For the 14th piece in Daily Thread, my 2019 stitch journal, I chose the theme of “waning.” To start the piece, I stitched the colors of the year’s last nasturtium blooms in “V” or boomerang shapes something like the simple way children draw birds in flight.
As the piece progressed, I added intersecting, randomly curling lines in backstitch. This tangle of lines was inspired by the beautiful jumble of the nasturtium’s fading leaves and stems. In the end, I re-oriented the piece so that the “V” shapes pointed downward, to accentuate the feeling of summer ending, the time when flowers and plants begin drooping down toward the earth.
I worked on this piece from September 3, 2019 (Day 246 of this yearlong daily embroidery project) to September 24 (Day 267).
Coming up: My next Daily Thread post will be about the 15th piece, which had the theme of “sky.”
New work: While I’m furloughed from my day job due to COVID-19, I’m creating a series of furlough daily embroideries. To learn more, follow me on Instagram or follow the hashtag #furloughdailyembroidery.
Exhibition news: Two of my furlough daily embroideries are in POST PAUSE, the inaugural exhibition of the new Easthampton City Arts online gallery. Curated by Maggie Nowinski, POST PAUSE presents works created during this time of pandemic by artists in western Massachusetts. Each artist's work is accompanied by a statement about how their creative practice has been impacted by COVID-19.
If life is back to normal next spring, I will be showing the entire Daily Thread project in April 2021 at the Hosmer Gallery in Northampton’s Forbes Library. Later in the year (dates to be determined), it will also be shown at Easthampton City Arts.
LINKS
About the Daily Thread Project
@bonniesennottart on Instagram