Finished?

I think I have finished this cloth – deciding against background stitching as the figure is stitched directly into the cloth she may well disappear if I add more.   The cloth is hanging at the foot of my bed and I have been looking at it and looking at it for days and days.  A procrastinator at heart I have been trying to make up my mind whether, in fact, this is truly finished.  I feel that if I keep fiddling and adding bits here and there I will lose the essence of what I have already.  To make this into a truly completed work it has yet to have a backing attached and the edges bound, which I will also do by hand.  I have not done so already  because of my lack of a final final decision.   Life may be a spiral, my mind certainly follows that route over and over .

I have added more stems and completed the stream at the base of the cloth – it is there that I am undecided about – should there be more?????

This would be it, in its raw state …. I am delighted to have managed to focus on this for the whole year …. already I have in mind where I am going next, creatively speaking.

Crow Moon

Well, I really didn’t  anticipate that this would take me a month to do but it has.  However crow number two is now flying into the blue moon.   I stitched the crow off-cloth thinking it would be easier and, whilst the actual stitching of the crow was more manageable, the attaching took so long I think working on-cloth in future is the way I shall go.  All good learning!

slightly different view:

I think I have just about finished the pictorial aspects of this cloth, what remains to do are more stems and a lot more stitching/quilting of the cloth itself.    I am hoping I make my self-imposed deadline of the end of the year – I do appear to be on course.

Once we have a dry and non-windy day I shall take a picture of the full cloth as it is now.

A Crow in the Hand ……

is worth ?   Well in this case about two to three weeks work with life etc intervening of course.

I took the sketch from my book and printed it onto cotton, adhered this to the cloth and begun to fill in with stitching.  For the next one, and I am more than sure there will be at least one other crow on this cloth, I shall work it off-cloth and then appliqué – it was very fiddly doing it the way I did as the stitching is so heavy and dense, think that’s why it has taken so long.   This beautify measures 9″ from the tip of her tail feathers to the tip of  her beak. Apologies again for the quality, or lack thereof,  of the pics – have finally realised it is not the camera but the operator with the shakes that creates  the blurs .

and finally, blowing in the wind:

Armed!

She has arms, well to be precise, She has sleeves, but I am sure that within those sleeves there are arms, oh and perhaps much, much more – I am yet to find out.

I have included the next two pictures, because, although they are the same as the above two, the way the sun has fallen across them makes it look, to me anyway, as though there is steam bubbling from the cauldron – rather a nice touch by nature I felt

Cauldron bubbling………

This is turning out to be a truly slow “slow cloth” ….. However, the pure enjoyment and pleasure in the process continues.

The cauldron is now complete:

Some closer views:

Next, more work on the Wild Mother/Baba Yaga/Cailleach herself  .

Cauldron bubbling…….

At last I have had the time and inclination to get started on the cauldron.  I am working this off cloth and will attach it to the whole once all the surface stitching has been done

Step 1:

The backing is calico.  I tie-dyed a small piece of cotton for the central yoni-shaped heart of the cauldron.

Step 2:

Looking through my stash I came across this piece of cotton with all the lovely arches which I thought would work well for the rest of the cauldron, as per my sketch.  However, the colour is definitely not right, much too light and bright – I want earth colours – so:

Step 3:

I mixed up some blue and some yellow procion dyes to get a sludgy green and painted the arches fabric to see what would happen.  It paled somewhat once dry but I am happy enough with it – once stitching has been done to the surface the look  and the colour will change again.

Step 4:

This picture was taken outside and shows the colours a little better.  It is all tacked/basted and now ready for stitching.

There is movement again.

to stir or not to stir……….

Having played with the image of the Wild Mother a little I am not going to give myself any further options as I know what will happen – nothing! I shall get lost in the land of indecision and I am in no mood for stasis.

To stir:

or not :

I am very grateful to the comments, opinions and suggestions I have received – they are helping a lot.  I have never bothered to show process before but am so pleased I have done and am doing so – the rewards are great.  The comments give me more food for thought – take me back to my original premise and allow me to explore options I may not have seen…..thank you.

Behind the scenes

After finishing the initial part of the Wild Mother herself I felt a little stuck.  Much thinking time – then plotting and planning on paper before any further commitment to cloth takes place:

First a sidetrack: playing with crow:

How to proceed:

I think I prefer the standing figure, though some adjustments to the ‘arms’ needs to take place, but this I can do when transferring the idea to the cloth before stitching.   The cauldron I shall work separately and appliqué to the cloth.

Looking at this again now I think I want to explore her pose more fully – try different options – standing definitely – but arms may be extended……don’t know yet.

Wild Mother – complete – for now

I have finished stitching her for now – as I stitched I could see her becoming………

A close-up of the stitching

I really need to borrow a better camera, the one I have distorts the colours and does not do close-ups clearly, even with the zoom.  Still, it does the job for now.

Where I go now I am not sure – I seem to recall there being a white horse involved somewhere – echoes of the Morrigan and Rhiannon perhaps.

Wild Mother Grows

I have finished stitching the stream I think …. I am never quite sure when something is done :

I have returned to the Wild Mother Herself adding to the central figure:

Closer:

Closer still:

I so enjoy the stitching, the act of it, the feel of it, the look of it ……