I love hand stitching.  It makes me happy.

After taking the Making Zen course last month, I got excited to try Sashiko stitching — a traditional Japanese art used to mend clothing.  But since then, it has evolved.

I knew I needed a loosely woven fabric (nothing like this in my stash of quilting cottons!) so I ordered African mud cotton cloth to see if that would work.  It was too thick.  So I ended up working on some linen and this fabric was perfect.  I had to back it with some freezer paper so I could mark a grid without the fabric moving.  

I used a Frixion pen to make the marks since it disappeared when I ironed it (it doesn't say that in the package instructions but believe me, it worked!)

I used a combination of traditional Sashiko cotton thread and pearl cotton. Both worked well.

​What am I going to do with these samples?  Have no idea but I'm just loving the process.  Knowing how I work, I need to make many of these before an idea forms in my head.  In the meantime, I'm enjoying hand stitching on linen!

I've been working in a grid format lately and the challenge I gave myself was to pick one of the small 2" x 2" compositions and enlarge it to a 4" x 6" size.  I quickly found out I didn't like that idea since copying something (even my own work) was not fun for me.

But I DID have fun looking at all the ideas from my grid art and making a new composition in the new format.  I like the way this came out.  It has a lot more energy because it is larger.  I might continue working on this idea by taking it even larger.  But finding the right collage papers is always a challenge for me since my collection includes papers I've made 2-3 years ago and I won't remember exactly how to replicate them again.  

​Another challenge to contemplate!

The "Grid" is a well established artistic form for artists of all mediums.  

I started a new series of mixed media works based on this format and I am filling a sketchbook (8 x 10 Stillman & Birn Zeta series) with lots of grids to test out color and composition using a variety of materials from pens, pencils, paint, sprays, stencils, washi tape, and collage papers I have made over the years.

This has been so much fun, I can't stop making more every day.

Working small (these squares are 2 inches) allows me to quickly try out different ideas using the same color palette and some of the same materials.  I've always liked working in a series and find with paints, working on several pieces at the same time allows for some drying time between layers.  

I love this process but my ultimate goal is to see if a particular composition would work bigger so I just bought a 5 x 8 Sketchbook to experiment in turning one of these small squares into a larger piece.  This will be challenging since I will be changing the dimensions of the composition.  (Perhaps I should have purchased a square journal!)

​Oh well, art is always challenging and I've just given myself another one!