a rose is a rose is a rose

This STITCH CLUB week went by

working on a piece for the workshop of 

Sue Stone

The strip-weaving was well known to me

because that was in one of Jude Hill's classes

and gladly I used that more then once

so no problems there.

You could definitely say that Sue

is a portrait specialist,

so on her strip-woven piece she made a portrait.

I thought about that

collected coloured strips 

(which are there in abundance)

.....

but didn't come up with a good idea

WHO

I would want for a portrait

(or too many idea's perhaps)

So I collected a second bit of (different) coloured fabrics

and wove my background.

The idea of the rose was of course there before I chose the pinks,

the rose itself I sketched from a rose on the "web"

Thin paper to stitch through

and three dark enough pearl cottons

that would stand out against the sweet pinks.

Those cottons, thát was one of my mistakes :

my hand (arthritis) ached soon

because of the three layers of my weave !

Here everything looked still all right

(removing the tissue paper gave me the déja vu

of a shredded paper hanky from the washing machine !!!) 

 And I thought the result was a disaster :

the rose simply disappeared !

(I posted it in the group anyway,

if only to show that most of the time you have to try

many times before something good emerges !)

I left it alone for a day or so

and thought about unpicking, stitch or even paint ...

Then

 back to the stitching

(with stranded cotton floss !!!)

and the rose came back to me !

comfort

In these strange times

stitching has been slow

(or in fact nearly non-existing)

But last Monday

I finally got hold of someone dear I had almost lost sight of

and her situation urged me to stitch a piece for her.

Consolation,

and lots of happy memories

of a long friendship.

Today I was able to bring her the finished piece.

tears and laughter

(through the window)

Two sides : the dotted fabric 2 cm bigger

so it is a binding for the other side

textile biennial Rijswijk 2017

Just in time

(because the exhibition is only till next Sunday)

we, Man, daughter and me,

went to Rijswijk today.

(just click on the video to get an impression of it all ...

or go there next week ! )

I knew this fifth textile biennial was a great show,

but we just didn't find the opportunity ...

until today !

24 international fibre artists are showing their work.

In an exhibition like this there are always a few

you don't quite like,

but there were some amazing art works !!!

"Dementia darning"  by Jenni Dutton

(for us the most impressive set of works)

Susanna Bauer

Jon Eric Riis

(tapestry and beads)

Kate Just

Ji Seon Yoon

Alice Kettle 

Murat Yildiz

Maryam Ashkanian

June Lee

Sophia Narrett

Agnès Sébyleau

Tamar Manon

Janaina Mello Landini

It was a true joy !

tending to solstice

Although it's still a few days

Summer Solstice

isn't very far away.

I thought that was as good a reason as any other

to start another little stitched piece.

What better way to start than 

a bit of weaving.

Yes, I admit that Jude still has this influence on me ...

(and I think I'll never lose that :

don't want to either  ;-) !)

Then came , as always,

the invisible basting to the backing

And "here comes the sun"

Lots more to be done

;-)

... and the next

There were a lot of tiny stitches done

these last few days

...

In fact it was going so smoothly 

I was done before I knew it

Here only the left hand upper corner and the right hand lower corner ...

(with a bit of magic thread showing)

and signed at the back ...

(I'll show the whole picture when I know it arrived safely

it should be a bit of a surprise)

... and on to the next !

weaving, pinning and basting down the tiny parts

It may seem like an automatism, but it isn't

(it's the flow)

just slowly going

It's so much fun

to go through my little plastic box

with the tiniest scraps I have

to see if they fit into the new little quilt.

This sun might Jacky recognize, she once send it to me

A Kaffe Fassett scrap I also used on my Night Wings jacket

(Oh my, I will have to start something else real soon :

blogaversary coming up !!!)

Though today wasn't only for stitching :

daughter came over and I helped her a bit 

preparing a template for some "window painting"

she promised to do in the school.

(ha : the next generation goes painting, though maybe I'll go help her, it's fun !)

And finally I múst show you this :

the shawlette with beads daughter was working on

during our holidays is finished !

Her first ever spun wool !

(I have some of the same yarn in my stash !!!)

;-)

lovely people

Last sunday we had some lovely people in our house

to celebrate Man's birthday

(yeah : 17 ... sort of ...)

One of the visitors was wearing

this nice real Peru hat

CUTE !

*

The b i g piece I'm working on

will have lots and lots of pieces of fabric that have a special meaning to me,

(I think that's one of the fun parts of it)

Some of these snippets

have come from lovely people who live far away.

 A lot of them I've had for some time already

and they were "patiently waiting" till I found some good use for them :

so Sus, Connie, Jacky, Heike, Eva, Jude ...

somewhere there will be a special place for a lot of your pieces. 

I'm working on the "moon and stars"side now

(that will be the reverse of the "butterflies")

Thére was the perfect spot for some very dear

MEGAMENDUNG

It's amazing how well the dark red background of the megamendung

fits in with the ikat fabric !

Today I did some tea-dyeing to take off the "bright white"

of some pieces and I wove a few strips in them.

Now they fit in with two little "Judes"

These parts will probably became corner pieces somewhere 

The next fun part is the stitching of course

Mmmmm stitching !