This is just a quick few lines upon my return from a lovely long weekend away with my arty crafty stitchy friends at Sewjourn.

I took a veritable mountain of materials with me, as did all the others. It’s hard to predict exactly what one will feel like working on, so it’s good to have options.

As it turned out, I didn’t use my sewing machine and my space remained largely strewn with wet painting materials. But I did do a quick collaboration with Juliet; a thing I have been wanting to do for about three years.

Her thread drawings, when in their first stages, consisting of black thread on linen, often have me positively itching to take ink and a paintbrush to them! Thankfully for Juliet, I am capable of some self restraint!

Given the time and space to finally give it a whirl, I drew a few quick birds on cotton (birds were my dominant theme for the weekend) and begged her to draw over one of them in thread for me, which she did. Here’s what happened.

soft pastel on cotton

Another soft pastel bird. We carried through with only one of the three that I drew, as Juliet had her own mountain of projects to work on.

Juliet selects a bird to work on

Juliet stretches the fabric into an embroidery hoop

Juliet at the machine. An expert at work.

Thread drawing process complete

It’s not surprising that Juliet’s thread drawings resonate with me, given my fascination with continuous line drawings. These are a stitched version of that very thing.

I threw on the black paint in a variety of ways. I varied the amount of water to see how it would react to the fabric, how the spreading would look and whether I could get a dry brush effect. Unfortunately this photo is a little blurry.

I loved the way Juliet had treated the eye. It didn’t want any paint at all.

Initially I intended it to be a black and white creation. But I felt the urge to add some colour to the bird. I think this worked well.

More on my other Sewjourn projects later.