Detail from "Rain Dance," an original quilt by Sherrie Spangler

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Emerging personal petroglyphs

My petroglyph people, under construction.
Painted, stamped, embroidered by Sherrie Spangler

A few days ago, I decided I needed to work on something that reminded me of the desert. (Too much rain going on here.) I also wanted to use the luscious lemon and lime embroidery threads that had just arrived from Artfabrik.

So I pulled out the piece of fabric below that I had painted years ago in soft greens, turquoise, rose and lavender -- the desert in spring. A few months ago, I stamped it with some petroglyph figures that I had carved out of a foam food tray. Then I sponged on some shimmery gold spirals and squares. Then it went back in the bin because I couldn't decide what to do next.

Here you can see the beginning of the embroidery.

Well, now is its time to shine! The little figures were ready to emerge with help from some bright perle cotton thread. I started by outlining each with a green chain stitch, then further defined the main figure with a rusty stem stitch. I tried working with an embroidery hoop, but ditched that after about 10 minutes. Below, I'm adding a lavender blanket stitch to start the necklace.



A stem stitch also brings out my mystery animal:


Yellowy-gold feather stitches turned into hair:


It's coming along nicely now, but I still have to decide on the eyes. The eyes can make or break people, even if they are only embroidered petro people.


Lastly, here's why I'm spending so much time inside doing handwork:



Have a more colorful day

11 comments:

ellen gets crafty said...

Beautiful hand stitching and design.

Unknown said...

Fabulous. The stitching is so beautiful!
I just received a slew of Artfabrik hand-dyed fibers as well, and haven't had an inspiration yet...I'll just go home and pet them...

deanna7trees said...

love your petroglyph people. beautiful stitching.

Judy Ferguson said...

These are really fantastic. Great ideas. Adds a lot of texture and focus to the fabric.

Annette said...

Hello, have just found you blog, what a wonderful combination, the sea and stitching (my favorites).. Love the petroglyphs..
hugs
Annette

Ladybug said...

I Hear you on the rain - GREAT Petro-People, tho! WONDERFUL way to spend these days - and I'm sure you'll be so glad you did come summer (When/IF it comes...)

Yes Mam! Fiber Art said...

This is a WONDERFUL piece! It was worth waiting to use that special fabric!

Edith Bieri-Hanselmann said...

Great stitching. See it positive that it is raining, so you have enough time staying inside and enjoy your creativity even stitching is also a nice thing to do outside in the sun. Here in Switzerland we have such a wonderful and warm spring; I cannot remember when it has been so warm so early in the year.

Sherrie Spangler said...

Thank you everyone for your uplifting comments! The petro people have turned out to be one of my favorite projects.

Julia said...

Look at all the comments you're getting! It's not raining today! I'm making more tofu brownies tonight!

Julaine said...

Your hand stitching is gorgeous, Sherrie! Wish we could spend an afternoon together and you could show me what's possible beyond straight stitches and french knots...

On-line tutorials are just not fun! Informative, yes. But...there's no woman chat and massive consumption of chocolate going on at the same time!