Although I have been working a bit on my latest cloth this afternoon, I've decided not to show any pictures of it this weekend. I have the real camera, but now I can't find the USB cable to download images! So, it's either more crappy pics of flashed out stitches - as taken by the camera on my phone - or nothing. And nothing got the most votes! :)

I'm feeling happier about it as more of the areas are filled with stitches, and now that I've stopped beating myself about the fact that this particular piece seems so slow to develop. I mean, really, couldn't that have something to do with being a mother and a wife, the 70 hour/per week job, and the single strands of DMC thread? Oh yes, and somewhere in amongst all of that, we moved house for the second time in 2 months.

I should say, we moved town house, because of course we live in town during the week, and try to get back to the farm most weekends.

I like this new place. It's simple and functional. It's actually on the outskirts of town and when you open the back door, you see this...























Which is a small portion of this...


















And there are hundreds of Parakeets and the Squirrell monkeys pass through, and it's far more like home according to my interpretation of that word.

Anyway... Friday night, I was standing on the doorstep, staring at the builders rubble outside on the driveway, and this caught my eye...


















And it almost seemed that I had caught it's eye too. And it intrigued me. At first, in the darkeness, I thought it had been carved, but on closer inspection saw that someone had drawn this grapic on the rock with a marker pen.

And I wondered who, and why, and what it had meant to them?

And after that brief philosophical moment, I thought to myself, "I shall steal that simple motif for some future stitching!" ;)

Great!... a brand new month!

Hey, it's a brand new month... anything could happen... infact, you can expect it to! :) And you know what that means don't you... we have a winner for the Giveaway bag! A rather fitting way to celebrate my 100th post!



















No, Eliza is not helping herself to snacks, she's drawing the winning name (you know me, nothing fancy... stick all the names in an old snack box!)

And the winner is .....















Sandi Manning of Puddle Duck Farm blog. Congratulations Sandi, please E-mail me your postal address, and I'll pop Tulip Bell in the post to you shortly :)

I had a busy weekend, thinking and writing, and generally being pestered by my men folk. Nilo is better though, and has returned to school this morning, a little forlorn and crumpled around the edges.

I am closing my eyes to the fact that my house looks like this from top to bottom...



















There's Reinaldo - botanist, photographer, garden-hand, and carpenter extraordinaîre - cutting "machimbrada" (tongue and groove) planks for the new floor of the front corner of the house.



















We are botchers, in the traditional sense of the word. We make what we can with what we've got, or what we can afford at the time. The floor of my house looks like this (see above) as the boards were layed in a hurry, and the wood was still a little green, and what happened?... It shrank! Which means that, in some places, there are 2 inch gaps between the boards. Which, actually, has been very useful in terms of sweeping. Well, I like to look on the positive side ;} Anyway, we finally decided it was time to clear out the old office and lay a nicer floor (on top the old one) and have a quiet time space. This is how it's looking now...



















Ok, so we need to paint the inside of the walls, But, this is luxory to us! We're planning to get a nice little two-seater bamboo sofa in there, so we can read and stitch in the house of an evening, and Nilo will now have a space where his lego is not going to disappear under the house! And hopefully, everything will return to its former orderly state... Orderly?... Who am I kidding? ;}

Yesterday, thinking and wandering in the upper garden, I spotted this...



















An Aristolochia that I'm propagating by woody cuttings. It's doing very nicely. This is a vine with very ornamental leaves. A native species with a lot of garden potential! Incase I never told you, I adore vines and design native plant gardens.

I also found this...



















A frothy native Begonia species flowering right now in my small fern garden beside the stone table and benches. It's the closest thing to snow that I've seen recently. Either of these images would be great to stitch from, no?

Talking of stitching ... I have done some. This is the latest project on my work table...



















A 10cm square. Shashiko style!

Never heard of Shashiko?... Oh, you're gonna love it! You can do a Google image search on that word or, there's a nice little shashiko tutorial over at Purlbee blog, which I'm adding to my links list on the right there, 'coz there's alot of neat stuff on that blog.

Added 2nd March: Diddis on Flickr has a wonderful selection of Shashiko. I found that while I was checking out Jude Hill's new Flickr group for those who are quilting with indigo, which showcases some truely beautiful indigo work that I covet ;}

Anyway, do have a go at Shashiko! They say it's easy to master. Personally, I find it quite challenging, but definately relaxing.



















