Seventy Days to 70

I have a milestone birthday coming up soon, number 70! Five years ago I started my daily stitching journey with "Sixty five days to 65". This time I knew I wanted to do something daily for the days leading up to my birthday, but not something that I ordinarily do. A few years ago a friend gave me a box of 200 milk filters, they are about 4 1/2" in diameter and feel like a heavy non woven interfacing.

They have been sitting around mostly unused just like many of my art supplies, so the plan is to use them and other stuff I have. My rules for this are; do one daily and use something I already have to change it. I've made a list of things to do, there's about 30 things on the list so there may be some repeated techniques, but no two will be alike. I have no expectations of creating a finished product from these, they are going into a basket as I make them. I just want to experiment and see what I can do. The first seven are done.

 #1 stapled, soaked in vinegar and left to dry over night

 #2 leftover printed TAP (transfer artist paper) from the weekly leaf

 #3 embossing fluid stamped with old type and embossing powder added

#4 leftover fusible scraps

#5 leftover dye soaked paper towel, hand stitching

 

 #6 painted with excess paint on a brayer then beaded

#7drawing with charcoal pencil, colored with pastels

It's been fun so far, I'm sure as I go along it will get a bit more challenging, which is a good thing I'm hoping it is enough to push me into doing something new.

Weekly Stitching

week #2 of the white on black set

Daily Stitching updates

Shades of Orange #296-#302

2017 Daily

I'm finding this one different from my usual. The others were individual squares so I do some stitching on it and I'm done. This one being one piece leaves me with no stopping point, so I find myself stitching more and longer than I normally do. I also find myself picking it up and adding more to it during the day, I want to keep working on it. Also since the fabric was printed very haphazardly not intentionally at all I keep studying it to see how I'm going to turn it into a cohesive whole. So far I'm working on one corner.

Later in the week I'll be linking up to "Off the Wall Friday" and "Slow Sunday Stitching"

2016 Daily Stitching done and more changes

Gelli Prints

2016 daily stitching

68"wx72"l 

Gelli Prints are done and all stitched together. Here are the last five.

These were really fun to do, I love using my Gelli plates. But as much fun as they were to do I'm now stuck with another large piece that has to be stored. This makes the ninth daily piece, they can all be seen here. There's also all the weekly pieces, rolled and stored, so there are going to be changes! I love doing my daily and weekly stitching and right now can't imagine not doing it. Things are evolving so I'll still be stitching but not ending up with large pieces that I'm running out of space to store (what else can I do with them?). I had originally planned to do "the Blues" to use up some of my indigo and blueprinted fabric, but had never gotten them ready. I knew it was time for a change, five years is a long time to work in the same format.

2017 Daily Stitching

While printing the last half of my gelli prints for last years work I printed off the excess on the stamps and plates to a long strip of fabric(11"x75") that was hanging out in the Studio. There was no plan I was just using what was already on the stamp.

I've been looking at it thinking something could be done with it. On Facebook I saw something quite unrelated but close enough to spark an idea. The post showed the work of Hanna Claire Somerville, who had filled an embroidery hoop with stitches over the course of a year. It can be seen on Instagram as 1yearofstitches.  It was enough to get me thinking about stitching this piece of fabric, but I also knew that this piece was too big to fit my criteria for a daily project because it has to travel well.  It has been ripped into eleven inch square pieces and a ten inch square of white felt has been fused to the back. I don't like to use a hoop and the felt gives the fabric the stability to not pucker.

The plan is to fill it with stitches, instead of doing a 4" square every day I'll spend some time stitching on this. Day#1

Day#2

I will probably take one photo a week instead of daily, but I will stitch daily. I have no idea how long it will take to cover the fabric with stitches, but when it's done I have more to move on to. The best part is that it will only be a 10" square when it's done and will be much easier to store and also a better size to display. 

Weekly Stitching

Last post I was still undecided as to where I was going with the Five Universal Shapes. Decisions have been made. First; it will not end up as one big piece, but 52 smaller ones. Second; it will change every five weeks. The first group of five will be white stitching on a black background with bound edges. I have started a list for the other nine groups of five and will make my decisions when the time comes. Third; keep the size consistent at six inch squares.

Week #1

Shades of Orange - #289-295, I still have some time left on this one.

Next week I'll tell you about another new project. I started my daily stitching five years ago with "Sixty five days to 65" well 70 is getting close and it is calling for it's own project and I'm using the contents of this box.

I spent some time organizing some of my threads, the weekly leaf had it's own box before, now most of them are together.

thread from the weekly leaf

threads used in gelli prints

The start of organization

I will be linking up with "Off the Wall Friday" and "Slow Sunday Stitching"

Weekly Leaf, Year #3 Done and changes on the way

The last of my Weekly Leaves is done, attached to the others and waiting for me to fuse the whole thing to another piece of felt.

I'm taking a break from leaves, after three years I still love leaves but I need to move on and do something new. You can see all the leaves form this and previous years by using the tabs up in the header.

The Weekly Leaf

I used another one of my new stencils, the large one in the picture below.

Week #52

I need to shake things up and get the feeling of uncertainty back. I know that I still want to do a weekly project, I'd really miss having something by my chair in the evenings to stitch. I do have a couple of knitting projects and a stack of books but I need stitching also. Normally by this date I have the next years project ready to go, fabrics ready, colors decided upon, anxious for the start. Not this year!

I do have a half baked plan in my head, but nothing ready to go. Over twenty years ago I was introduced to the book Signs Of Life:The Five Universal Shapes and How to Use Them, by Angeles Arrien. What captivated me then and still does is what she calls the preferential shapes test. The five universal shapes are the circle, square, triangle, equidistant cross and the spiral. Over the past twenty plus years my preference for the shapes has changed, this year more dramatically than before. There is a meaning in the order that you prefer the shapes, it's all covered in the book and too complex for me to explain.

My plan? do something weekly with each of these shapes, starting with the square. I will probably keep the size around six inches square, but will probably not sew them all together like I have with my past four years worth of weeklies. I just don't know what I'll do, but I'll jump in and start to see what happens.

Daily Stitching updates, there will be changes coming here also, I'll fill you in next week.

Gelli Prints #355-361, only 5 to go.

Shades of orange #282-288

I'm linking to "Off the Wall Friday" and "Slow Sunday Stitching "