Julie B Booth

Zita hand stitched to emphasize the rectangular shapes in this piece by her friend.

We had a nice turnout for today's Stitch-In...six of us and lots of interesting projects and discussions.

Zita S. made it for her first time and it was so great to see her. She brought along a very special piece to work on. It was an eco-dyed and hand felted piece that her dear friend Sharon J. had made. Sharon passed away unexpectedly at the very end of last year and our guild recently had a trunk show sale of her work to raise money. Zita purchased the box labeled "India Flint" (Sharon took a class with India) and found this piece at the very bottom of the box. Zita says that Sharon was never really "into" hand stitching...so Zita is going to continue to work on the piece...hand stitching it a bit at a time. What an amazing way to feel connected to her friend (reminds me of how connected I feel when I stitch on my Dad's letter).

Zita plans to take her time hand stitching areas of this eco-dyed piece.

Ann Z. brought along Buffalo Boy's head (a sock) to stitch. I had to laugh...she was using a maraca as a darning egg to help stitch through the sock (ingenious!).

Buffalo Boy's head.

Ann also brought this in-process piece. She is trying to decide how to finish the bottom half of the piece.


Cheryl is following up on her Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year's) resolution to complete pieces. She brought in this luscious knitted scarf that she started a while back. It may go to a friend.


Cheryl also brought in a gorgeous silk scarf created by Ellen Hoverkamp using a high resolution scan of vegetables. It reminded all of us of Dutch still life paintings.

Detail of a scarf by Ellen Hoverkamp.

Alice H. brought in one of her shibori pieces to stitch on. She is painstakingly stitching her fabric to resist the dye she'll later paint on it. I just love the texture!


Barbara M-C brought in a number of things to share. She's been working on a series of cloth dolls symbolizing her childhood (she's posted some on Facebook and I believe is now selling some on Etsy). This one was influenced by the traditional Hungarian clothing her grandmother would sometimes wear.

Detail of hand stitched motifs on the dress.

She also brought a cloth and paper book she created using some of her fabrics from the Story Cloth class and handmade papers from her friend's collection.


And here is a piece she's started using some of her indigo dyed fabric. The theme is "day and night".


I was hoping to stitch on my Dad's letter but I'm waiting for a skein of hand-dyed thread to arrive (probably tomorrow). In the meantime, I started setting up a new piece about my Dad...a great story that my brother told me. I spent some time on Friday going through a folder of family photos and reading through stories my siblings shared with me about Dad. I think that there is really a wealth of inspiration and I'm looking forward to working on a number of pieces about family.

Some of Ann's nature dyed fabrics including cotton scrim.

A very "intimate" Stitch- In this month...just Ann Z. and me! But, it doesn't seem to matter how small the group...I still get so much out of the sharing and idea bouncing.

Even Ann's purse from Guatemala was wonderful to look at!

Ann Z. just came back from visiting her artist sister in Beverly, Massachusetts. Apparently, Ann's sister is very into gardening and the two of them had a great time doing some natural dyeing (including onion skins and beets). I love the colors of Ann's swatches...so subtle yet beautiful. Ironically, one of the books I'd brought in to show Ann was all about that! It's called Natural Processes in Textile Art: From Rust Dyeing to Found Objects by Alice Fox. It's a really gorgeous book by Batsford and I can't wait to have a bit of time to dive in and try a few things! (BTW my good friend, Jennifer Coyne Qudeen aka Rust Junkie...is featured in this book! Congrats, Jennifer!)

Buffalo Boy

Ann also brought in Buffalo Boy from the Healing Cloth workshop. She is making some progress and has decided to use a heavy but flexible interfacing for the body instead of the original layers of acrylic felt. She's considering adding buttons to the shoulders so that the arms can move (hope that you do that Ann!). For those of you who don't know the back story about Buffalo Boy, Ann is making him for her foster great grandson who is having a lot of emotional difficulties. Ann says that he is starting to do better and I'm sure he'll be really excited to get his "super hero". Go here to read more about this.

Some more lines stitched...just ran out of my thread!

I brought my Dad's letter in to stitch, but never quite got to it (did some stitching when I got back home) since Ann was such a great sounding board for my ideas about my upcoming new class: Hand Stitching (Personal Mark Making). I'm SO excited about this class that I keep jotting down more and more ideas. But...now is the time to get going on the actual projects and determining what is really doable in the five sessions. I'm also hoping to turn this into an online class (working on that!).

