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Monday, April 30, 2012

Outside


During breaks from stitching I wander outside.
Hyacinths (spelling?) break through coffee filter mulch in the cut flower bed. 

This beauty appeared in the forest. 

According to Pojar and MacKinnon, the plant bible on the west coast, it is a red flowering currant, a "harbinger of spring and hummingbirds."

In the bog area that looked like this 6 months ago after my sister cleared out a tangled mass of  20 foot long blackberry canes....

...it now looks like this.

The big plants are skunk cabbage or swamp lantern, traditionally 'famine food' if the salmon were late arriving in the spring - according to Pojar and MacKinnon.
I haven't walked around this area much yet because I don't want to disturb the myriad of other plants just breaking the soil surface.
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Friday, April 27, 2012

Technical Issues


While stitching I had to resolve technical issues involved in hanging the 4 tree cloths.
Husband Ron understands material and joint stresses.

He sampled various corner joints for the frame. I made the aesthetic decisions.
Using Douglas-fir wood supports the work's concepts.

We settled on this type of joint. 

Carpenter Chris Mead made the frame. 

Airline baggage limits dictate each side has to be cut in half.
Chris developed a strong, non-flexing joint.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Pollen Moon


April was 'Pollen Moon' because the Douglas-fir released great clouds of yellow-orange pollen from young bright-orange cones high in the trees. This image is of an old Douglas-fir cone.

The Maple flowered and released pollen too. 

The new Cedar branches become a bright red. 

The Arbutus dropped more of its vivid yellow-green leaves and red bark.
I stitched with more intense colours that month.
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Sunday, April 22, 2012

Trialling the Installation


My lumber jack/sailor friend helped me with a trial installation of the 4 tree cloths. 
 

Unfortunately, the wind came up and it started to rain.

But the trial supporting frame was up long enough to confirm dimensions and to work out where the structural forces would be.

We quickly lowered the frame and got the cloths inside before they were damaged.
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Saturday, April 21, 2012

Maple Tree Cloth Repairs


The Maple tree cloth's Battenberg lace deteriorated and was not able to support it so it came inside for repairs.

Safety pins held the lace together until I could do the repairs.

I stitched a supporting grid but I anticipated the strengthened lace insert would next tear away from equally fragile woven cloth. It just needed to hang on until I stitched in August new moon's band of weft threads. 

The repaired cloth went back outside.
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Friday, April 20, 2012

Storm Moon Colour Studies


I called February's new moon 'Rain Moon'.
March wind and rain storms were memorable so I called it 'Storm Moon'.
The trees had responded to longer and warmer days.
Peeling Arbutus bark was drying and colours greyed.

New Cedar growth had shifted to a yellow-green.

There was less of a colour shift in the slower growing Douglas-fir.

Maple buds shifted from a red shade to a more pure red and chartreuse emerged.
I went through my threads to find the colours I had observed and stitched another band on each cloth.
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Thursday, April 19, 2012

Have Tree Cloth, Will travel


Here am I stitching while traveling on the Coho ferry to Port Angeles, Washington, USA.

One of the passengers, a tourist from China, travelling with her family, was fascinated watching what I was doing. We got talking and I invited her to work on the cloth. Her concentration and dexterity were way beyond what I expected from her age.

From the ferry I was able to point out an Arbutus tree slipping by and made the connection with the Arbutus cloth she was working on.

The hand stitched quilt on our bed in the Bed 'n' Breakfast we stayed in looked at home under my tree cloth. 

The colours and log cabin/ flower patterns on the quilt were sympathetic with my simple running stitch and nature based concept.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Stitching Here, Stitching There


Here are 3 cloths waiting for their 'Cold Moon' (January) band of running stitch. 

I took a cloth with me whenever I had to go out. Stitching in a coffee shop.
 
 

But this is where I did most of my stitching. When I looked outside I could see all 4 trees.
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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Maple Cloth Stitching Progress


I called the October new moon 'Falling Leaf Moon' and worked autumn leaf colours into the bed sheet.
The hole was made after the stitching, while the cloth was on the tree. 

During 'Wet Moon', I added colours of decaying leaves lying on the ground within the tree's drip circle.
The 3rd band, during 'Frost Moon' or 'Long Night Moon', I worked a colour study of the almost neon green lichens glowing on the bare tree's bark. 

Buds appeared in January during 'Cold Moon' month.

For 4 moons I have worked bands of red noting a shift in the hue from a cool shade to a warmer more intense shade as the buds matured.
Once the whole bed sheet is stitched it will visually show the chromatic physiognomy (biological identity) of the tree.
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