Up early this morning, before going to the day job in the office, to sit with the stitch journal for a few minutes to complete the last day of August.
I am starting to feel autumn in the air, and I can see the light starting to change. Summer is my least favourite time of year – too bright, too hot, too noisy – so I’m looking forward to a little more quiet and a bit more darkness. I think of darkness as restful, like a cosy blanket or a thick curtain, but I know a lot of people struggle with the shortening days.
We are lucky to have seasons in this part of the world, to move through the months and be able to see the continuing cycles of life, death, and rebirth. Many of the flowers in our garden are just seed heads now, but they contain a whole new cycle of life ready to begin again after the winter. I guess stitches are like seeds too. There is a pun here, right, about sewing and sowing but I think I’ll probably just leave that there.
I worry sometimes that the stitch journal will become too busy, too much of a maelstrom of colour and texture, but so far it seems to be still quite cohesive. The colours and textures need quite careful managing but the stitches themselves just seem to happen along and pop out of nowhere.
I’m already thinking about how I will structure next year’s stitch journal and I think it will be different from this year somehow. I may choose a coloured background rather than white. It’s still a way off, so there is time to think about it some more.
Summer is also my least favorite season. I live on an island in Washington State and we are over run by tourists until at least October. Autumn and Spring have always been my favorite seasons.
I grew up by the seaside and it was the same there – holidaymakers everywhere all summer. The beach was so much nicer in the autumn and winter.
I do love the colors of autumn … unfortunately, we probably have two more months of summer weather ahead of us in Texas (where summer lasts six months and the other seasons get but two months apiece) … it should be very interesting to see the overall flow of color in your finished piece, although I suspect it will be quite challenging to photograph
Goodness, 6 months of summer… I don’t think I’d enjoy that… Yes, I’m already thinking I will probably have to video the whole piece when it’s finished, as a photo will be more or less impossible. I think a video might be quite effective actually, like gliding through time.
Not a fan of summer. Not good with the dogs. Can’t do anything for heat and people. I love the effort to get warmer, warm sweaters, quilts and cosy fires, much more than the difficulty in trying to cool down.
Ha, yes exactly – you can always put more clothes on to warm up…
It is remarkably cohesive, isn’t it. Something to do with the rhythm in the pattern and evenness of the stitches.
I’m not a fan of winter, I’m afraid. Grey skies and rain make it hard to be cheerful.
Yes, maybe the rhythm. I know a lot of people aren’t keen on winter.