One more sweet little story before I go...
I was just about to run out of the specialty thread that I was using to stitch my Dad's letter. It's a hand dyed thread from Sampler Threads...Buckeye Scarlet. I just love the subtle variations in it and love that color red. I purchased it over Memorial Day weekend when my husband and I were having a quick little vacation in Frederick, Maryland. The name of the shop is Primitive Homespuns (really wonderful shop!!!) and so I contacted the owner, Kathy to see if she'd send me another skein. I sent along a photo of the stitched letter. Well...she was so sweet and is gifting me a skein so I can finish stitching. How wonderful it that! If you happen to be visiting Frederick, I hope that you stop in there. On the top floor she has a nice selection of threads and wool fabric (for rug hooking). The furniture is created by her dad and Kathy makes many of the textiles, painted signs and "primitive" cloth dolls and animals.

I stitched two more lines of Dad's letter.

Yesterday, I stitched a couple of more lines of my Dad's letter.

It felt good to get back to it after all the preparation for the Quilting Arts TV segments.

Just reconnecting with the cloth and the words. I'm really loving the feel of the stitched fabric.

I'm also spending time this weekend thinking about goals. I'll be meeting with my Master Mind group on Tuesday and we'll be reviewing our last 6 month goals and making new goals for the next 6 months. I'm starting to think more clearly about the path forward. Spending time with other artists this past week and seeing what they do has helped in that respect.

Many of you know that I teach a 2-day workshop called, Patching, Stitching, Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth. In this workshop, we explore using basic hand stitching, applique, needle weaving and bead embroidery techniques to create a piece to offer healing for a loved one or for ourselves. This class has produced some inspiring and deep pieces. I've witnessed how working on a piece...having a tactile connection through stitching..can heal or reconcile relationships...even those with loved ones that are no longer alive. I have seen how working on a piece can bring peace and clarity of mind. I've seen pieces stitched with love as offerings to loved ones who are ill. This is powerful stuff!

I've been facilitating this process for a couple of years but have put my own healing, pertaining to my Dad's death, on hold. His last couple of years of life were very difficult for the whole family, but especially for my Mom. His cheery personality was wiped away by Parkinson's. I've found it hard to approach the topic.

At first, I thought I'd face it head on. I'd work on some pieces having to do with Parkinson's and my Dad. I could never get started...it was too difficult.

Then I remembered that I had a letter that my Dad wrote when he was very young. I poured over this letter and found that it could be a way to connect to my Dad in a different way. So I decided that I would stitch his letter as a form of self healing.

Dad's letter.

You can see that my Dad's letter is rather faded, so I enlarged it and wrote over the letters so that I could read them better. In the process, I connected to my Dad as a young boy just learning to write. I noticed the capital "B"s that were really lower case "b"s with an added curve. I fell in love with the little erasures and decided to add them into the final piece.

I decided to include the endearing erasures in Running Stitch.

I brought the project with me to Cape Cod. The whole family got to read the photocopy and watch me transfer it onto fabric (a handkerchief like the ones my Dad always used). It generated questions and discussion. No one really knew who "Grandma Basseches" was. We guessed at Dad's age. I developed a whole little story about the letter. Here was a tiny little slice of my Dad's life...when a cold was taken seriously and FDR was president (notice that the letterhead has Scottie dogs on it...which is ironic since my folks have owned Scotties for many years).

On the return trip home, my Mom and I stayed overnight with my Dad's cousin, Rissy. I showed her the letter and asked her if she remembered Grandma Basseches. Her 5-year-old memory of her grandmother was "a large woman with a small black dog" (it turns out that the dog's name was Fallah!..So it seems undeniable that Grandma Basseches gave the personalized stationery to my Dad!). Rissy even had a picture of her.

My Great Grandmother Basseches.

Stitching this little slice of family history...my Dad's history...has been so satisfying...and healing.
_________
I'll be teaching the next Patching, Stitching, Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth workshop on September 5 & 6 at The Art League School in Alexandria, VA.

Ann Z.

Just three of us at the Stitch-In today. It seems no matter what the size of the group, it is always a great exchange of ideas and thoughtful conversation.

Cheryl C. had a great idea for what to do when you need to step back from a piece to really "see" it.

Cheryl C.: Printed photo upper right, tracing upper left, Healing Cloth bottom center.

She took a photo with her I-Phone and then printed it (she said that she probably could have scanned her piece instead). Then Cheryl used tracing paper over the print out to draw stitching guidelines. Instead of transferring them directly to her piece, Cheryl decided to use the tracing as a guide and to freehand draw the stitching lines with a marking pencil.

Cheryl made a lot of progress and stitched these details in during our get-together.

Cheryl C.

Ann Z. is just about finished with the cat piece. Here is the piece so far (and see above for a detail shot).

Ann Z.

Ann also worked on the little dog piece today. She's planning to get these two done in the next few weeks before she heads to Texas to finally meet her granddaughter's foster children and give these pieces to them as gifts.

Ann Z.

