Tangled Stitch

This is the piece I was speaking about a few weeks ago. It is hand embroidered on water colored muslin. The center of the piece is an embroidered tangle of threads and it flows out from there in a peaceful flowy way. My life is still in the chaotic phase. My son was on the waiting list for the prom and he got his tickets yesterday for the prom which is Saturday. We went to get his tuxedo and thankfully it was an easy and quick process and his date is going for her dress today. We are also filling out his college courses and that has been a bit more of an ordeal. As far as my work goes. My work was accepted into a new gallery that is opening in Troy and I was not accepted as a member of an artist coop which I applied to. I feel I may have muddied the water by submitting older work(which I am currently not doing)instead of concentrating on my framed hand embroidery. But whatever will be will be and I guess that was an opportunity not meant to be(at least for now). I guess just t...

I have so many wonderful things going on but none of them are quite ready to share yet. My dream is to have a life as an artist that validates itself after no longer being a stay at home mom. To do the work and find the outlets and just work, be it big or small, embroidered or knit I want to stitch a life for myself now that my son is although not flying the coop physically is flying the coop for all intensive purposes. It started in September as I realized this was a year of last mommy moments and has reached a fever pitch since his 18th birthday and is rolling along picking up steam as we near graduation and college. So finally I am taking baby steps and they seem to be leading me to my life after stay at home mommydom(yes I'll still be a mother but not quite in the same way). I've been putting my work out in my little corner of the world and it seems as if I will be able to keep working. So I've got a bunch of wonderful things to share which hopefully will finaliz...

This is the definition of warrior as per dictionary.com 1. a person engaged or experienced in warfare; soldier. 2. a person who shows or has shown great vigor, courage, or aggressiveness, as in politics or athletics. Some days when I embroider I feel like a warrior armed with my embroidery needle. Looking to find peace and joy with my needle. Trying to escape those things that make me feel like a different type of warrior. Some days I think we all feel like a beast or a warrior, willing to fight with anyone about anything. Those kind of days are so difficult that we all need some sort of outlet to fight against those negativities. For me the answer is my embroidery needle. It never fails to bring me peace(and no not by sticking the other person with my embroidery needle). It brings me back to my center stitch by stitch by stitch. It's meditative and puts my attention on the one thing that will calm me down. I'm one of those people that picks up whatever energy is in ...

This is the latest project I am working on and zoom, zoom, zoom well that is my life at the moment. So much work to do, so much going on with son graduating next month and going to college in a few, not to mention some work related excitement(and pressure). I'm zooming in and out and trying to embroider enough to center myself and bring myself some peace in the midst of all this chaos. About the piece it is a hand embroidered turtle on watercolored muslin and the zoom is the detail of the background. I have a few more circles and it will be done and then off to the framing process and then I'll share it. I am thrilled with the way it is turning out and it is a slight departure from my usual work. Well short and sweet(hopefully) and off to read my bloggy friends. Keep stitching. See you soon if I stop zooming quickly enough!

This is Flamethrower finally finished and matted and framed. It is hand embroidered on watercolored muslin. I am really beginning to enjoy watercoloring the fabric and it adds so much to the piece. At first it was just a way to add interest but now I find it almost almost as creative as the embroidery itself. Funny how something you've never done before changes something you have so entirely. Now I look at pieces that I've done previously on plain muslin and I think they are missing something. I've also been adding other aspects of embroidery to my pieces such as french knots(my all time favorite) and other details that I love to do. I used to think that the main part of my art was just the hand embroidered main element but now I realize that the little touches some time make the main element pop. Especially the french knots in a contrasting color. Flamethrower has no contrasting elements as the piece itself pops due to the variation of colors I used and I thought...

Petals! What lovely fragile parts of a flower. When I think of petals I see them falling softly to the ground after the bloom has gone. I think of rose petals on the bed(from television not my own life too much cleanup). I think of their lovely scent and how fragile and quickly time flies and they are gone replaced hopefully by different blooms and different petals. My friend Mendofleur had a beautiful petal jacket on her blog a while ago(a truly great submission for Inspire Me Thursday, so you can find it at http://mendofleur.com/2009/04/14/petal-jacket/ for yourself if she doesn't share it). It captures the petal just perfectly and is a real work of art so please go and see it. I love it and I know you will too. It reminds me once again how we are all a part of a whole and connected and yet we are petals that have fallen off the flower and have blown away. Her work is lovely. As for my own petals, this is my handful of flowers. It is one of my favorite hand embroidered ha...

Hi All! I spent my Mother's Day joyfully revamping Symbols and Circles. Still not sure I like it but I like it better then it's previous incarnation, it gave me a couple of hours of blissfully joyful french knotting, it's a bit more interesting, and more reflective of my current work. So that is that and I will now have it at my future shows and maybe it will even make another appearance at Katbird. I am still working on my flame thrower hand and only have a few flamethrowing fingers left. It's on watercolored fabric and the colored fabric makes such a big difference and I enjoy painting on the fabric too. I had a wonderful Mother's Day, nice peaceful and embroidery filled. I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day too. There are a lot of great things on my links so please take a look if you have a chance. They are so inspiring to me I hope they do the same for you. Keep Stitching!

This is a picture of a picture of my mom, my grandmother, my great grandmother and Me on my 16th Birthday. It's the only picture I have of the 4 of us and one of the few pictures I have of my mom, my grandmother, my greatgrandmother and me as we are a long line of moms who equate having our picture taken with having a tooth pulled out. I'm sorry it's so blurry but maybe that is the way it's supposed to be in honor of the 4 of us camera shy people. My mother was the best. Simply the best. Because of tragedy I ended up with the most fabulous mother. Because she lost a son she was so good to my brother and I. I loved to play cards and knit so she played cards with me and tried to learn how to knit(I tried to teach her how to knit but I didn't have the patience, silly me). My brother loved chess and she learned how to play chess with him. A lot of people say their mother was their best friend but mine really was. Although we didn't have her hardly as long...

Hi This is Symbols and Circles. It's a piece I made for Katbird Shop when I first started showing my work there. Not sure whether I like it or not. My work now is embellished with other colors and usually on watercolor fabric so may doodle around with it and see what happens. I'm working on a new hand and am debating whether to show it as a wip or just wait until it's finished. I'm also working on an eye glass case as a gift for a friend. I will share it after I present it to her. And I still have a few pieces waiting for a frame. So now that my son is happily 18 I can share what we did for his birthday. We went down to Citifield and saw a Met Game. What a beautiful new stadium. A pitcher's duel to boot and it didn't rain until the bottom of the 9th. I enjoyed my self so much but was exhausted as we went down on Wednesday, went out to dinner with the inlaws, went to the game and came back early the next morning. So exhausting but it was a great plea...

Well like the red, red robin I am chug, chug, chugging along. I've started to embroider a lot more so I should have pictures soon. My son's birthday is this week so I may be a bit scarce(This is a recent picture of my son and husband on a trip to Cooperstown. ). He's going to be 18 on Wednesday. He's really a great kid and has been for most of the days of his 18 years. But 18 means he will be a great young man. He's getting ready for college and enjoying his senior year, he may or may not be going to the prom. He is dating a nice girl who crochets and he's looking for a job. Since he is my sunshine after my embroidery(and my hubby) I decided to talk about him. He loves baseball and hockey and knows everything you would want to know about both. Originally he was thinking he wanted to be a sports journalist but the closer he gets to college the more he thinks about that choice. He's a great writer so I kind of hope he thinks about it a bit more. He...