More on my sources of inspiration. (My previous Quilt and Stitch posts are here: One, Two, Three, Four and Five.)

I look for lines and it’s very easy to find them everywhere.

I like lines that curve and repeat, obviously…

I think nature is right up there with the Goddess, the Boss, the One in Charge. I don’t even try to reproduce exactly what I see because, frankly, I don’t think I could do it justice. I am happy to just interpret what I see.

Above: beetle tunnels under the bark, revealed once the tree is dead and has fallen on the ground.

And now, I take you on a side trip to visit the culprit (probable culprit…), of those “mines” as they are called on the fact sheet from Natural Resources Canada, the Golden buprestid (Buprestis aurulenta Linnaeus). A true jewel, don’t you think?

Well, it’s a jewel when it emerges, but its larvae mine channels through wood, even after it’s been milled, sometimes after many years. The record is 60 years, apparently. How about this piece of jewelry emerging from one of your baseboards?

And on the West Coast of BC, the water’s edge is rich with lines and texture. Another of my image hunting grounds.

Above, kelp at low tide, at Botanical Beach, on the west coast of Vancouver Island.  Which can be interpreted this way, with some fairly dense threadwork…

Here is another abstract photo of kelp at low tide, drying in the sun and waiting the returning waters. I love that gleam.

Machine play that evokes water, flow. Water here, water gone.

And when water plays with rocks, it’s a powerful creator of shapes. Here is an example from the Sooke Potholes Provincial Park on Vancouver Island, where the Sooke River offers a series of waterfalls, calm water and rapids.

And I leave you with these smooth rocks. May the stitching and texturing go as smoothly.