Category: Art

I just got the spiral looking the way I want it to.  A gradual spiraling in (After many attempts I realized I had to start from the outside and work my way to the center not the other way around) the lines getting closer as the spiral got smaller.

I pinned it on to the back and began basting the silk stands down when my phone rang.  Something is wrong with Jon’s iPhone.  Bad enough that we need to go to the Apple store in Albany  an hour from the farm to get it fixed.

That leaves me an  hour to get my work done.  Because I know when we get  back it will be late and I’m going to be too tired to do much of anything.

So the basting and finish sewing of my earth energy spiral will have to wait.

But I’m glad I got the work done on my Meditation Tree that I did today.  It feels like it’s all falling into place.

I finished sewing on my flower tassels.  They helped give shape to the tree top, then I did more painting on the  old hand quilted stitches to bring out the patterns they create in the branches and around the trunk of the tree.

I know now that I’ll be doing more painting above and below the tree too.

I’ll be looking forward to working on it again tomorrow.

The sewed some of the flowers on my Meditation Tree today.   Little tassels like flowers on a sugar maple before the leaves are full.  I made mine from embroidery thread. There are still more to do, but I figured out how to tie them and cut them to size.

Flowers full of potential, because meditation is a practice, not a destination.

I finished up my day in the studio by mopping my floor.  And it needed it.

I take off my shoes and put on my slippers when I go into my studio.  But even with that and the rug by the door, mud travels this time of year.

But before I even got into my studio, I figured out what my Meditation Tree needed in its branches.

I was actually in the yard picking up after the dogs this morning when it came to me.  My Meditation Tree is budding, not in full bloom.  It’s about potential, not being there.  Meditation is a practice, and my tree wants to reflect that.

What came to mind is the flowers, that always look like tassels to me,  which sprout from the sugar maples that surround my studio.

So when I got to work this morning, the first thing I did was go through my thread and embroidery floss to see what would make the best tassels for my tree.  I decided on a gold embroidery floss.

Then I moved on to working with the remainder of my Moth Fabric. I’d used all the butterflies in last weeks potholders, but there were still  a few moths and some flowers.

I’m also tea staining some pieces of muslin and will make five more small  Meditation Tree wall hangings next week.

And on Monday, when I go back to my studio, it will be nice and clean.

I found the neck of the broken bottle under Ed Gulley’s wind chime.  Before the snow today an early flower was leafing under it. When I went to look at it I found the broken bottle.  So I tied it onto my Blue Bailing Twine.

After that I tied on the bone.  I found it in the woods a few days ago, hollow as a pipe.

It seemed too big to hang like I did the other bone, so I attached it to the gate post instead.

How I struggled with my Meditation Tree yesterday.

I tied strips of fabric into knots and sewed them on.  I was halfway done, and it wasn’t right.  The knots were heavy and dense.  The weight of them daunting.

I only felt better when at the end of the day, I cut all my stitches and the leaves fell to my studio floor.

But what to do instead kept me up last night. I finally fell asleep with the help of a relaxation meditation from the Calm App.

It helped me to keep a clear mind even when I woke in the morning and went to my studio.

It didn’t take me long to see that my tree wanted branches not leaves. I pinned on the fabric and on the first try it was just the right size and created just the right shape.

I spent the day sewing the branches down.

When I was done I pulled out the strips of silk that I’ll use for the earth energy spiral.  I pinned it under the tree, but I’m still playing with the size and placement.

I have a feeling that once that is sewn down, I have a better idea of what to do next around the branches of the tree.

I’ll be dropping off my latest batch of potholders in the mail this morning.  Suns, scraps, moths and butterflies.  They are all sold.

Theresa ordered a Heron Magnet with hers.  “Hard to believe it was the one magnet I didn’t have.” she wrote me.  And Gail left a message saying “I want people close to me get a little piece of your art.”

I see the reviews many of you leave in my Etsy Shop.  I’ve never figured out how to respond to them.  It’s one of those things that continues to stump me. But I like reading them and appreciate each one.

Everyone gets a Raven postcard or Zip notecard with their order.  And I just got some stickers with that photo I put up on my blog a while ago of the laundry in my washing machine.  It’s just a little thing about 2″ round but it looks like a whole other world to me.  I put that or a sticker of “My Truth Has Wings” on the outside of the package.

Jon and I joke about my shipping station.  He imagines it growing with employees packing up my work and sending it off.  But I’ll never be able to make so much work that I can’t ship it myself.  I can’t create that quickly.

So for me it’s my printer and labels,  mailers and boxes, cards and stickers, tape and markers, in the empty but busy bedroom upstairs in the farm house.

That’s the hand stitched quilting on the back of my Meditation Tree that I am painting in the photo above.  The paint will bleed through the stitches onto the front of the piece.  The paint is a suggestion,  spotty and inconsistent.  But the pattern of the hand stitching is undeniable.

The paint adds color and deepens the texture of the backing.

But before I started painting, I experimented with making leaves for the tree.

I figured this out, with the fabric and all while I lay awake one night, not able to sleep.  I was a bit surprised that I liked the way it looked when I actually tied the fabric in knots and sewed a few on.

Often when I come up with an idea in the night it doesn’t work in the daylight.

You can see the paint beginning to seep through to the front of the quilt in the photo above. Much of it will probably be covered up by the leaves, but it will still add another layer to the piece.

I still have lots more leaves to knot and sew on. I’m thinking of adding some beads or buttons to the tree top too, but I’ll see how that works as I go.

I did find the perfect fabric for the Earth Energy Spiral.  A ball of strips of silk tied together.  It is made of colors similar to the  variegated thread I used on my small Meditation Tree wall hangings.