It’s felt very odd not to be teaching on the road. My health has not permitted it, my husband has not encouraged it, and the demand is mostly gone. For a long while, I think my body decided it was a good time to sleep.

So the drive to create went on vacation until I was able to get out of bed. And the physical strength to work on large tapestries will have to be built up again. It’s a physical activity. It takes muscle.

So I’ve taken to playing with little things. I’m working on a project with Irish crochet in yarn. I’ll show you that later.

I’ve also been playing with oil stick rubbing.

I know. I know. It’s not in vogue anymore. And it’s stinky. I know. I still think the look is amazing. I’ve been trying to incorporate it into quilts and have loved the look of it. It’s something structured in my very non-structured head.

I did a curtain of nothing but scraps of oil rubbed fabric. Then I started to think about what a small work would look like if that were the start.

I stitched them with metallic thread to give them sparkle. They were beautiful but subtle. I don’t ordinarily do subtle.

So I added some neat brass findings, silk roses and novelty yarn. They were still subtle.

I worried about that for about three minutes and decided subtle might not be a bad thing.

So here they are. I’ve called the Artifacts, because I see them as found work rather than original embroidery. They’re sort of a collage in oil rubbing and stitching.

So let me know. What do you think? Every time you start an experiment, you have no idea where it might go.

These quilts are on sale in my etsy shop.