Here's a slightly better (?) picture of the "No Boundries" bag that I'm just finishing up with.

***

Now, about the women's textile group:

I have been adding on to the new blog A Common Thread. You can click on this link for a little bit of background. Don't forget to add your name to the followers so you can get updates. We need your support! And thanks to you who have already volunteered to mail supplies. You lovely people! :)

I'm very excited, 'coz my mate Arlee sent me this fabulous link. I'm writing to the founder, Fiona Wright, so let's see if she replies. We can always learn from other people's experiences. I also found the design company Dseyno founded by Marrissa Perry Saints (I'm going to write to her as well!)and there are so many similarities between that and what I've envisaged doing here. I've added a short movie about the company on the homepage of the new blog. Well worth a view!

Finally, I'm planning to prepare a project outline to send to the Dutch Ambassador, enquiring about their embassy's funds for sustainable community development projects. If you don't ask, you don't know.

You have to give people the opportunity to help you!

Still here

Checking messages from friends who live on the coast, and seems that the predicted Tsunami has missed us... so far! I keep checking the view, to see if their is still water in the gulf... or more water in the Gulf. For the past two days we have had monsoon rains (this is the 'dry season') and terrific (!) electrical storms, which have blown the power out twice. Friday evening saw us eating bacon sandwiches in the house in the dark, at Nilo's miniature table and chairs. It was like a midnight dolls tea party.

Another reason I haven't been around much is that, on Wednesday morning, we had a phone call from the school, asking us to go and collect Nilo, who had fallen over, and landed badly on his hand. His wrist was pretty swollen for a few days, and is chest was a bit scrapped up. Poor little guy!

The next morning he was also vomiting (I think it was something he ate) so I've been chilling out for the rest of the week with him, at home. He can move his wrist now and so I guess he'll be back to school on Monday. I have to say, I rather like having him home again. He's been doing alot of drawing and lego building. He's amazing! Look at his turtle design.

I could never come up with something as sophisticated as this. It reminds me of Inuit design.

Thinking that I was going to San Jose this weekend, I got a move on with the "no boundries" denim bag that I started a couple of weeks ago, and it's finished (all but the details on the handles).



Stitching in the lining.

 

The lining is a light blue flecked cotton, with a slightly linen look.

The label.

The closure detail.



The finished item. Quite a sexy little number. Might keep it for myself ;}

Eliza, our model this morning.

Now that it's done, I guess it would be ok for me to start something new, right? ;}

Reinaldo is busy taking the house to pieces, in an effort to re-model the old office corner.

I have also been working on this. There's a link on my side bar. It's nowhere near ready yet, but you can visit and add your name as a part of the broader community and get updates as they happen. This week - now that my trip has been cancelled, due to the inclement weather - I hope to set these wheels in motion and send out a general invitation to local women to a sewing/coffee morning.  I'm planning to put up a flyer somewhere public (which, here, is either at the school, or the two churches, since there isn't even a village store!) and see who shows up! That way, it's open to anyone who's interested and avoids any personal preference. Afterall, the idea is about forgetting our differences, and working together, on the basis of sharing a common thread. Hmmm... I figure that's going to be the hard work in this!

Finally, I have added music (and other media interest) to the blogs. My father is a musico and so I was raised with very ecclectic tastes. Everything from Rachmaninov to rap, rock n' roll to gospel. The selection will change, according to whim. 

Look... Listen... ENJOY! :)

Color overload

It's finally raining a little more, although it's normally dry at this time of the year. I think our Summer was pushed forward. Well, I'd like to imagine that, and that it is going to rain more now. The plants are very happy about this. We don't water the garden, and it is really amzing how anything survives, but it does! Yesterday afternoon, Nilo and I just made it home from school before the downpour. D'you know, I cycled 8km yesterday! Which is why, today, I am firmly rooted to my cushy office chair and Rey is doing the school runs ;}





















I want to say thank you to all of you who left a comment on yesterday's post, and for the observations and support that everyone is willing to give to my ideas. You are a wonderful bunch of ladies, and bless you all! This is a very positive example of [the] net working! :)

I've decided that I'm going to leave for San Jose at the weekend to see if I can get an appointment with my GP early next week. But when I return, I'm going to start putting out pheelers to see who would like to join a sewing circle... or maybe it will be a sewing square? Who knows! Oh yes, and thanks also to those who suggested a potential wheat intolerance might be the root of my current problems. Yes, I'd thought of that too. Last year I did start a celiac diet, but I wasn't strict enough, or at it for long enough to be able to tell. I'm definately going to bring it up with my Doctor (again!) though. It would be wonderful if the problem turned out to be that straight forward! Ojala! (pronounced OH-HALA - that's like saying, "I wish!", or, "With any luck!")

