This “staying at home” has my brain befuddled. I was able to feel productive while engaged in face mask production but for the past week I have not been able to settle on a new quilting project or wall art project or any garment making. I’ve whiled away my time with puzzles and following news, a minimal amount of cooking, and an occasional walk but I’ve not been getting anything creative done.

Day before yesterday I put the “Black Rocks Beach” piece (started a year ago!) back on my cutting table. Last spring I concatenated three photos to create the one image. In December/January (I can’t remember when, exactly) I’d got as far as laying in the background sky, far shore, the black rocks, the near shore but stopped short of doing any thread painting.

Two days ago I fused small bits of fabric to indicate the movement of the water near the beach. I think today is the day I pull out my boxes of rayon embroidery thread and start working on water and sky.

Black Rocks Beach

David’s figure is fussy cut and ready to go but not fused to the scene yet – the water has to be thread painted before I can put him in place and thread paint his clothing. This is one of those moments where I have to take a deep breath and just start stitching – there will be no going back, no correcting what I’ve done. Here’s where the art form is unforgiving.

Ready – set – go.