Tangled Stitch

It's been a hectic few days and only seems to be getting more hectic, so I'm here to sing the praises of Tai Chi. It was the only peaceful hour I've had in days. I've had some pretty wonderful reasons for being busy, my 20th wedding anniversary was yesterday and my inlaws are coming up to visit this weekend but it's been hectic anyway. I go to Tai Chi every Thursday and it is the best hour of my week usually. I have been going for a year and am amazed at the difference it has made in my life and my work. It allows me to go to a silent flowing place and find peace there. I'm not very good at the actual Tai Chi form, although getting better every week but the warmup and cooldown breathing exercises are wonderful. It has also unblocked a lot of blockages that have held me back in my life. The amazing part is you don't really even notice that it's happening. It's lowered my blood pressure, made my breathing better, helped me control my weight, a...

No pictures of my work, my digital camera is packed to the gills and I've been too busy to go get them developed, but soon I will have brand new ones to share with you. So I decided to let you see my beautiful dog Charlotte. This is kind of an old picture so now she looks like a Charley, but still very pretty. She's a West Highland terrier who has been man's(and woman's) best friend for 8 years now. Workwise I've been making some crochet belts as it's a direction I've wanted to go in for a while so I'm seizing the moment. When I get some space on my camera I'll take some pictures. They are quite lovely. Life is pretty wonderful at the moment. Nice and busy. Family is doing well, dog is doing well, coop is doing well. All is right with the world at the moment. I'll be back tomorrow, enjoy my beautiful dog and the hopefully beautiful weather whereever you are. Keep stitchin.

This purse is one of my closet purses. One of the purses I made that I threw in my closet unlined and unfinished because I wasn't sure anybody else would like them. As you can see it is now lined in this beautiful green satin and finished. It says a lot about me and my vision of myself. I have wanted to make beautiful purses and beautiful clothing for years but somehow I kept on making pillows and chackis because that is what sold. I would make beautiful things and either put them in my closet unfinished or sell them. I never would keep any of my creations for myself. I would literally sell other people my wares to give as gifts and not give them to anyone myself. That changed a few years ago but I realize that it says an awful lot about me. It means I was not a risk taker, that inside me is this wacky off center artist and I wanted people to think I was this subdued boring ordinary person never assuming too much responsibility or assuming to jump out of this box I put my...

I worked in the coop today and had a wonderful time there. It is a beautiful place filled with beautiful work that makes me go a little beyond myself when I work there. Sometimes I wish I could be there every day it is so conducive to creativity. I am a fan of the Artist's Way by Julia Cameron. My days at the coop are my artist's dates. I know all the artists and I'm familiar with their work being there once a week but every single week I find a little something mesmerizing and different about something. Today it was a beautiful mosaic mirror made by our lovely mosaic artist Tess. She joined the coop in the beginning of March and she is very talented. Her mirror is just extraordinary. Beyond the pieces of glass there was a lovely pattern behind it. I must ask her how she did it but maybe it is better to have the wonder of it. I think the wonder of how artists do the work they do is something I wish to give to others. I used to wish to give them something they wo...

I am a talker, always have been but the last few days I've been very silent not very talkative. I think it is a convergence of different issues settling in my soul. The questions which I've shared with you already about my work, my insistence at not commenting on the politics which I am afraid I am not really succeeding at and a general lack of peace in my outer and inner world the last few days. That explains the lack of witty and interesting repartee. I guess I have been trying to cut off pieces of myself that somehow I don't think fit with my idea of a soulful peace. I started a purse last night which I already don't like. Maybe tomorrow I can deal with it and make it likeable but for now I don't want to look at it. Then there is the tee shirt I have been embroidering for the last week on and very off. I like the colors but I have been denying myself the time and the peace to finish it. It is also a pattern I use quite often and feel like I'm cheating...

