Excuses

I could blame it on the several snowfalls that changed the view outside my studio window into a world I have seen so many times before but yet always looks new, always brings out that little breath stop of surprise. Just as no two snowflakes are identical, no two snowfalls are ever quite the same.

Or I could blame it on the ice that followed as I walked the dog with cleats on my boots and horror stories of falls friends or friends of friends have taken echoing in my mind.

But more of the blame for not writing a post rests on the nature of the series I am working on right now. I am well into three pieces using my heavily textured, hand-stitched technique.  I am making progress but I do slow art and I'm not sure anyone wants to read: "Finished ten rows of stitching and added three gradations of gray and a medium turquoise to the piece," even though I thought the week a magnificent success.

In lieu of writing about what I am actually doing as I focus on getting something done for a deadline,

I will include a photo of something that I'm putting on hold for a while--one of my insect blocks (see here if you don't remember this project). This five-inch square, patterned on the compound eye of a butterfly, which is made up of 12,000 to 17,000 photoreceptors or "eyes," was one I began last spring. But I did add the final few French knots this week.

So welcome to 2018, and, if you are still reading, thanks for the company!

Linked with Off the Wall Fridays.