making marks, © Paula Kovarik, 2012
I spend a lot of hours at the machine these days. It is not a healthy sport. My shoulders and hands are weary at the end of several hours. I have come to set alarms so that I look up. On bad days I forget lunch.
So when I looked at this piece in the shadows I was taken by the texture that hand stitching creates. The stitches are not even. They dip and ding the fabric leaving a hill or valley or a crease. For some reason I can work hand stitch happily without tearing anything out. But when I work by machine I focus (too hard) on stitch length and tension. I think after I finish the large piece I am working on I will concentrate more on hand work and play wih the light and darkness created with fingers instead of machine.