rain and sun and rain again

this is what the world looks like after it has been raining all night! how do I know it was raining I woke up at three (due to coughing husband) and lay wide awake, mind wandering to good-for-nothing-places like: we really need to fix that leaky gutter and rake the leaves to save the grass, but honestly there's not a lot one can do about it in the middle of the night with the skies falling down upon one, so I forced myself to stop thinking these thoughts and as self is also suffering from a severe cold, snotty-nosed and puffy-eyed I found my way down to the kitchen and made self a cup of tea, went back to bed and settled in with an old detective(a Lovejoy if you must know) and sipping hot tea from the mug I felt very snug and content listening to the soothing pit-pat-pit of endless rain above and occasional rumble 'chrghssshhhh' from said husband by my side; eventually I did fall asleep so I cannot be entirely sure it rained all night; I woke up again at 9:30 (bliss) to a beautifully sunny clear day, jumped out of bed, well sort of, had breakfast and off I went into the woods for a walk:

refreshed and more or less clear headed I was ready for the studio

the two pieces on the left are done, the light's not brilliant I'm afraid; notice the lace along the top of left piece from Julie's! as is the circle on the right one (not yet finished)

below details with the light shining upon and through

 

experimenting with printing onto Julie's lace, promising....

not so promising: yet again more rain

mutterings

 'sommerhus' finally finished, small blue and green specks of colour from Julie's fabrics

 what if I didn't hang the cloth straight i.e. from two corner points, but left it dangling like so:

yes!

 looking through this one held up against the light: eyes looking back at me

below is the whole piece:

'hare hiding under a black moon'

(22 pieces done for the exhibit)

fun post

(fond sigh, my favorite labs)

yesterday afternoon a large package addressed to me arrived in my absence (I was in the office all day) delivered by the post (wo)man on our doormat; our youngest son was at home during that period and paid no attention whatsoever to the sound of the frontdoor being opened and closed: he assumed it was his older brother returning home! My husband found the package on his entrance and handed it over to me as soon as I got home. A parcel from the inimitable Julie (I wholly recommend paying her blog a visit for many reasons, one of them being her incredibly amusing story telling) a parcel full of goodies: the India Flint eco dye book and another one on how to go about harvesting the dye ingredients, colourful fabrics, many kind words, the postcard above by Stephen Huneck  

.....this exquisite fabric, I have an idea what to do with it Julie!!

I'm definitely going to get a piece done with this fabric for the exhibition this January, the dyeing experiments will follow afterwards as soon as the exhibit is one it's way and I have more time on my hands...I can hardly wait.

.....jelly beans for the boys;-)

it was a wonderful home-coming, my birthday and christmas wrapped into one, thank you so much Julie

and because it is a fun post I add these pics: last Sunday I was in den Bosch with my mum and sister, where we visited the Stedelijk Museum and I noticed these rings: not very practical to wear but a lot of fun!

and on our way back to the train station we saw these in a shop window: hey wouldn't it be fun to make these with a bunch of kids in a workshop?! I especially like the mohawk hairdo in the middle

another walk by myself this morning, I am getting used to them; there were two guys training their black and yellow labs in the woods: it was fun seeing them in action
and as I walked further pangs of sorrow mixed with fond memories of walks with Tungsten, seeing the bright yellow leaves, hearing the leaves dropping plickety-plock on the carpet of leaves, I felt happy

almost wordless

I call this one 'prayer' because that is what it is

kitchen table full of impressions

 the light this morning is overwhelmingly bright and as picture-making proved near impossible, I questioned what it was I was trying to achieve: a close-as-possible-likeness-to-the-real-thing and realised this is probably never going to happen with my phone/camera so why not go with the flow and takes pics of the pieces as they appear to be in this particular light, forget about what you think they 'really' look like, because that changes anyhow as the (lack of) light plays such a large part in the pieces, why not let the tricks of the light have a deliberate part and also don't bother with getting them right side up or only bits and not even knowing to what piece which bit belongs

detail front

sewing a single strand of embroidery thread through the grid lines that are part of this particular fabric, a backing

detail, back of top piece, again single strands adding up to a fine grid

summer piece

detail, double and single strands of embroidery thread filling in blocks of the grid

table

(())

'(self)reflection(s)' done! that makes 15 pieces for the exhibit; I decided to add a backing to give it more body and tiny bits of colour with the red thread, symbolic in a way for mourning, I'm not fully comfortable using red; most of the stitching is done with a single strand of embroidery thread, it seemed more sensitive, less 'heavy' 

held up against the light

back, light shining thru

and again in a different light

walking and stitching alone

 first walk alone in the woods without Tungsten, it was hard

 indoors a lot of small stitches on small cloths

this is number 14 title 'looking through'/doorkijkje'