Autumn On The Horizon

After each rain or thunderstorm I find yellow leaves lying in the flower beds and on the lawn. This has been going on for almost a month, now, and I suppose it means we will not have a lot of color when the real Autumn arrives, that the dry Summer is a harbinger of a brown Autumn.

With this in mind, I began to think about the idea that leaves might be "fingerprinted," that they might leave some trace of themselves on the places they have touched (I know, a little off the wall again). The texture and shape of the whorls of a fingerprint are interesting, so I started by gathering a bowl of Autumn-colored threads and yarn to create this forensic glimpse into the heart of the Autumn.



Creating the circling patterns was the easy part. But the heart of the pattern? Why, the leaf, of course. And in the heart of the leaf? A tree.



I was not interested in painted fabrics or layers of sophisticated embellishing techniques when I began thinking about the leaf, simply in the stitching of this idea. I always seem to go back to the stitches when I'm fumbling with an idea, and the hours I spent on this were very peaceful ones. I used stitches that left little pockets for holding beads later on, but when it came to the beading, I chose to use French Knots instead. This just didn't seem to be an embroidery in need of beads to complete it!