Moving on or moving out?

I have put a lot of stitching into my white cloth but do not feel as if I have got anywhere with it, or at least not got anywhere new except for working in white.  Following Jude's last post I put the cloth onto a bigger piece and realized that rather than keeping it as the square shape that had been formed by weaving the old hankie together it looked better as an oblong.  So now I have to decide whether to continue and  work outwards, or to say enough is enough (at least for now) and move on to something new.

 

I have also remembered that I have worked in white before,  I made a lamp shade for a course that I was doing, I did not like the lampshade but do like the fabric that I created and am now thinking of cutting it up and using as part of something else.

And a small embroidery that was supposed to be deeply symbolic and meaningful, of a shadow figure stepping out of the background and becoming visible but ended up as an Antony Gormley figure turning into John Travolta look alike! 

OH DEAR !   I THINK I NEED TO GO BACK TO COLOUR!

Finding white a bit of a struggle.

I have finished the sampler that I did as a result of refreshing my memory of Jude Hill's techniques prior to getting fully immersed in the What If Diaries, and the problem now is that I have somehow to get myself to work with white! I see white as dull and flat and boring. I could just choose to use colour but a part of me feels that I will be missing out if I do not try to use white and non-dyed fabric. 

I have woven a couple of base cloths, one from different white fabrics and one from an old white handkerchief,  but I have idea as to where I will go with them.  After much stitching and unpicking and starting again I have decided to just stitch and see what happens, if anything.  I think that my stitching so far on the hanky base expresses something of my ambivalence towards white and confusion as to what to do;  at the moment it has what  could become organic plant shapes surrounded by rigid straight lines - creativity imprisoned has just come to mind!   I shall keep going and maybe all will become clear.

My first "what if" cloth is not white.

Having read and listened and watched magic cloth101 over the weekend in preparation for "what If" I felt the need to get stitching something.  It started off as a simple way to remind my fingers how to do applique but it has turned into something else, as so often happens.  Pale colours are not really my thing so  I am doing things a bit differently already.  I am thinking of writing some words at the top - sphere, planet, globe etc.

Not sure how I am going to get on with white on white but will give it a try.  I have an old table knapkin that I am thinking of using as the base and just let it roll from there!

A Closer View

Dee, from What If Diaries, said she would like to see some close-ups of my sampler, so here they are.  As you can see it is not finished and I am waiting for inspiration to strike as to what to do in the top section (my idea of words did not look good).
  I have spent much of today sorting out my workroom which is always a total tip.  I thought that as I am going to try to only use white for a while I would take the opportunity to tidy away  all the coloured fabric and thread that was scattered all over the room.  It worked out quite well, I rediscovered the carpet and in celebration I am going to hoover tomorrow!

Beginning

Welcome to my new blog!
I have set up this blog to record my journey through Jude Hill's class "What If" , but also because I feel the need to move on from my other blog www.lifeinthreads.blogspot.com as it was set up a few years ago when I started a distance learning course which I am no longer doing.  You can still look at it to see what kind of stitching I do, but I think that I will get rid of it at some point.