Vine napkin, ©2013, Paula KovarikHere's a piece that I have been working on while relaxing at the end of the day. It is stitched onto a linen napkin that my friend Leigh Ann gave me. I love these scalloped napkins as practice sheets. Since I haven't had much time in the studio to work on my machine these hand work pieces give me a sense of accomplishment without risk. No big committment, intimate and easy to finish.
more delay
One of the delights of reorganizing my studio was rediscovering my rocks-with-holes collection. For as long as I can remember I have been a rock collector and one of my favorite varieties are those with holes. It just seems so amazing that something so hard can have naturally occuring holes. It's like a missing piece, or a peephole into the unknown, just a little weakness.
I spent the last part of Sunday afternoon tying some of them to a piece of grape vine from the garden and hanging it in the studio window. Now they twirl and dance too. Proving that even the hardest of us can learn to frolic.
I'm not fooling myself. This little project was just one more way to avoid the big one on the design wall. I am at a frozen spot with it. Looking for a little sunshine before stitching.
re-org
I spent the entire weekend completely reorganizing my studio. What a mess. Each box exploded with choices: to keep or not? to sort or not? to hide forever or not? The good thing about reorganizing is that long lost (and previously organized) items float up to the top again. I found many little experiments that I need to try again, pieces that were shoved into anonymity by frustration, and scraps. Lots of scraps. These selvedges were particularly intriguing to me. Why did I save them? What should I do with them? For now they are up on the design wall along with a set of eyes that I stitched for my long delayed eyeball quilt. I'll show those in another post. For now I want to rush right in to do some work on these newly neatened scraps.
a sticky problem
I found this chestnut on a walk the other day. The texture caught my eye while walking and then upon examination the depth of it inspired me to think about our natural defenses — protecting ourselves, our environment and our sanity. Sometimes I wish I could don a coat of thorns and recede into the wild. Other times I want to shed the thorns and open up to the light. This little natural wonder speaks to both those urges.
Now if I could just remember where that tree was I could go collect a few more of these wonderful nuts and roast a little happiness into this cold cold day.
chestnut
getting to know your ground
Since it usually takes me 4-6 months to create a large piece I have to choose carefully what my ground fabric will be. I am working on a challenge piece that will be 72 x 72 which presents SOME CHALLENGE let me tell you. I have chosen this luscious linen tablecloth as my base. It is supple, worn, stained and wonky and it feels right to me. Love the shadow of the pins in this shot. I may have to do a series on shadows in the future.