Well, I'm here this morning with a bit of a dillema on my hands... I have total color overload! Can't make up my mind what to work on today. Or brights???... or pales???... WAHhhhh!

Yesterday, I started playing with a couple of the scraps that Sandra of Inanna Shamaya swapped with me recently. And while I'm here, you have to see how nicely this is coming along! Go Sandra! Anyway, I've been using an acid green and turquoise piece (Sandra, do you know how this effect was achieved, looks like some kind of wax resist, and/or acid bath? It's an amazing cloth!) combined with sky blues, on a grass green flax linen.




















That's one wild cloth! Makes me want to go back and re-study the color theories of Johannes Itten.




















I like the way the scrunch or tie-dyed blue piece lifts those dots right off of the cloth!




















The blue scraps are already kanthared down. I'm just looking at these very bright and contrasting DCM silk threads and wondering where to go next???

I have to tell you about what I've discovered whilst playing with this. When you kantha stitch over a light blue, scrunch or tie-dyed cloth, like the one I'm using here, it makes it look just like a a fair weather cloudy sky, (this is not the best image, I know). Anyway, I thought you might be interested to know that. Could be useful?

















A Summer sky?

Another part of my dillema is this pretty grouping of pink and ecru threads here on my desk, together with some very cool brown paper packaging, that was wrapped around a couple of new coffee cups that Rey bought home yesterday.
















Strawberries and Cream?... Which reminds me, tonight, we have students staying, and I'm going to make fresh strawberry ice cream... Mmmmm!... my mother's recipe... which is a family secret. Ha! :P




















I also spotted this on my desk this morning (I've been re-stashing my fabric stashes!) A couple of pieces of shot silk dupoi (the bigger scrap as was, the smaller scrap as was after the original was solar-dyed by me using red cabbage) placed on a bamboo fiber(!) indigo cloth. Very nice! It gives me another idea... Oh dea[r]... Too many idea[r]s ;)

My problem is this... I LOVE color! I just get so much pleasure out of playing with color, and not necessarily making it into any thing!

Here's a classic example. As I was telling Karen at Threadstory, who posted this recently, I am the proud owner of 100+ shades of Unison chalk pastels, donated to me 9 years ago by Unison themselves, and which are now very crumbly indeed, but still as loved as from the very first day! Admittedly, I haven'y used them recently. They have been stored in my drawer. As much as drawing with them, I always loved looking at them, re-arranging them in their boxes, according to different schemes. I'm definately crazy! *:)















Unison. The cream cheese of chalk pastels!















I ma about to re-house these pastels, because the packaging, that was once soft and spongy, is now brittle and crusty and it disintergrates at the touch. I need a printers styled drawer with many little compartments. I might even have one made, because these pastels are worth a fortune!!! A veritable color treasure trove!

And I'm looking forward to receiving my purple scrap swap package from Kaye at Stitching Life who has been doing a far bit of fieldwork recently. Very nice!!!

Finally, let's celebrate with Sandi at Puddle Duck Farm as she'll be getting extra studio time. YEAH!!!! And with Jude at Spirit Cloth for going live yesterday. Can nothing stop this woman? ;}

Recently added: For those of you in the Brisbane area of Aussie, you have an invitation.

Step #1: A sewing circle

I haven't been able to do very much these past few days, as I still have stomach type problems and envisage that I am probably going to have to leave to seek medical advice about this later in the week. In the meantime, I have continued to work slowly away at stitching this.















More kantha stiching.



















A close-up. Not bad, eh?















Softened again by the early morning light.

I'm very pleased with the waythis piece is coming along, and now that I have nearly completed the kantha stitching on all but one of the chocolate-colored panels - and isn't it lovely, the way that the cream-colored stitching has softened the contrast of the chocolate? - I'm putting this to one side as my evening cloth.

