slowly she turned

I’m doing a catch-up post about the tapestry design workshop and Tapestry Weavers South retreat that I attended the first week in June. MJ Lord taught the workshop, “Birds, Bugs, and Butterflies,” based on her colorful abstract design work based on nature. It was the perfect workshop for me since I’ve really been into birds and bugs lately, and I needed a nudge to design some new tapestry.

First, MJ asked us to zero in on details of photos or illustrations we brought and make at least three sketches. I knew all along that my photo would be of Jorge, the Beautiful Mexican Beetle who I befriended in San Miguel de Allende. I did play loosely with the colors and some of the markings, since I was trying to work with my yarn stash of loose strands, including Paternayan yarns from the 1970s. I had warped this loom ten inches wide so I decided to weave two small tapestries side by side. Here are the sketches and the photo of Jorge.

Then MJ asked us to include at least three tapestry techniques in our weavings. I naturally gravitate toward mixing single strands of color for color blending, so that was a given. I chose a pick-and-pick background for one tapestry and “seeding” in Jorge’s wings for the other. “Seeding” was a new term for me for something I’d been doing, but in this case I did it a bit more methodically into the weave. I had not done pick-and-pick other than in small areas so going to the edge with this technique was a learning experience.

Another challenge for me in these tapestries was that after I began I realized that I didn’t have enough of the background colors to weave the entire background. I realized it early enough that I was able to use color blending to compensate for that.

Here’s a photo of a classmate with her finished tapestry based on a photo of a woodpecker.

Stacy, the lady in green who sat next to me, brought Sammy Jo, a sweet tiny elderly dog who was also a fierce guard dog who sat under the table and traveled about in Stacy’s bag. I fell in love with Sammy Jo.

At the opening for the Tapestry Weavers South exhibition, which had traveled from the Folk Art Center in Asheville to the Yadkin Valley Fiber Center in Elkin, I demonstrated tapestry in the window and a few of our members joined me for a photo.

We enjoyed meals at Southern on Main and the Crazy Pig (I think), restaurants on Main St. in Elkin, and I didn’t take photos, but we took a field trip on Friday to Sparta to Blue Ridge Fiber Fest, and April and Stacy and Sammy Jo and I ate on the patio at Muddy Creek Cafe (BEST PIMENTO CHEESE EVER). I really didn’t need to buy anything at the fiber festival, as you know, but I did anyway. Some beautiful hand dyed embroidery silk, a book on Tunisian crochet, and a spectacular scarf that really is an art piece – I may hang it on the wall. It’s hard to photograph because it was sewn and thread-painted onto water-soluble stabilizer and has a lot of open space, but here’s my try:

One afternoon, Leslie took us on a hike along one of the trails in Elkin, and I saw a jack-in-the-pulpit in the wild just off the trail. A quilting guild had scattered quilted hearts around town for people who came to Elkin for Trail Days to find and keep. We found two in the park next to the trail.

As usual, it was a lovely retreat and April gave a presentation about Archie Brennan and Sylvia Heyden and compared their approaches to tapestry. Mostly we enjoyed weaving on small projects together and socializing.

Every time I go to Elkin it gets better and I think, “I could live here.”