Thursday, April 07, 2011

a stitched photo...

tomorrow i am headed out to the west coast of the island, for an annual "girls" trip i do every spring for about eight years now. a few girls, a cozy beachside cabin, a few bottles of wine, and perhaps a bit of surfing and definitely lots of beach exploring - it's always a great time. the crew of women varies each year, except for my friend who organizes the whole thing, and me. the spring date usually coincides (give or take) with her birthday, although this year we are about a month late. hopefully that means warmer weather will prevail, although we have often been surprisingly lucky in march.

surfer girls

anyway, i wanted to bring her a little present, as i usually do. this year i thought it might be fun to bring something that was actually somewhat commemorative of our annual trip. i printed out a photo i took of some of our surfing crew about three years back, in black and white to add a bit more timelessness to it. i faded out the bottom of the sand to leave a bit more white space, and then i started stitching.

embellishing

some bull kelp, a seal, and a bit of a border grew on the photo. it was fun to be stitching on paper, so completely different from working in soft, pliable fabric. i only stitched in black thread to keep this fairly monotone, but i'd like to try some colour in the future. it could also be interesting to work in a much larger size - this is only an 8x10 sheet of bamboo paper. i've put it in a simple white frame for her. i hope it will be a good memory of our times at the beach, especially now that she lives far away from the ocean.

stitched photo

wishing you all a relaxing weekend - i'm looking forward to three days without work and worries.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

It's so beautiful! i love the colours you use- in all your projects,

Cloudberry said...

Oh, I love this!
Wish I was as creative as you :)
Have a great wekend!

Anonymous said...

oh, Kristy, that's simply beautiful; thoughtful & extremely creative ! What a great kind of trip !! Enjoy to the fullest !! xoxo

sula said...

You are chock full of great ideas. I am already plotting how to do something like it for a mother's day present. Thanks, as always, for the inspiration!

Margie Oomen said...

what a wonderful way to spend time with dear woman friends. I love your stitched photograph so much.

Tara said...

That is really beautiful. I really like the black and white. I can't wait to see what else you do with this medium in the future. I am thinking of all your wonderful photos right now. you really need to do more of this. Enjoy your girls weekend!

Kate said...

Beautiful!

Kitty said...

I really, really love this! So beautiful!

kate said...

Oh wow, this is amazingly cool.

Have a great week-end, I know the west side has been calling you all winter to come over :)

Netta said...

What a great idea, as always you have such an imagination for new creative ideas!

Anonymous said...

very cool... and I am totally jealous of your trip! Have FUN!

ZenCrafter said...

What a beautiful way to commemorate a friendship and the special weekend you share! The photograph is stunning, the stitching equally so. I love the feel of stitching through paper. Wool gives a different feeling, but it's similarly satisfying.

Mona said...

This is so elegant and stylish, yet fun and sweet. You really have a talent for style and stitching!