I was delighted to see my story about the Fayetteville show, with Gee Gee's photos, printed in our weekly paper, the Eagle Lake Headlight. In this tiny pond, I'm a headliner. Nice to have news about art, especially fiber art, on the local scene.
I did have time to make a promised stole for Ralph Morgan, our former rector in Eagle Lake. He has moved on to a larger parish in Lufkin TX, in the heart of the Piney Woods. As I lived 20 years in the woods in Huntsville, it was easy to come up with a design for this stole for the green season--Ordinary Time.
Its name is "Evergreens will grow", based on Isaiah 55:10-13. Gee Gee found a translation that said "evergreens will grow in place of thorn bushes, firs will grow in place of nettles" (it's the New English Translation), which uses language different from the more traditional, which used juniper and myrtles. And we found one that talked about sequoias! But there weren't any sequoias in ancient Israel, to the best of my knowledge, so we passed on that one.
Anyway, I think the pine forest came out well; it's all machine embroidered. The river/lake is made from a silk skirt I bought in India. The background is silk canvas, painted with various greens, and the Celtic cross is from a hand-dyed cotton fabric. I wanted to capture the feeling of sunlight filtering through the pines. Altogether, I'm happy with the result. It goes in the mail today.
So now the next project is a long wall hanging for Pinehaven, my nephew Karl's new house being built in Florida's Green Swamp. More pines on the horizon! The house is going to be lovely, with a two-storey great room paneled in pine and lots of windows. I figure the hanging will be about 10 feet long, 36" wide. Lots of stitching.
Then I have to clean up the studio in preparation for the biennial House Tour sponsored by the Garden Club. My current level of creative squalor just won't cut it!