Thousands of stitches...

I've had company the last three days, some out-of-town friends who wanted to see the exhibits around town that I have work in before they come down on the 15th. That would be Art of the Needle at Panhandle State Bank, Diamonds in the Rough at The Power House and my solo show at STCU in Ponderay. I really enjoyed viewing all these again with these art-savvy friends whose comments on various pieces helped me see them in a different way. But having company meant a break from quilting on Masks and now I need to get serious again. It needs to be ready to hang on the 20th.


I'm very close to putting the last hand-stitch in, just one small section to deal with then it will be on to printing eyes on squares to be scattered over the surface. There may be some buttons added and a few beads but it may not need that at all. I may end up facing this rather than binding it but again, too early to know. What I do know is that on this piece, my desire to return to more stitch in my work has been more than fulfilled. That needle in the photo is 7/8" long to give you a sense of scale. I had idly wondered if I had put in as many as a thousand stitches on this thing; some of the areas are quite densely quilted. So I counted up stitches in one square inch and came up with about 30 stitches, up to 45 in the denser areas. What with the draw-up from the hand quilting, the overall size of this piece has shrunk but it started out as a fat quarter - 18 x 22. You do the math - definitely thousands of stitches!  Just as well I didn't know that setting out or it may have daunted me into changing my mind. Instead, this has been a relatively stress-free and enjoyable process, and with the exception of a few penciled-in lines to guide, it has been done without marking. Just following the designs left by the paint, eye-balling spacing between lines, not striving for any kind of perfection. Love it and hoping that when it comes out of the frame for the last time, I have achieved the look I was going for.