the weeks leading up to Christmas I was very busy with family and was spending any stitching time finishing my grandson's quilt. I mention this here because it meant that I put my stitch journal aside for nearly two weeks. I'm still catching up.

The days illustrated with thread and fabric in this post are December 26 - January 5. And I did most of them on that highway drive. Catching up so that I can return to doing my daily work.

The fact that I put this down for two weeks..makes me worry that I am getting tired of it. I don't want to get tired of it.

I can certainly see how there is no time in a young mother's day to stitch after my daughter visited with her two bouncy boys.

Re: the thread and how many strands. I use the entire skein....and I do not separate the six strands of floss for this project. All six are used.

When I look back over this journal, I will remember this drive from this cloth. Maybe it was meant to be - I go with the flow.

I don't know. I go on.

henrietta (aka ani aka zani) said...

"I can't go on, I must go on" and serendipity bond the work we make I think. Penny over and Tanglewood also speaks of time today. Needing more time. Is it as we get older that we start feeling the pulse of time? Thank you for the response on the thread. I knew it was more then few. The six strands must give it a nice substance. And we do go on. My mom's favorite saying, though she has used it in a while, was, "keep going." She'll be 91 this Saturday.

Brenda Williams said...

The landscape images in this post remind me of vintage images...postcards, lithographs, older books...very "warm" snow pictures, if that makes any sense. And as always, I am in love with the journal.

Paula In Pinetop said...

This piece of stitching you worked on is something I have longed to learn. I have a large box of vintage silk ties and wonder if they would lend themselves to this ?????

Can you recommend an online tutorial, video, etc that I might learn from?????

can you email me at:
pjsnm at q dot com ????