inversion
I have been thinking a lot about opposites lately.
Like this flame of yes in a sea of nos
Or this wave of hope in a sea of despair.
Over at the Quilty Nook, there’s a year-long program called Wonder Year, designed to make you think through your practice and ignite your creative flow. Last month’s prompts of collision/inversion/subtraction created a flurry of inspiration in me- and two new series that I can’t stop thinking up new ideas for.
The first is a series of embroidered text- two are pictured above, and two more (so far) are in the works. At 15x15cm, they are a nicely portable size for the mini travels we did this month while my kids were on break, and just the right amount of text to keep my heart happy. I love stitching text in this way, with single-thread couching- especially when it can become wild, free, upside down, and backwards. It feels very liberating.
Here’s one more in progress- a thread of peace atop a mountain of chaos.
The second series began as I was still thinking about opposites- and how they can even exist within ourselves. Visits with both sides of my family over the past month have made me think about these dichotomies.
My Portuguese family would undoubtedly call me quiet. Yet my German family would probably call me loud.
Both can be true. All can be true.
The more I think about these inversions, the more examples occur to me. I expect this to be a long series (one of my quiltmaking friends joked that I’d have to make a hundred).
I am inspired. I am stuck.
The waves will flow, and the opposites will continue.