The World As I See It Revisited

Hi All! I started embroidering this piece years ago, I finished it early this year and have been waiting till I properly framed it before sharing it. I can't seem to find the right frame for it so here it is. I think this piece is my favorite piece of all time. It speaks for the world as I see it. It is a windy, circular, map of my mind metaphorically. It stops and starts, it is beautiful and it has to be looked at closely to be appreciated(maybe not all that closely). I think life is an unending line of stops and starts. Things move smoothly along and then they hit a fork or a ditch or a speed bump and move in a completely different direction.

I started embroidering when I was about 6 years old. My grandmother taught me how to do it. I had a rather complicated childhood, filled with much loss and chaos and the needlearts were my escape and my constant. Whenever something was going on in my life, I made something. Be it an afghan, or a sampler or a bedspread. Nothing was ever finished, but millions of projects were started and stopped. Other kids bought dolls and trucks and toys, I used all my meager pennies on yarn or embroidery thread or books. My biggest project back then was one of those hand embroidered quilt tops that you had to sew up the middle and then quilt. Needless to say they are somewhere in the bottom of one of my countless bins of stash that I will never use but can't give away.

As I got a little older I actually finished a few projects but gave most of them away as gifts. And then I got married and finished more pieces for myself and friends. I always used kits or patterns. I never thought at that time that anybody would be interested in anything that came out of my own head. Year by year something shifted and more and more came out of my own head, which leads me to this piece.

I started this piece about 5 years ago. I worked on it and worked on it and then it reminded me of a disappointment and I put it away. When I decided to make the shift from making everything to only hand embroidering framed pieces and ornaments I took it out of the pile of unfinished projects and started to work on it. It reminds me that I have come full circle. That I have come from the place of being unfinished and have started to heal my life stitch by stitch. The point where I realize that hand embroidery is more then just a hobby but a salvation. How the little stitches from my childhood to now have somehow kept it all together when my world was falling apart. And how beautiful being able to see the world in such a way is.

It's not about my own work even so much, it's about looking at the work of others and the things that make their hearts and sometimes their mouths sing. Appreciating the beauty that comes from the silent meditative creativity that every person has somewhere deep in their souls. That is what is beautiful about art and the artist. We do what we love, we do it to heal, we do it to find happiness. There are stories and biographies in every piece of art. Find your story and biography and follow your bliss where ever it leads you.

Keep stitching!