Author: lauramchugh

A bit on fire today enjoying trying all these different things with the SEWN painted paper strips.

I’m liking having a central image – plenty of these to pull from my stash – and then surrounding them with the painted paper in various forms.

I have another idea for these that I’ll execute tomorrow!

I went to a lecture last night at the San Francisco Center for Book Art. The lectures were a bit ***yawn*** – how to tell if a book was made at a particular English abbey in the 1600s…but the examples of various books they make in summer classes was inspiring.

This project in NO WAY matches the beauty and craft that SFCBA achieves, but it is my way of combining the papers I sewed together today (yes – I sewed all of the strips!) into a new project. 

My strips made into bigger pieces.

I made a book cover to go over my little notebooks I make. The front is adorned with my favorite thing in the world – a vintage button.

I have enough papers to make LOTS of little booklets.

Front:

Back:

Okay, this is the last thing I’ll create today…maybe. I’m going to an event later this afternoon, so no more time to sew.

This is another piece where I feature something I painted in the center of the reworked pattern strips that were sewn together. Boy, I am sure loving this class SEWN.

Papers before I re-jumbled them:

Final piece:

I was at the hospital from last Friday to Tuesday, sitting beside my step-mom’s bed, watching as the palliative care did its gentle job of helping Flora transition from here to there, wherever there is.

Her family (5 kids, plus spouses, grandchildren) filled the room day in and day out with their stories of their mom, laughter, kids playing games on iPads oblivious to the miracle about to take place, food, coffee, lots of trips to the cafe and to take my dad for walks around the hospital grounds.

In between, my sister and I were playing with watercolors on small scraps of leftover paper from around my failed monotypes. The paper is luscious and accepts watercolors and paint nicely. I told my sister and others who asked that I was taking this class SEWN. One of Flora’s daughters-in-law knew of Mary Ann Moss, so that was a nice point of connection. My dad married Flora when they were both 70, so I don’t know Flora’s family all that well.

I watched a video this morning that Mary Ann posted about the pattern-maker sisters in London, Collier Campbell. Their work is beautiful and somewhere in there, Mary Ann’s video challenged us to do something different and post it, so here is mine.

I stitched together several of the little watercolors done by my sister or me, with a stack of the strips I organized last night in that same color family of blues and greens.

I am calling this piece Transitioning because it captures the time we spent with Flora in her last days, gently holding a circle of light and love around her, telling her it was okay to go.

My favorite part of this piece is the translucent white paper with the circles in it. The light comes through, like our light in life and beyond. The piece is a bit wonky and imperfect, like our lives. Stitches show through, threads not quite perfectly cut off, and little tears and gaps here and there.

I miss you Flora. You were a beautiful, loving, creative light in my life. You taught me a lot about doing my art. Thank you. May you rest in peace.

I’m a little behind on my assignments for SEWN due to a family emergency that had me out the better part of a week.

My fingers were itching to cut up and sew the papers I’d made last week, but I was not at home and nowhere near a sewing machine. Today I cut up the papers and scrounged through my stash of non-painted papers to see if I could add to the colors I had.

I found it easier to sort the papers into piles to be sewn by doing it while talking to my daughter on the phone. That took my mind off trying to go crazy in coordinating everything perfectly. I loosened up and just tossed things into piles and when all was said and done I had 12 groups of about 15-20 strips.

Then I followed instructions and sewed the strips together. I decided to use a straight stitch to conserve a bit on thread because my sense was the bobbin had just enough to make it through this piece.

Sure enough, about 6 inches from the end of the last two strips being sewn in, the bobbin ran out! How does it know…….?

I have eleven more piles to finish after this one. I can’t wait because the sewing definitely made these into nice pieces.