Hello All. I thought I would share another picture with you all. I picked the dragonfly purse. I've been a little busy working on a custom purse with bunnies on one side and a turtle on the other. I have finished the bunnies and am beading my turtle. No pictures yet but I will take one and share it with you when I have finished it. I like to do custom work because people usually pick a subject that I wouldn't have picked myself. That is actually how I came up with my dragonfly. I had always wanted to do a dragonfly but it took a customer to order it in the coop for me to finally make one. Now they are one of my favorite things to do. I know this post was a little boring but I've been working so hard I have nothing interesting to say. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better posting day! Keep stitchin.

I think I must have mentioned that I belong to an artist coop and have discovered an artist in my body that I didn't know was there. Some days she competes with the crafter I used to be whose designs are all my own but boring and complacent. Today there was a clash of the titans. My work in the last 6 months has changed completely, I can't do ordinary very well, my previous work although lovely is kind of ordinary to be honest. So we have these beautiful unique one of a kind creations mixed in with the run of the mill ordinary designs of my past. As I had a modicum of success in the old version I tried to straddle the horse and not give up the ordinary. I guess I am still taking those darn baby steps. Today was sort of the end of the ordinary craft show and the ordinary work. I don't know what I am going to do with all the accumulated hours of my work and whether I should find space in my new direction anywhere for them. I'm thinking of taking a scissor to them...

Well this is the photo of fav's little sister. She was made with black velvet, gold material some vibrant red oriental material with gold embroidery floss and some beautiful tiger eye beads. I still think the red purse is my favorite but I like this one too. Topsy turvy no more sort of explains me on a Thursday. Thursday is my tai chi day. I have been taking Tai Chi since about this time last year. It is my once a week total relaxation hour. I'm not very good at Tai Chi but we do centering and breathing exercises before and after which really energizes me and brings me peace at the same time. I used to worry very much about being a little bit clutzy and absent minded and not remembering all the steps. But after a year of taking tai chi, I realize that I don't have to be perfect, in fact it would be amazing if I was. Every week a little bit more comes to me and I seem to do much better without the words and just the energy flow. It has also taught me a lot about my...

I said in my comment that I was going to share a picture of fav's little sister. Unfortunately she's a little sideways at the moment and since it's practically the middle of the night I can't ask my techno minded son how to turn her, so I guess you'll have to wait till tomorrow. She's living elsewhere too but I enjoyed making her and maybe some day both owners will be at a fancy party and the purses will get to meet each other. Silly thought I suppose but my purses really do have a life of their own. Everything I create has a life of it's own. Some day I'm going to have a dream that they are talking to me. Probably not but it is late and I'm thinking of dreaming. Adios pals.

I've always wanted a butterfly garden, but I have a black thumb. So I made a purse. Butterfly's are such beautiful creatures and they bring a smile to everyone's face. That is the response I like the most to my work, that smile or a compliment. I love to hear people talk about their families and how their grandmothers used to knit or sew or crochet. It's a lost art. I never miss an opportunity to spur a young admirer to pick up some needles herself. It doesn't matter whether it is a crochet needle, a pair of knitting needles or just a simple embroidery needle. It doesn't matter if they wish to make a business with it or just make a scarf for a loved one. The beauty of needlecrafting is that it is almost as much fun to make as it is to give it to someone you love. It's also a very peaceful art(unless you find a mistake a bunch of rows back and you have to pull it all back). I have to go to the more mundane tasks of my day such as vacuuming my poo...

Well hopefully this works out and I can get back to my beading.

It is stormy at the moment as is my soul. I have been trying all day to download some pictures from my camera to my computer to share with you and it hasn't been going very well. Much rather create art then share it via the computer. But I gave it a try and although it took much too much time out of my purse beading I've got some pictures for you. Hope you like them. Funny how little nuisances can change a restful day. Not just my life but everyone's life. Moving along in a flow take a short break to do something mundane and there goes two hours of your life and a modicum of your peace. I hope this stormy day finds you in a more tranquil creative mood.

