I'm often glad to have the interruption of holidays to be gone... not that some aren't enjoyable just that most are filled with a lot of emotion. Some are really good and some are really hard. All in all though I had a wonderful dinner with a dear friend and a spectacular view of the fireworks celebrating the independence of our country... a wonderful summer , barbecue, fresh veggie, good conversation, day to say the least.
Since there has been this major shift in my mood I have found myself flooded with ideas of creation and the need to really focus on how to do what I most need to do. I really have had some very poignant moments lately. I do seem to find that nature just seems to keep me centered and I have been fascinated with taking photos of the creatures that I come across in my own yard. I am sometimes in awe and surprised at the creatures that make their presence known to me .. this was really very special. While doing an exercise outside I discovered this wonderful little red salamander with these bright red spots on his back. I have never in my life seen one of these. When I saw this little guy I was so excited to see him I asked him to stay still please, while I run into the house to get my camera. I know how quickly creatures can scurry off so I hoped he'd still be there when i return ..and as you can see he did stay.. but not for long .. I wasn't able to get a huge number of photos and add to that the light was quickly going away with the setting sun. I got two shots of his whole body and the rest were of only the parts that were exposed. He went under some leaves and I wasn't willing to move anything to make him more visible. I was just delighted to have seen any of him at all. I have been reading a bit about animal totems and symbolism and this one is pretty interesting. I guess with some of the stitching ladies that I follow many are often incorporating symbolism into the stitching which goes well with story cloths and spirit cloths like that of Jude Hill. I feel like I'm finding my own way to tell my story in photos, stitch and any area that I may create in. I'm thinking some of my images will show up in stitching .. I'm loving the idea of a red salamander with red spots in stitch!!!
He was a delight to watch and who knows if I will see him again...I will be happy if I do but either way I'm already happy to have seen him once.
Now for those that know that I follow with stitching I have done some stitching and finally took a few photos. I have been experimenting with the mixture of drawing and stitching and have found some fun ways to use that. One is a little purse that I made for my youngest grand daughter. Her sister got one back in April and so I had to stitch one for her sisters birthday. Here are all the details to that stitching.
The first photo below here is the front of the purse. For the sake of time I machine stitched the purses body and handles but everything else is hand stitched. I did all the stitching on the front first. The little girl I did on the first purse was a little painting on an old piece of paper and that glued onto a piece of denim and then stitched onto the purse. The purse below I wanted to be more permanent and so I drew onto a little shape for a face and then stitched all the facial features and then added more stitching around.
I did a small line stitch for the hair and used the needle and thread just like a pencil.. that was fun!!! Then I did a small piece for the neck and another for the body. I hadn't cut the space under the arms so I filled that in with some patterned stitching. I did thread beads on the shirt and I think a pink satin stitch for the sleeves. The flower i just made an impression of a flower because I figured if i tried to stitch all the petals i would have either made it too big or it wouldn't be noticable as a flower. I basted the skirt on and tried to do a light satin edge on the arms to reinforce the fabric because it seemed to fray as I turned it under. I used several colors but don't think its that obvious.
Then just some whimsical idea that sprang into my head to just put these circles of cloth that seemed to be asking to be places on the belt loop that was already on the piece of denim I chose for the girl. Each loop i stitched something on .. like happy birthday ( i think i ran out of room for the last letter haha) and I Love You on the bottom one and nothing on the middle one. And finally a crudely done "stitched with love, Grandma" on the bottom. I still haven't given it to her yet so I'm still needing to stitch the rest of Grandma and somewhere I will write my grand daughters name.. perhaps that middle ring. Either way .. I was pleased with how this turned out and i know that it is infused my love for her .. to commemorate her second birthday! Now I will have to make other equally fun gifts for my grandsons! So much to do and so little time !!! Thanks for stopping by. !!
