Stitching in progress

After teaching the freeform embroidery workshop, I urgently needed to get going on some freeform of my own.  This piece is not only stitching, it's also part of the Pairs Project I've been doing, rendering the same content in different art forms.  The companion piece is a transfer image of the original object on cotton lawn.

This one is a monotype, in silver block printing ink, of-- a cabbage leaf!  just inked and used as a plate, then the print taken on another piece of white cotton lawn.  Its resemblance to a spreading tree is one of those lovely echoes in nature, like shells and fungi, and I'm working in a limited color range, with the addition of blending filament, lovely sparkle, to render it as a blossoming tree.  I just began this so there's a large population of stitches waiting to happen here, but I thought I'd let you in on it anyway.

And I just realized that when I made soup this morning from farmshare vegetables in the freezer, squash and cabbage, this is the same cabbage that acted as my model for the artwork! you do know the old joke about why artists paint still life? it's because fruit and veg are cheaper than human models!