Sometimes when we are children we don't realize the wonderful gifts people give us that don't really cost a lot of money. My legacy is one of them. When I was a kid it was the tale of two grandma's, my mom's mom was very generous. She always gave me the greatest gifts, pretty much whatever I wanted and then when I was older money. What kid doesn't love money? My other grandmother taught me needlecrafts. I sat by her side and learned how to knit and crochet and hand embroider. Every Christmas we would get doll's from one grandma and embroidered pillowcases from the other one. From a kid's perspective you can see which one won out most of the time. I kind of took those pillowcases for granted and chucked them to be honest. But while other kids were riding bikes and playing tag I was knitting something anything or crocheting an afghan that never seemed to get finished, or embroidering pillowcases. Whenever i got that money from one grandmother I w...

Another leap. It feels like all I do is leap lately. I joined a artist's coop, I changed my focus and now I'm trying the blogosphere. Look out below. I get these wonderful newsletter's once a week in my email from Alyson Stanfield. She has some great ideas and she planted the seed of blogging in my fertile mind several months back, but I didn't follow up(so what else is new). I guess maybe my time wasn't right, still had some things to figure out about me(isn't it always about me) before i could be comfortable with the fiber artist moniker. nevertheless a successful fiber artist. But now I'm ready. Lucky for you if you are reading this blog. Hopefully lucky for me if you are reading this blog. I guess in life success doesn't come to us until we are ready for it. Until we get rid of all the bull that everybody else tells us and start listening to our own heart and our own dreams. Till we rid ourselves of habits that keep us stuck where we ar...

My favorite purse now resides in some one elses house, as does its black velvet and gold satin sister. It was my first foray into evening purses. It was a beautiful handembroidered and hand beaded patchwork purse. I loved making it and I recently got an update from the lady who bought it and it is quite the attention getter and she still loves it too. I love to make purses. Frilly funny little purses, knit purses, freeform thread purses and embroidered purses. They seem to be the be all and end all for me. Don't know if I mentioned but I make needlecrafted accessories for the heart, home and body. I think my pieces speak to the heart of the buyer and speak to me while I'm creating them. The home is pillows, not my favorite accessorie but it has always been my biggest seller. And well then comes the purses. I'm venturing into thread crochet scarves. I love to work with crochet cotton. It's up there with hand embroidery. But like I said yesterday nothing quit...

I've come to figure out lately that it is my work that describes me best. Simple but complicated. As a fiber artist I love the details. Whether it is crocheting a christening dress or embroidering an ornament, I just love the little details. I think that pretty much describes my life too. I think sometimes we look at things and say wow that is beautiful but what is really behind the beauty. When it comes to my work there are many things behind the beauty. I know I don't create my art on my own. They come from another place, especially when they are complicated and detailed. I have found out recently about myself that detailed fine work is what brings me down to earth. I'm a pretty high energy person and very affected by the energy of others. Once I get on a roll nothing can stop me, but a beautiful thread piece of art or a simple peace pillow with hundreds of little french knots can bring me peace in the middle of my chaos. I love what I do, it defines me. If I ...

I am having a great day today. I went out to breakfast with my best friend Emily. she is a very creative soul too and we have a marvelous time. I'm working on a thread crochet scarf which I can't wait to finish, the sun is shining at the moment. Although it was thundering with hail. Very boring I suppose but great in it's own way. Hope all of you are well. I'm still trying to figure out how to add pictures. See you soon!

I'm brand new at this blog thing. I'm kind of computer illiterate but I have a lot to say. I'm a fiber artist and I belong to an artist's coop. I had a hard time excepting the artist moniker but now I can say I am an artist. Now it's the fiber that has me tied in knots. I hand embroider, crochet & knit accessories for the ladies. I guess I'd do them for the menfolk too but right now have no takers except my husband who has a nifty grey scarf and my son who has a nifty blue one. I also do framed work. I'm not quite sure how to download the pictures so when I figure that out I'll let you know. Probably would have been better in the horse and buggy days but what the heck. I love what I do so I'm trying to make my way through the bold new world of blogging and being an artist. Being a working artist that is. My main reason for being here is I am a political junkie and that takes me away from my art. Very far away. So maybe if I have a...