Round and round

Funny how things come round. I was brought up surrounded by woollen mills - the noise of weaving looms and the smell of lanolin accompanied us as we walked through town. All gone now, but look what I have - an old bobbin. I had to buy it, although I paid very little for it. I like the idea that this one could have been in one of those very mills of my childhood. 

This is my ongoing stitching, sort of like a journal as I add a bit every day. I have been reading a lovely book by Claire Wellesley-Smith - Slow Stitch: Mindful and Contemplative Textile Art. The author makes the case for a measured approach to the creative process to produce art that is personal, sustainable and beautiful. She takes inspiration from textile traditions, such as Kantha, American patchwork, Japanese Boro. The idea is to work with what you already have, re-piecing old fabric and building up texture with stitch.

Whether I am producing art remains to be seen, but I am certainly finding great joy in piecing bits of found fabric and just stitching for the sake of stitching - no pressure to finish, to produce a completed article, to ‘get it right’. It certainly suits this kind of weather, as I sit in my room (north facing, the coldest room in the house in winter, the coolest in summer heat) with the windows open and the light streaming in . . . just quietly stitching.