In my last blog post, I mentioned that I am currently creating maquettes for a commission for a local Lutheran Church. From the brief I was given I am to create a quilted piece based on Luther’s Rose design, so there is not much room for artistic interpretation as the design is pretty much set in century-old tradition.

I have spent some time over the past seven days exploring colours and minimal variations on the theme. While I love using various art media I find this exercise quite structured. I am now off to the studio to search my fabric stash and pull together supplies to create samples for the presentation.

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After hours of drawing and colouring (and staying within the lines 😉 ), I yearn for creative balance! I pulled out the rusted fabric jacket I am still working on. I have gathered some hand-dyed silk for the lining but the actual hand embroidered component was on hold since well before Christmas.

If you are experiencing the polar vortex like we are, the last weekend was just perfect to revisit creative projects put on hold. I pulled some of the selected threads from two months ago and just started stitching. I moved from the high contrast running stitches emphasizing the strong dark lines naturally created during the rusting process to the blue-grey patches naturally occurring randomly in the fabric. Seed stitch was one option I considered but I wanted a little more visual and tactile texture. Random cross-stitch is the perfect solution to enhance the large areas that felt a bit distracting when I draped the jacket over my dress form.

I am not counting hours and I let spontaneity guide me in this project. It’s the perfect balance to the more structured commission… Do you balance your projects? Weigh in with your personal experiences!

Hope you are able to stay warm and creative during this cold start to February!

05 Feb This entry was published on February 5, 2019 at 2:20 pm. It’s filed under Art, Contemplative art practice, Creativity Update, Design, Journaling, Special Project, staying in touch and tagged balancing structured and spontane activities, Blog, blogging, Design, ebb and flow of creativity, hand stitching, Inspiration, Slow Stitching, writing. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.