Apart from stitching, I have been thinking. Alot! I find that the two go rather well together, stitching and thinking. In the same way that walking and thinking go well together, or gardening and thinking. Anyway, I've been thinking more about my idea of setting up a textile "thing" with a group of women from the village. At the same time I have started to do some research online about similar projects, in different parts of the world. How are they managed, what do they make, etc, etc.

What's interesting, to me at least, is the fact that so many other cultures, where this kind of idea has been implimented, already have traditional artisan skills to draw upon, like weaving, dying, and embroidery. Here, where I live, the majority of the woman remain unskilled, many not even having completed their education. That's not to judge them, of course, it's simply to acknowledge the reality of what might be involved in developing my idea. Before we could begin making things, I am going to have to teach them certain basic techniques. Which is fine. But before I can do that, I am going to have to teach myself ;} I'm just trying to figure this thing out, out loud. And by sharing my ideas here, maybe something will ocurr to you, that i haven't thought of yet. So it could be very helpful.

Yesterday, I blogged a little about aspects of life in our village. The day before that, I blogged briefly about my idea to create a women's textiles co-operative. Both posts received some really lovely comments and encouraging thoughts from you. Thanks so much for your support!

Over the weekend, it dawned on me that helping a small group of women to help themselves, is infact an indirect way to help the school children. One of my concerns about donating money and supplies to the school is that it comes in, is used, and then we have to look for more. So, although I plan to continue with that at the moment, I see it as a short term solution. I need to be creative and dream up a middle to long term solution, which is what I think my idea might be. Ideally, one which provides women with access to a little income, which will help them with the cost of school supplies, medical care, clothing, and food. Nobody wants to be permenantly dependant on charity! And I happen to believe in the benifits of a family having a mixed portfolio, and teh power of micro-economies. With the world climate - environmental and economic - the way it is these days, you just can't afford to put all of your eggs in one basket!

So, first things first... How to begin?

Having thought quite carefully about this idea over the weekend, I think the best way would be to start a small sewing circle at my home. Invite a few of the women to a coffee/sewing morning type of thing, and offer them some fabric and threads, and provide a refreshment and a snack, and the chance to for them to explore and maybe learn something new. That way, I am not raising anyones hopes with the mention of making money, and at the same time, I get to see who is genuinely interested and has some potential. I have to be realistic with myself about this. It's no good thinking that I can help everyone, and not everyone is going to enjoy or be any good at this kind of thing. So, we have to start out with baby steps, while I'm busy working on the bigger picture.

I have been saving my money - that I earn from having guests - to put towards building an open workshop, in the lower garden area. That's going to take a while, but will be somewhere where, eventually, the women could work, at dying and printing and stitching cloth.

So, my immediate considerations are these:

* Making sure I have some supplies for a small group to work with over the course of a few weeks. Probably when I next leave the Peninsula, I will rummage through the thrift stores for nice fabrics. Threads, I am probably going to have to buy, along with needles, and pins and tape measures, and I would love to get my hands on some of those very cool washable markers, but they don't seem to exist in Costa Rica! Say! If anyone is interested in this idea, you could donate by mail a light-weight start-up pack. Yes... that's a brilliant idea!!! :) Doesn't have to be big stuff,'coz the idea is to recycle fabrics and use scraps to complete small projects that can be given a within-reach retail price,($25-30) but which also sell in higher numbers than a higher priced piece might... if you see what I mean? I'm thinking, small coin purses, cushion covers, notebook covers, etc. Anyone got any other suggestions for cool, viable, contemporary, small projects?

* Resources. I guess I can download quite a few resources online. I am also thinking to get my mother-in-law down here from San Jose, because she is deft at needlework. Infact, I've been meaning to show you these for a while now.















Silk pansies. Detail from a cushion slip by Mecedes Fernandez Zuniga.















Wild berries. Detail from a cushion slip by Mecedes Fernandez Zuniga.















Birds and berries. Cushion slip by Mecedes Fernandez Zuniga.

These examples were the results of a commercially-bought kit. But not everyone could produce something as lovely as these!



















This, on the other hand, is a simple, traditional, design, that a crafts teacher sketched out, and Mercedes chose to work on on a black cotton. I LOVE this piece! To me, it has something very gypsy about it. I really want her to do more work in this style, to incorporate in my designs.

