It's been hard to find time to do any work on Chapter 12 in recent months. My husband's health has deteriorated and caring for him is a 24 hour a day effort. In a way, this has given me the chance to step back from my Distant Stitch work for a bit and think about what I've done so far and where I want to go from here. The welcome help of carers who come to the house has given me short breaks when stitching is a relief from my cares, a little bit of mindfulness that leaves me refreshed and ready to carry on with my caring duties.
I thought again about the design I chose at first. I liked the fact that it looked like a spiritual symbol whose meaning was known only to me. I was seduced by this thought for a while, but realised that it had gone too far away from the basic theme of this module, which is texture in nature. Perhaps this is a theme I can return to at a future time.
I played around with patterned papers and came up with another design which, I think, gives much more the feeling of the landscape I experienced in walks and which inspired my original research.
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| 5.12.1 New design |
I chose each decorated paper in turn and tried to interpret it in stitch, using a mixture of pure stitch and fabric manipulation. I intend to try several interpretations of each decorated paper, but have started just doing one small one that was immediately suggested to my mind as a way of interpret it in fabric and thread.
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| 5.12.2 |
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| 5.12.3 |
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| 5.12.4 |
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| 5.12.5 |
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| 5.12.6 |
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| 5.12.7 |
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| 5.12.8 |
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| 5,12.9 |
I had been feeling rather dejected at my lack of progress, but when I gathered together the little samples I had done in stolen minutes, I was agreeably surprised at how much I had achieved. I think if I can continue this way of working, then, as well as working slowly through the chapter, I can enjoy a little me-time and a break from the stress of constant caring.
Next step
I think from here, I can continue with the small samples, perhaps trying a looser, less literal interpretation of the patterned papers and trying to achieve more extreme contrasts until I have several stitched versions of each patterned paper. Then I will be ready to consider which and how they fit into my chosen composition.
