Tangled Stitch

I've been in a little bit of a funk the last few days. Perhaps it's the 90 degree weather or the sore throat and fatigue, but I've been basically uninspired the last few days. My son finally selected his college. He is going to University at Albany(thank God) and I'm thrilled to pieces about that and he has a lovely new girlfriend and I'm happy about that but the idea that in less then 60 days my son will graduate from high school has put me in a mini slump. Not very creative, not very motivated just here. I was tempted not to post on my blog but decided to share my gloominess instead. I hope my bloggy friends have much to be inspired by at their links. I've added some new ones as of late and I'm going to read all of my links and hope they somehow inspire me to get back to work and start finishing projects so I can take some pictures. Hopefully you will find something on their blogs to inspire you too. Blessings to all of you and I hope I'll see...

This is an essay no pictures for Inspire Me Thursday. Today I am pushing myself to blog as I woke up early this morning, went to a car dealer, found a beautiful car and am amazed that it is sitting in my garage tonight.(It's a lovely royal blue Accord, it's beautiful). Push, when I think of the word so many things come to mind. How I push myself to work(which brings me great joy a little guilt that I sometimes do have to push myself) that I can be pushy on occassion. That I don't like to pushed around. Lots of things most of them negative so I think I'll stop dwelling on push or pushing myself to come up with something positive to say about it. I did Tai Chi for a while, I really have to get back to it. One lesson I learned very easily was that you can push somebody and knock them off balance with very little effort. Just a slight movement of the legs putting your weight in the right one can do it. Once I was getting groceries out of the back of my CRV with my hu...

Ok so I've been so busy embroidering that I don't have any pictures to show you. I finished the outside of the hand bag but can't seem to settle on a lining so it may be a while. I embroidered another cross, a small one but it is not framed yet so perhaps tomorrow. I finished a little turtle that took entirely to long to end up on an eyeglass case so it's in waiting. I sketched a few small pieces waiting to be inspired by a big piece. Got inspired to do a water goddess and then hated the preprinted fabric I intended on using so watercolored a new piece which isn't dry yet. I've been having a ball just being caught up in embroidery and the creative process. But no pictures. If you want beautiful pictures to look at any one of my bloggy friends blogs will do the trick. Ok so now more about the interviews with Lynda and Sybil. I hope you enjoyed them and learned more about them and their work and their processes. It was wonderful hearing the answers to the...

Today in my email I found my weekly newsletter from ArtBiz and the fabulous Alyson Stanfield (http://www.artbizblog.com) about having a fire in your belly for your work and your blog. Lately I have been immersing myself in embroidery, inspiration, blogging and promoting my work(actually the promoting my work is the hardest part and a big part of Alyson's blog for this week). Embroidery wise I finished the front of the hand bag and will show you the finished project asap. I've been making lots of sketches and can't wait to start my next project. I'm trying to get a little looser with the sketches and trying to change things up enough for a change but not so much that I lose my style. Trying to incorporate different stitches and colors and contrasts. I've been embroidering a lot(I reward myself with embroidery every time I do something domestic win/win situation). Inspiration and blogging sort of go hand in hand. I love to visit the blogs of other artists and ...

Stella Originally uploaded by DebraAnn813 Hi All! I am really bushed tonight as we went on an accepted student open house and tour a of UAlbany this morning. I loved, loved, loved the campus(I've made my mind up if my son can just make up his) and it was just so exciting. So I'm sharing Stella for a second(or maybe third time). I didn't realize it at the time but the colorfulness of Stella's face in contrast with Lucinda's is amazing. She no longer belongs to me and I hope she is happily residing elsewhere but I still love her as I so enjoyed embroidering her(enough to hand embroider Lucinda). So enjoy my bloggy friend's blogs and I will get back to you and all of my lovely friend's blogs tomorrow!

When it comes to good friends I am a very lucky woman. Yesterday I went out to lunch with my friend Cheryl. We went to the local brew pub and had a fabulous salad and a fabulous beer. Her daughter and her really nice boyfriend also came and we just had a wonderful time. My friend Cheryl is a glass artist who I found for the coop I belonged to. The coop is long gone and better off forgotten but my friendship with Cheryl is everything the coop was supposed to be. She is so supportive of my work, she lights a match under my overly cautious and overly procrastinating nature and she is a wonderful friend who accepts me just as I am. I've spoken before about my friend Emily who is a wonderful quilter who makes quilts and donates them(most of the quilts she makes I might add) and is the closest thing I probably will ever have to a sister. She listens to my problems, laughs when I tell jokes and supports me in my quest to be an artist every time we are together. My friend Debbie fro...

This week's topic is green on Inspire Me Thursday. Since green is my favorite color I wanted to participate and chose my green dragonflies mini quilt(or my vague interpretation of a mini quilt anyway). Green always reminds me of new beginnings and I have to be honest when I read the topic I immediately saw Kermit singing it's not easy being green. I like to use green in my work. On my blog you will see many green pieces, green trees, green hands, green turtles, green crosses, green knit bags. Everytime I want to renew myself or bring myself peace with my work I make something green. When I was young my brother died and for my entire life my mother wore black and I somehow followed suit(although that was probably an issue with my weight more then my grief). But when I moved to this wonderful place in upstate NY which probably is the personification of green I started finding myself and renewing myself in green, with green. When I used to make cross stitch pillows for weddi...