I've been having a hard time "settling" on a stitched piece these days. I started working on a piece when I was down in Virginia Beach (more about that trip soon). But decided to bring along the handkerchiefs to see if I could finally get going on some pieces about my Dad. I did a bit of stitching (sorry no photos yet) white on white. I spent some time talking about my Dad and we all exchanged some interesting and funny family stories.

Thanks Cheryl and Ann for a fun and engaging afternoon. I'm looking forward to next month!

Do you know how it is when you get behind on something...but have to keep moving forward with other things...that thing that you didn't get to just "niggles" away at you (guilt?)!

Well, finally...I've finished The Printed Fabric Bee fabric for Lynda Heines. Lynda was the Queen Bee WAY back in January! So sorry Lynda. And...also so sorry to the winner, Janice! So these will be off in the mail to the two of you tomorrow.

Since I was feeling especially bad about the hold up, I did a bit of hand stitching on them to make them extra special. Hope you like them!


Here are the two images I referenced:







I also used a liquid dishwashing soap resist for the background.

Whew! Now to move onto other "niggly" things. Trying to get them all off my plate so I can focus on my summer art project plans. What are your arty plans for the summer (which has already started!!)?

I plan to...

--Get back to my hand stitching "roots" while producing some hand stitched book samples for my new Winter session class, Stitching, Printing, Mark Making: Developing a Personal Vocabulary with Hand Stitching.

--Work up samples for a special (wonderful!) something that is happening this fall (more about that later).

--Start working on some pieces about my Dad using cotton handkerchiefs.

Got to get back to work!!

I've been pondering for quite a while now how to honor my Dad. In fact, it always seems to be in the back of, if not on, my mind most of the time. Lots of mulling...about what form a series of pieces dedicated to him would take.

I don't know if I subconsciously took in the fact that one of the students in my Patching, Stitching, Weaving: Creating Healing Cloth workshop was using her mother's collection of decorative hankies to honor and explore her relationship with her mom. But...all of a sudden it hit me....handkerchiefs!!!

My Dad always had a handkerchief in his pocket...even in the last days of his life. It was a part of who he was... It became so obvious to me that cotton handkerchiefs could be the format for this series about him.

I asked my Mom, on my most recent visit, if she had saved any of Dad's handkerchiefs. She hadn't, but fortunately Amazon had a packet of nine white cotton ones, which I immediately purchased!

Now to wash them and start stitching. I have a number of ideas and it's great to have a format. I still have to decide if I want them to be colorful stitched pieces or more monochromatic...or I can try both!

I'm looking forward to starting on this personal project...I can see the possibility of it going on for a long time.

Can't believe a year has gone by...missing your smile.

Cheryl V.

 After being down in Savannah for a week, I'm trying to get back into my life. It was so great to be with family. We spent a weekend remembering all the great times we had with Dad before he got ill. It was incredible how after all this time we could piece together the special stories and details about Dad. How he held his pipe, his incredibly squeaky office chair, all the nicknames he had for us kids. I didn't know that it would be  a funny, happy and sad experience all at the same time.

I've been thrown back into my life and I'm trying to get my bearings again. Teaching yesterday helped with that. I spent all of yesterday in the classroom teaching two short workshops, which I dubbed the messy workshop (Just Gelatin) and the un-messy workshop (Jazzy). Both classes had four students (and one student, Cheryl, stayed for the entire day). All of these students were a pleasure to teach. Such enthusiasm was just the balm I needed!

Cheryl V.

Cheryl V.

The morning workshop was all about gelatin printing. We all agreed that it needed to be a longer class as students were just getting into the flow of experimentation when we had to clean up.

Barbara G.

Barbara G.

Barbara H.

Barbara H.

Ruth C.

Ruth C.

Two moms and two daughters spent the afternoon making my wrapped wire doll, Jazzy. We played doll dress-up, creating clothes and accessories for our Jazzys using fabric strips, pipe cleaners, beads and yarn. The end of class became a fashion shoot with our Jazzys posing for the camera.

Adriana H.

Angela C-H.

Cheryl V.

Yene

Thank you to all my students for helping me get back into flow of my life.

Print by Ivy.

This weekend, my family celebrated my parent's 60th anniversary.

Kai busy brushing paint on a block.

Whenever we get together  I like to plan an art project. To commemorate this auspicious event, I put together a printing project.

Ivy painting an anniversary wish.

Poppy getting ready to print

The results of all this printing will be an anniversary wall hanging.

One of Kai's prints.

Prints by Poppy.

Judy did some nature printing.

A how-to based on this project will be the focus of the next issue of Julie B Booth Surface Design News.

Even Poppy's feet got printed!

It was great spending time with family. Eating great food (lob-sta!), playing chess tournaments, swimming and just having fun.

Happy 60th Mom and Dad!

The Happy Couple.