Connecting To The Earth

November got printed up and the front and back ready to be worked on as were all of the rest of my upcoming pages but after that it sat for a few weeks. Early November found me working on getting my Christmas cards far enough along that I could send them to my parents where I would finish them. I also had to get ready to leave for the holidays. I decided that since Wayne would be gone for the holidays and I have no family in the area that I would go spend the holidays with family. I spent 2 weeks with Wayne's folks and then a month with mine.

Being gone from home that long meant that I had to figure out what all I was going to want to use on my pages for November through Jan. That was very challenging.






I flew to Kentucky the 19th of November and after getting in safe and sound started on my November page. I worked on it around a trip to Chicago and all of the other activities that I did with Wayne's folks. I had a great time with them and since Wayne's Mom Marti is a Quilt Artist she was very helpful with advice and lots of encouragement. She also gave me some supplies that I could use including the metallic ribbons that make up the border of this page.



November I continued using leather and cotton cords couched down for branches, it is actually a trend you will see in the next months as well. November also sees the start of another trend that will continue into the next months and I think into some of my future work and that is including more hand stitching to add texture and details to my pages. It is harder to see from a distance but up close I think it really does add to the piece(s).

When I first start picking out photos for Novembers pages I realized that I had several interesting photos of milk weed pods opening up to disperse their seeds. Immediately the idea of using feathers to portray the fluffy part of the seed came to mind. This provided a challenge in how to do it but I love the way it looks. The seeds had a bit of a do-over because I tried something I ended up not liking so that came out and seed beads, French knots and a bit of other stitches went in.

Even though I didn't start my November page until the 20th I still managed to get it finished before I headed to Iowa on the 3rd of December.