Many thanks to the kind folks at the Beard Art Center for hosting my first solo gallery show, “Threads.” It was a pleasure!

Inspired by Psalm 65:8
Dawn and dusk take turns calling, ‘Come and worship.”

This is what 44 hours of hand-stitching looks like:

To be fair, I’m not totally sure exactly how many hours I put into this piece. But with 55 vertical rows and 77 horizontal rows, at an average of 20 mins spent on each row, 44 hours is my best guess. It began with a silhouette, cut out of one of my favorite floral fabrics.

After that, I pulled out my needle and thread and started stitching.

It was important to me that these two intersecting thread systems didn’t just lay on top of each other, but instead be woven into each other. It’s not quite “knit,” of course, but I wanted to convey the same interlocking of materials to form something whole and complete.

If you have taken a glance at my twitter or facebook pages in the past few months, chances are that you’ve seen one of the many photos I’ve taken of this piece. I couldn’t help myself – this painting won me over even as I spend finger-numbing hours sewing each star by hand. There’s something about the simplicity of the image vs. the tediousness of the technique that is striking – and difficult to capture in photos! So forgive my “photo overload”…

It began with this piece of fabric:

After dyeing it light blue, I mixed up a batch of navy RIT dye and slowly dipped the fabric to create an ombre effect. I have very little fabric dyeing experience so at this point I was basically figuring it out as I went along.

Thankfully, it turned out exactly as I’d hoped:

After stretching the fabric onto canvas stretchers, I started painting in the skyline and added some brushstrokes in to deepen the faded look. And I couldn’t resist sprinkling some pastel-colored stars in the sky:

One of my secret wishes for this project was to finally master french knots, the one basic embroidery stitch that has always given me trouble. There are a few wonky ones in there, but I must say that I’m feeling a bit more confident in my french knots these days.

If you want a piece of the night sky for yourself, you can buy the 8×10 “Sky Jewelry” print at my etsy shop. Hope you like how it came out!

Hello! I’m excited to share a new painting with you today. Over the past three months, I set to work creating some new paintings for my first ever solo gallery show called “Threads.” One of six 32″ x 40″ paintings, this piece combines paint, pencil and thread in a way I’d never tried before.

Each of the paintings were inspired by a different biblical Psalm; this one was taken from Psalm 37: Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture.

I absolutely loved stitching these pastel colors directly over my brushstrokes – it was a “no turning back” moment but I really am happy with how it turned out.

Here’s a little look back at the process of creating this one. I loved this painting at each different stage (which isn’t always the case!). It gives me a “safe” feeling and I wish I could crawl inside and spend a week in that sweet little cabin.

An 8×10 print of the painting is available in my etsy shop. Enjoy!