I finished the front part of my "hand" purse. Was unsure about how to finish(or whether to just leave it alone) but opted for the whimsy. The hand is surrounded by french knots, spirals and lazy daisies. I haven't started the back yet but have some ideas brewing. Well today is tax day or tea bag day depending on your point of view. The tea bags are safely in my cupboard where they resided during the last 8 years. If the last 8 years didn't make me dump my tea into the river nothing will! I don't really drink tea either but I do use it to dye my muslin at times. Much better use of the tea bag. My taxes were done a few weeks ago so it wasn't really tax day for me either. I am reading Wayne Dyer's book about Inspiration. I love his books also. I bought this book(instead of taking it out of the library) over a year ago and only found it while looking for something else. I thought of it as kismet that it popped out of my bookcase just when I was lo...

Hi All! This is the continuation of my hand bag. Thank goodness for embroidery as I am busy, busy, busy doing all kinds of mundane tasks regarding real life. At least I've been able to relax for a short time with my wonderful needles and thread. My beloved Mets lost their home opener in the beautiful Citifield. Trying not to get too bummed out, it's only the first week of the season. Watched a wonderful special about Marty Brodeur's passing of Patrick Roy and being the best goalie in hockey(he is you know). And watched about photographers and photography on Ovation. That is my favorite television station at the moment. So awe inspiring(and interesting to boot). Everything else is about the same. Hope you are all happy and peaceful. Keep stitching(hopefully by tomorrow I will have something more interesting to share).

Happy Easter to one and all! I have no photos of my work in progress to share today and no words really either. I'm pretty exhausted from my trip down to Huntington Long Island(that's for Lynda). I had an excellent time visiting my inlaws and my husband's aunt and uncle and I had a fabulous talk with my aunt, my mother's sister. A time to reflect and enjoy people instead of embroidery for a change. We traveled down the Taconic, as beautiful a roadway if there ever was one. The trees were not green nor even close to budding and many of them were damaged from the harsh winter weather but still a beautiful inspirational sight. My son was quiet, my dog was even quieter and the music on the radio was great for a change, hardly any clinkers. No traffic anywhere as my husband's family decided to celebrate on Saturday instead of Sunday. So no traffic down and no traffic up on an Easter sunday(wonderfully peaceful day to travel on the road if you can get away with it...

To all my bloggy friends thank you all for your wonderful and supportive responses to my blog and I hope you much Peace and Joy for your holiday season. And a wonderful time with your family and friends and to all my bloggy friends lucky enough to have flowers for this Easter I'm very envious. Not even a crocus to be seen up here in my neck of the woods. Peace is not exactly a pillow but an experiment. I tried that miniquilt thing and I was pleased with how it turned out. I used a few pieces of wool entwined with embroidery thread and beads as the hanger. Also the fabric was a scrap of my watercolored fabric(which I can't wait to do again soon). And joy is a little pillow I made of the most beautiful clump of leftover thread. Didn't even have to search for more thread to make it thankfully! Once again a round of hugs to everyone and good wishes for a beautiful and peaceful holiday! Just a quick Ps. My friend Lynda(http://www.innersights.blogspot.com/) has a beautiful...

Here are two views of Hand Bag, one from yesterday and one from today. I had some really good stitching time today and will probably stitch some more tonight. I love to stitch. I love to blog too. The title of this blog post got me to thinking about how most human beings are works in progress. We work on ourselves little by little and try to make the best of one of God's creations. I look back at the last 5 years of my life and then I look back 10 years and then 18 years and I'm not even remotely the same person I thought I was 18 years ago and probably not even the same person as a year ago. First off my son will be 18 in a couple of weeks(not months, not years but weeks). I still remember carrying him and wondering how I was going to be responsible for another living thing. We bear some responsibility when we marry but when you have a child there are no more sick days(even when they are almost 18). I've been married 22 years. Who would have ever thought that a v...

Hopefully this is a much better picture then the last one. I really enjoyed water painting the fabric and hand embroidering this piece and did not think the previous photo did it any justice. Thanks to all the well wishers, still feeling under the weather but able to embroider so I've continued on with my Hand Bag made strictly for myself(the walking billboard idea). Here it is as of today. It was inspired by a trip to the fabric store and a wonderful piece of cotton fabric(which I foolishly didn't buy) with the wonderful color combination. I just happened to buy a lovely brown linen remnant a few weeks ago so I bought embroidery thread in the colors and my walking billboard was born. I love to do hands and since it is a piece for myself I figured what the heck. I've decided that I will take pictures of my work little by little every day and add them to my blog unless they are so extraordinary that I simply don't want to break the spell by giving too much away....

Hi All! I am in the midst of the flu or a very bad cold with a fever which I caught from my lovable son. So no new news, no new projects, just a wee bit of reading and watching movies on cable with tissue box in tow. So hopefully by tomorrow or sooner I will be inspired to think up a topic or frame a piece or even embroider(I know things are bad when I don't feel like embroidering). Keep stitching and keep yourself healthy.

This is Crossing. It is a light blue hand embroidered cross with green accents on green watercolor fabric. I've included a closeup view of the stitchwork also. I love to hand embroider crosses. They make me feel closer to my center and my maker. Ironically I am a wee bit cross myself today. My poor son is sick with a sore throat ,ear ache and vomiting. My dog is still a little under the weather and of course I am under the weather too. I guess this is one of those times when bad news comes in threes. But I am sure we will all be fit as a fiddle soon. I'm also not very talkative today, I'm a bit reflective. A good day to embroider. And not a good day for blogging. So I will bid adieu and see you tomorrow (unless of course I am inspired on my travels during my visit to blogland). Keep stitching!