Recurring motifs 9 -- spirals

I'll wind up my reflections on the motifs that appeared over and over in my daily art project last year with the spiral, which has turned out to be probably the most important discovery of the year.

I hadn't realized that I loved spirals when I started my stitching project, although the first one showed up very early, on January 4.  This was not a motif that I had ever used much in my work, nor did it ever appear in my doodles.  If I had to make a free-association with spirals in fiber art, it would be to the quilts of Jane Lloyd or the hand-stitching of Judy Martin and Christine Mauersberger.

Jane Lloyd, Whirlpool

But guess what -- the spirals kept coming, in many different stitches.  Here's one from early in the year with an awkward curve.

The shapes improved with practice.  And I used several different stitches to make the spirals.

Finally near the end of the year I decided that my favorite was an interlocked running stitch, in which you start with one color, then go back and fill in the blank spaces with a second color.