Stitching is still in the picture, despite all the drawing and painting frenzy..

Working on the second of the Golden series (the first has all those Dorset buttons and the fish still patiently waiting for me to make up my mind about placement) and using another part of that linen I dyed with turmeric, and shibori-wrapped.

This piece will be framed or stretched as a standalone piece, and this is just the start of the idea.  The central raised ridge was stitched over a cord, and others directly onto the linen.  There will probably be more goldwork. You see that the motif is set between "pillars" of white shapes.  I think the darker areas will vanish into the stretching, though, not part of this design.  There will probably be a third in the Golden series, yet to be thought about, though the fabric is lying there ready.

These are works I can do out of the studio, since it's too hot up there right now, even with the roof fan running and the ac doing its best to get up to the third floor without much success.  That's where the cardweaving set up is, in case you wondered if I'd forgotten about it.  Noooo, but it has to wait for the weather to abate.

I did a bit of painting this morning before it got too hot, and was only mildly happy with the results, but painting goes that way -- one day stronger, one day not -- but it's good to be back in it again anyway. 

 Sedum against cedar fence

 Parts of flowers and foliage transposed into a container, but in fact growing on the patio.  The parts of both paintings that I like are the movement in them very lively as if in a wind.  Which they were at the time, in fact.  I did these with a one inch sponge brush, with two colors on the brush at once here and there, and I used the shape to create the leaves, you know, that twist of the wrist.  There was another which had only one decent passage in it, so I've cut it down and now it's a bookmark. Upcycling forever!

I like movement in art, and like to get it into my stitching, too, though that's done more subtly.  I don't like a static sort of presentation.


And I have thoughts about how to make the #drawingaugust series into a book which will allow me to remove and frame some as needed.   The current heatwave, keeping me largely in or near home, has opened up these trains of thought, so there's a good side to it.