I am also thinking I might start a seperate blog to document the journey into my women's group idea.















Finally, I found this in my drawer over the weekend. A simple tapestry(?) piece of a rose bloom that I began(!) a few years ago. I threw it into a pan of beetroot juice, along with some other scraps. We'll see what happens!!!















If Life gives you Russian salad... dye cloth! ;}

You... and that joyous bouncing feeling!

Reading about the brilliant things that you are doing, I am filled with joie de vie this morning! As a Basque country friend has written on her Facebook profile... L is G!

Well?... isn't it??? :}

Inspite of the fact that I have one of those visually crippling type headaches looming in the shadows somewhere, making me feel a little nauseous, and kind of sweaty (or is it that I'm menopausal... I wasn't feeling that great last night either, but that happens quite frequently to me). And inspite of the fact that my small workspace (a self-deligated corner of the dinning room) looks like this...















... I am feeling totally fueled! And it's definately got to do with the flow of creative energy pouring out from you. And I've noticed that links to my blog have started to appear in other people's sidebars recently, and so thank you for those kind thoughts *:)

Well now, I was over at Hannah's this morning ;} and she has a lovely post, involving her attempts at chinese papercut, the results of which are really bold and fabulous. Her talking about cutting paper snowflakes, reminded me of a What-about - I guess that's my version of a What-If, - which I sketched in my notebook a few weeks ago. And no, I'm afraid it isn't inspired by snow in anyway, since all we've had for weeks is sun, sun, and more sun! Oh yes, and the odd earthquake!



















This is my "What-about cutting cloth like cutting paper snowflakes?"

At the time, I don't always get what these scruffly little sketches are about. But then, you have to do them, 'coz you never know where they might take you later. I haven't tried this idea yet. I don't know how... or if it would even work.

Following on, from somewhere, I can't say from where exactly, came these new bag designs and lept onto the next blank page...



















And I'm realizing just how much my style has to with rustic simplicity. Give me a bit of scraggy old cloth and some hand stiching and I'm in my element! ;} Can't wait to apply that to printing on cloth too.

Back to my soft pale cloth... Last night, during the commercial breaks of Dr. House, (one of my few televisual indulgences!) I worked on this little frame, which consists of back-to-back rows of buttonhole stitch. Simple! Isn't that a pretty stitch... albeit crudely handled!
















And here's a close-up...















Earlier, yesterday afternoon, I was suddenly grabbed by the idea of roughly outlining the Wheatear stitching with a single thread of dark chocolate colored DCM silk.



















Don't know what came over me! I'm still not sure about that. What do you think??? In anycase, it has been removed. But who knows, could just as easily reappear!

Also last night... busy little bee arne't I?... I decided to rinse out an unbleached cotton cloth that I've been solar dying with red onion skins for the past week. As you may know, I love magenta. I've tried with red cabbage, but you know, that whole PH thing... when you add an acid or an alkaline to red cabbage, makes it very hard to control the results when dying coth. At least, I got the cloth to turn a gorgeous shade or purple, and then, stupidly, I rinsed it with soap powder and, hey presto!, the whole thing turned a wild sea-witch green! So I thought I'd try it with red onion skins instead.

At first, it looked to have been a great shiborial success. Then I rinsed it... using soap powder ... and... OMG! ... PUTRID!

As it appeared it rapidly began to leach its way down the length of the cloth! I was not expecting that! I ran for my camera.These are not good photos, as the light was poor, and my hands were so soapy that I could barely push the shutter button, never mind focus at the same time, but you'll get the picture. Just take a look at this...















EWE! Arlee is gonna love this!















And here you can see the difference. The left-hand side is still nice and purpley. The right-hand side... isn't!















And, in the end, it all looked like this. Very... umm... yucky!

I haven't dared look at it in the light of day! Who knows what might be lurking in the outside sink this morning!

Did you know that that could happen with red onion skins? Why didn't you warn me?

I've done some mental maths (N.B. my maths has always been very mental!) and I figure $400 for a 5-day creativity advance here on the Osa Peninsula is what it would cost. That would include full board and lodging, but not flights (international or internal) or hotel stay-overs that may be needed on the night of arrival and probably the night prior to departure. Anyway I'm curious to hear what you think about that price? In theory, at least, is it reasonable, or not?