The coded Hawthorne quote used:
Words – innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.
January 11, Frame of Stitched Squares
Layout of Stitched Squares
January 24, In Progress–Squares in Each Row Stitched Together
January 28, Rows Stitched Together
To Do List:
Bind and Stitch Cotton Rope Border
Stitch Paper Backing to Piece Without Perforating the Paper
I rescued some cactus bits that had fallen from this plant in June of 2016. The plant was confined by the fence.
Shortly before the plant was confined by the fence, it had several large and lovey white flowers.
I potted up the bits–
And now it has loads of new growth–
Actually, I recently removed a few starts to make more plants.
A couple of detail images of new additions to its growth. I like that they look sharp and pointy.
I suspect that the sharp pointy growth is for self propagation.
I planted Hard-shelled Birdhouse Gourds (Cucurbita lagenaria) on November 6th. Four gourd plants emerged December 14th.
Since I am still dealing with the squirrel and the weather has been cold and at times rainy, the plants are living in the bathroom. It is the room with the best daily light.
The tendrils needed something to grasp onto so I attached some cotton twine to a wallpiece above the gourds. When the time comes for the plants to be moved to the garden, I can snip the twine and use it to attach the gourds to the garden fence.
Will the artist care that I am attaching something to their piece? Nope, it is one of my See a Penny… pieces.
Western Peonies (Paeonia brownii) grow on the mountains on the California Central Coast. For some reason the plants are not readily available for purchase in the community nurseries.
I have attempted to grow them from collected seed, but never had success. That was until today. Well, apparently the plants were growing, but I did not realize the growth until this morning.
In early November I placed 10 seeds in a plastic bag with damp vermiculite. I also placed a few seeds in a pot of soil. The seeds in vermiculite have not shown any growth activity.
Since I had not anticipated growth in the pot, I wasn’t paying attention. Unfortunately, the pot was in my studio, not very much light, so the seedlings are leggy. I moved the pot to a location with more light.
I found this little something in one of my garden beds in late December. Couldn’t identify it, thinking that it is probably a lily. I planted it.
This is what it looks like today.
We still have not completed work on renovating our garden because we have at least one squirrel who has taken up residence.
I could not move the tape further in. Not sure if the tunnel goes down or makes an abrupt turn. And the tape did not bump into the squirrel.
The squirrel may not be using this hole. I suspect that the two holes are connected by an underground tunnel.
We attempted making a bird feeder that would prevent the squirrel access.
One of the reasons I write about projects is to work through details and to have a record of choices and decisions.
I have been thinking about making a piece to hang over the fireplace in the family room/office for several years. Actually it is a bit of a funny story. During our house remodel that started in January of 2002, we removed the ugly shiny black tile that surrounded the fireplace. We had been living with concrete board, until last year when we finally installed tile.
The space above the fireplace is 68” wide and 64” high. I decided to make a piece that is roughly 36” wide and 58” high. The piece will be constructed of 522 embroidered hardware cloth squares (1.75″) that will be stitched together. Yep, quilt-ish.
As always as of late, I use coded messages or quotes. This piece will be a Nathaniel Hawthorne quote, Words – innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.
The code for the Hawthorne piece contains 190 dots, 162 dashes, and 170 spacers.
These are some stitches that I tried. After trying all of these different stitches, backgrounds, and yarn colors…
my favorite stitch is the one in the lower right corner… I selected three stitches to use and spent several hours stitching these for the dashes…
Decided I would soon regret my choice and not enjoy working on the piece. I will save them for a future project.
Had the idea, rather than perforating the background material (roofing felt and tree wrap), which can tear and sometimes the holes could be seen, I decided to use stitches that would wrap around the background material.
Pretty sure I will be using these unless I decide to switch the dot and dash background and yarn. Have time to think about it while I am making the spacer pieces.
Spacer (roofing felt and cream wool)
Dot (veneer with brown and cream wool)
Dash (tree wrap with brown yarn)
Also an interesting thing happened. I had planned to use the same background material for the dots and dashes. While I was looking for safety pins in my studio I ran across the veneer business cards that I purchased from Lee Valley. Thought they were cool and maybe they would come in handy in the future. Today apparently is that future day. The veneer can be cut with scissors, but a blade would be better to prevent splitting. I can cut two pieces from each card, definitely plenty for the project.
I like the idea of three different backgrounds to make the code a bit clearer. Currently planning to stitch the squares together with three strands of yarn, one of each being used.
Quotes are randomly generated on the site and thought this one was fun.
Emma, Nicky, and Luke
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday After a Night of Rain
Detail
We have one holiday tradition. Go to the beach on the first day of the new year. Often it is so warm, we are pealing off layers. Not today. It was overcast and chilly.
Screenshot from Weather.com
It was also high tide so it was necessary to stay close to the rocks. While I was waiting for the tide I noticed the juxtaposition of manmade rocks and naturally occurring rocks.
The left side is manmade and the right nature at its best.
On closer inspection I found areas where the manmade rock was eroded and the underlying rebar was as well.
I was able to find a single holey rock. Will it bring me good luck in 2017?
