Here it is, finally completed. It looks like I was imagining it – with the help of some permanent markers and coloured pencils I was able to sharpen the men’s faces and clothing just a bit.

Morning Conversation

In the end, I created/modified embroidery stitches on my machine to provide a bit of texture to the hanging plant behind the men and on the bush peeking in front of the sign on the left. The thread painting in this piece had more to do with creating definition rather than filling in areas as it was with the tropical flowers. Nevertheless, it took quite a bit of time deciding just what should be stitched, what colour thread, what stitch size (I ended up using a 1.5mm straight stitch for much of the stitching)… And all within the limitation of being able to stitch just once!

The hand gesture is still obvious, the second man looks attentive, and the shop fronts turned out quite well – so even though I gave up trying to create reflections in the shop windows they have turned out quite well.

I found the framing fabric in my stash – from the Northcott Medici collection I used in the large medallion quilt. The dark fabric makes the sunshine and highlights stand out.

I began working on this piece February 4 – it’s taken me just over 2 months to complete it – a lot of contemplating time involved here trying to figure out how to simplify the image and create the street scene to showcase the men.

Morning Coversation

This is piece #5 for the Parrsboro show – I need still another 5-6 wall art pieces of some sort. My self-portrait on a fall day is up next – I’m still not sure how to texture the background on that piece but I’m sure something will come to me.

Halifax Harbour II

Another textile art piece finished. The second version of the city of Halifax floating above the fog as seen from the Dartmouth shore. In this one, there is more of a sense of the fog shrouding the city.

In this piece I let the photography speak more than I have in previous works. I thought the overall movement of the clouds and the sea/sky balance worked as it was so I didn’t cut this image printed on fabric into smaller elements to situate them within an appliqué background. This image, with a small amount of thread painting stands alone.

I’ve come up with another pair of images that I’m going to compile into a piece. These photos were taken in the fall of 2007 when David Lacey (a NS landscape painter) and I were spending a day taking landscape pictures.

Fall Day 2007

David took the photo of me not on this particular country road but on another close by. What draws me to this roadway is its gentle curving from mid-left to bottom right and the sun/shadow balance and the farmland in the distance. David’s photo of me, taking care to position it correctly, will make the sun on my back fit into the shadows in this landscape. I don’t know yet to what extent I will use the background photo printed on fabric or whether I will piece the background. More and more my photography seems to want to speak out.

I didn’t expect to finish this piece so quickly!

I sat down to do some thread painting this morning, and before I knew it the stitching felt completed. I chose not to stitch the boundaries of the fog, or within it, because the fog is a diffuse blanketing of the land/water interface – I wanted to retain its fuzziness. I also decided not to stitch the skyline because I didn’t think I could capture the tiny differences in building height even if I used a 1mm stitch length – I left it alone.

Halifax Harbour In The fog

I added a signature, and a wide outer border/frame. Finishing up these pieces takes more time than I expect – hand stitching the mitred border corners, adding the hidden binding and stitching it in place all takes quite a bit of time and painstaking hand stitching.

I’m going to attempt another version of the city enshrouded in fog – in this second photo taken a few minutes before the one I used as inspiration for the piece above, the city peeking above the fog is more pronounced, the clouds are more defined, as is the fog the Halifax side of the harbour and I like the sea/sky balance better.

Halifax Harbour 2010

This time I may not cut the printed image apart, but instead try to do something with the photo as it is – my inner photographer thinks this image might not want any thread painting and maybe even a hidden binding so that what strikes the viewer will be the city barely visible in the fog. Have to think about this some more.