Vincent's words in my head

 I must continue to follow the path I take now.

 If I do nothing, if I study nothing,

 If I cease searching, then, woe is me.

 I am lost.

That is how I look at it -- keep going.

Keep going come what may.

 But what is your final goal, you may ask.

That goal will become clearer, will emerge slowly but surely,
much as the rough draft turns into a sketch,

 and the sketch into a painting through the serious work done on it,

 through the elaboration of the original vague idea

 and through the consolidation of the first fleeting and passing thought.

Vincent Van Gogh said these things.

what if you dreamed?

what if you slept?
and what if, in your sleep, you dreamed?

and what if, in your dream, you went to heaven and plucked a strange and beautiful flower?

and what if, when you awoke

you had the flower in your hand?
ah, what then?

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

images are of the back of this piece   

the private side

I pinned the daily practice wall pieces up on the design wall.
These are daily collages that I stitched on every day between January 1 and April 7 2018
In the first one, I tried to make collages about observations and intuitions.  (Super Moon an example)
In the second one, I used abandoned work, attempting to give new life to some cyanotypes.
In the third one, I just recorded the passage of time and the containment of love.

Then I flipped them back to front...and wow.

They stir my emotions more.
I wonder why.

the reverse of these pieces are simpler than the front
minimal colour
naked maybe, yet marked with those black dotted lines
they are sensuous
private

there's a serenity to them
maybe they are more spiritual
more connected to something ineffable

 the materials are wool felt and wool thread

they remind me of the sweet grass baskets stitched with black thread that I collect here on Manitoulin
made by the indiginous crafts women
this scented grass remains so sweet even when it drys from green to a golden colour.

I began collecting these small and simple lidded baskets when we moved here 25 years ago
this one holds some pieces of mica, gifts from nature

the three wall pieces also remind me of mbuti bark cloth from the congo in africa

click here for more examples of bark cloth

To make the daily practices, I stitched arrangements of plant dyed velevt to the felt

always designing from the front of the piece.

yet I prefer the back sides.

The inner side.
the inner world.

The front is too distracting and noisy.

we've been thinking about being alive for thousands of years 

Jessica Stockholder

Her Interior Wilderness

Over the weekend I went out on the deck and stitched this piece,
enjoying the spring sunshine.

I outlined white petal shapes with black wool thread, added french knots here and there.
Stitching on paper is a slow way to make marks that appear to be spontaneous.
I thought these looked pretty free and easy,
until I looked at the reverse side.

Here it did look care-free. Intuitive.  WOW

I prefer this 'wrong' side.
I wonder if this is a metaphor for how we prefer our life to be like?
Sensuous and unplanned, barely contained.
Just going. Doing.  and it is beautiful.

I continued to work from the pretty side.  I like the pretty side.
But I love the messy side.

Her Interior Wilderness

That's the kind of day it was.
Sparkling.
The eyes of the spirits winking off the water.
Richard Wagamese

stitching in car

 We're just back from a road trip down to Chicago and back.  I stitched all the way.

international bridge Saulte Ste. Marie Ontario and Michigan

 I love road trips with my husband.

I worked on two pieces, both stitched circles within squares.  In the darker piece, I put a narrow binding on the edges.

Mackinac Suspension Bridge that connects the upper and lower penninsulas of Michigan

We had good driving weather..

I am couching strips of sari silk to a golden coloured circle.
Not sure yet if it represents the sun or the moon.

the Chicago Skyway bridge

 The reason for our trip to Chicago was to help our daughter move from her apartment.

bisque procelain with indigo by April Martin

 I was pleased to be assigned the task of wrapping her ceramics and small sculptures.

oxidized copper ribbon sculpture by April Martin

 It was lovely to finally have such a good look at her work and to touch it.

 We brought her across the border as far as Toronto.

 The base fabric for the yellow circle is a plant dyed wool.  I love the reverse side.

rock cuts Northern Ontario

Ned and I spent a bit of time in Toronto before driving north again.  We had a visit with our two young grand daughters. It was nice to be thrown out of our routine and feel so useful.

a good marriage is one in which each partner appoints the other to be the guardian of his solitude, and thus they show each other the greatest possible trust.....this gives them the possibility of always seeing each other as a whole and before an immense sky
Rainer Maria Rilke

Time

Sometimes, I ask myself, do I feel that time is LOST when I use so much of it to stitch?  Or, do I think that time is saved?  Answer:  When I am lucky enough to spend an entire day with stitching, I never feel that time has been lost.

Time is my main material.

Shown: the back of Cross My Heart when I just started it.  The front is a grid of overdyed linen squares layered on a piece of dyed velvet.
I remember debating about which side I preferred.   The finished front here.