Friday, February 28, 2020

The Ninth Stitch Witch Post of 2020

Hard to believe 9 weeks have gone by. And it's still February! A year seems much shorter when you count each week. This is why I always urge people to do fun things immediately rather than waiting for the weekend or summer or someday. There's only 52 Saturdays in 12 months. Is that enough time to enjoy yourself?

This week I am talking about an art project for a contest. There is a cash prize and the winning artist gets a solo show. I doubt I am going to win. I'm entering anyway. I can always learn from the experience. The contest is in a different country, so if nothing else I will learn about shipping art internationally. IF I make it to the finals.

So anyway, as you can see in the picture, these canvases already have a grid. This is to help me center my design, and it saves a good bit of tedious square counting. The grids are 10 squares apart. This is actually a failed project.
I was trying to make dragons. This is a simple pattern, but I made several mistakes. I was getting frustrated. The dragons did not want to be made. I had to respect that. I picked the stitches out, save for the purple border, because that was more unstitching than I wanted.
The border is on both ends of both canvases, since I intended for the dragons to be a double sided piece.

Yarn selection involved me and my husband wandering around the craft store. I held up yarn and asked if he thought it looked like a tree trunk or leaves. We didn't leave until we were both happy. My only condition was that the yarn be variegated because it gives a wonderful color array without extra effort. I am a bit concerned about the brown not having enough variation, but the dye pattern is the same as the green. The brown was not my first choice. There was a wonderful variegated yarn of tan, purple, blue, and red. I thought it would have made a truly Magick trunk. Will didn't like it. If my husband doesn't see my vision, no one else will either. That's the whole reason I took him with me. While we were at the craft store, there was another couple doing the same thing we were. She was either making a baby blanket or booties. Whatever she was making, it was for his niece. They were debating pink or yellow.

All I had really decided at this point was to make a tree. I drew a rune. I got Eywas which means yew tree. I googled yew trees and discovered they are wonderfully twisted. I really wanted a gnarly, twisted trunk. I had in mind to use a page from my Celtic coloring book as a guide.
Looks like a yew to me. I will be tracing the rune over the canvas each time I sit down to stitch.

I'm using singles stitches because I'm afraid a large stitch covering several holes would be prone to snagging on something. I am careful in handling my work, but that doesn't mean everyone else will be. Originally, I was going to put an actual twist in the trunk. It got lost as I added the next row. I decided to stagger the ends. The trunk should seem to twist with both diagonal stitch direction and sky showing on uneven edges. I am not trying to recreate the tree from the coloring page. That's just inspiration. I cut a length of yarn, then stitch until I run out. When I get to the end, I stop to do housework. This is how I sew all day without worrying about dinner or laundry. 
Because I want two trees that are the same, whatever I do to one tree I must do to the other. You can see the second canvas underneath. I'm trying to line everything up. It isn't exact due to color variations in the yarn, nor does each row have the same number of stitches. It's close enough. I don't think anyone will count rows or stitches. 

I have been chanting and burning candles and tracing runes. I'm thinking what I could learn from the yew tree rather than doing spells to win the contest. 

I took apart the art on my door and used the trees in I'm Burning for You. I only need two more trees and this piece is done.

Taking apart this star because I hated it. The canvas will be cut to match this:
This will be the center of a new rug. 

And this will become Z's mirror. I haven't purchased a mirror, so I don't yet know if this is a good size. 

I did make decisions about the pieces in my bathroom. I decided which I would keep, and what to do with the ones I don't like. They will become more of my rug.

And I revamped a spell. This is my anti-theft charm. It was hanging by the front door. Now it's on the boys' bedroom door. In the last three years, all our problems with missing items has come from one child stealing. I want that to stop AND I want him to take responsibility for his actions. Plus, somethings need to be revealed. I made this mirror; if he breaks it I will adjust my spell accordingly and make another. 

Next week I will report on how my Magick is working, and I will show progress of projects. 

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