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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Weather Challenges During Winter

Over winter there were a number of challenges I had to respond to.
A wet, heavy snow accumulation broke the string and the 2nd Cedar cloth fell down.
The lace insert  in the top of the Maple cloth was decaying and tore on a snag.
During a wind storm my husband and I watched the Douglas-fir cloth flapping wildly. My husband is a sailor and said, 'Now there's a sail maker's friend.' During a lull in the wind I raced out and cut the cloth off the tree.
Now 3 cloths were inside for their own survival. 

During another wind storm a tree was blown down.  One of its roots flew up in the air and pinned the Arbutus cloth against the tree. 

Luckily, my sailor is also a lumberjack and he was able to rescue the cloth once the storm had passed.

Thankfully, no damage was done.
But the winter was hard on the cloths.

Cedar Cloth - December

Early December I brought the Cedar cloth inside.
It was deteriorating much faster than the others because it stayed wet. 

I made repairs to just hold it together until I can stitch on it. 

I decided to keep it inside so I could stitch on it when it was too cold and wet to go outside and stitch. I was getting way behind with my stitching schedule.

 

New Moon Colour Studies

Each new moon I took my colour studies tools outside and visited each tree. 

Joen Wolfram's Color Tool was an invaluable aid. 

 

Back inside I'd go through my thread boxes to find colours I observed on the trees.
I invested in this pigeon-hole box to keep the many thread bundles organised. 

Each month, for each tree, I made a thread wrap and explored the colours in other media.