Tangled Stitch

When I wrote a couple of months ago I had every intention of making this a daily thing or maybe even a weekly thing but to be quite honest my life has become a moment to moment thing.  I was diagnosed with a rare lung disease back in August. It has taken my entire life and well made it tangled.  The only sure thing in my life right now is embroidery because my tangled life has me completely stressed out most of the time and my old friends, needle and thread, are the only things that seem to unstress me.  I planned on doing craft shows but we’ll that kind of went out the window when I ended up in the hospital in September, I planned on working at my part time job that I loved but that is gone too.  I’ve been in this place before several times and always seem to work my way out of it sooner or later.  I am just waiting for the sooner.   In the meantime, this is one of my new items available on my Etsy shop, my mandala heart ornaments.  I love them they m...

Peace.  It was a beautiful morning.  She woke up with the song Homeward Bound singing in her head.  She had always loved Simon and Garfunkel.  She watched the video on YouTube the concert in Central Park.  A lovely song in a lovely setting.  She pulled her hair back, put her shoes on and took Dixie out.  It was a warm but cloudy morning but it felt like spring.  It had been cold and snowy for a few days so the warmth and the lack of the wind felt good on her skin on this day. The birds were chirping, not just one bird but she could hear the songs of many different birds.  Silently she just listened to the sounds of the birds talking to each other.  Then she heard the ducks, she looked up to see two of them together flying overhead.  I guess they were on a special date.  Silently she just stood thinking how beautiful it all was.  How normal, how sweet, how lovely a morning it was. For a moment she forgot why it was so...

I have always said that my son is the reason I wake up every morning.  He is in love and happy so I’ve kind of kept my distance from him lately.  The realization of this virus and how deadly it could be put me in a panic yesterday.  The thought that I may possibly die(irrational maybe)without seeing his face in person made me walk in the rain and visit him uninvited.  Raising him was the greatest job I ever had.  Raising your children is an honor.  So when you are in close quarters trying to get your work done and trying to keep your children entertained remember it is a gift you have been given.  Some day they will move on to lives of their own and you could be very alone and have to live with yourself for a while.  I am ok I’ve been living with myself the last few months but I do kind of wish this had happened 15 years ago so I could be with the people I loved.  Be safe.  Please stay healthy and when all this is over hopefully we al...

Well it’s been a while.  And what a strange trip it’s been.  This lovely pillow is available on Etsy. https://etsy.me/2vscg6l .  Now for the strange trip so you can move on if you are only interested in my art. I had a short lived Grub Hub career.  Making money delivering food is both easy and very hard.  I had quite the adventure culminating in a weekend that saw me delivering food to a recycling plant with hard hats and trucks and backing out about 200 feet, driving the wrong way on a one way street in Albany and locking my keys in the car while in a desolate mobile home park in the freezing cold.  I kind of loved it anyway and can see why people do it and why I might still do it after getting commercial insurance policy.  You can’t make a claim on your insurance if you are a driver for hire in NY state.  Luckily it was dark and there was hardly anybody else on the one way street. I’ve been kind of putting my art and pillows on the back bu...

What is the sun, the moon and the stars? It is the beckoning of a greater force, Greater than all of us. Looking up into the sky, the sun, the moon and the stars beckon us, the great unknown, They unite us. We all look and see the same things for a day, a week, a month, eternity. They guide us when we are lost, they give us direction, they illuminate the sky They keep us company on a day at the beach or a dark night of the soul. This piece is available on my Etsy shop.  You can find it here. https://etsy.me/2OVsMSR

Sometimes in our lives we ask God or the universe what we need in our life.  We go inward and meditate and ask for answers.  Sometimes the answers are painful memories which he keep us stuck in a place of lack.  Sometimes the answer is opportune people who show up in your life to give you meaningful messages.  I have become very aware in the last few months on the limitations I have placed on myself due to my opinion of my self.  While meditating I uncovered horrible truths which I realize have affected my outer world but more importantly my inner world. I have spent years on a spiritual journey and have learned to accept people for who they are or who I thought they were.  I concentrated on the good and forgot the rest and somehow managed to have a bunch of people in my life who love me more than I love myself who I love dearly.    On the other hand I have squandered a hell of a lot of money, been unable to find love for myself in the process...

Everything, Is a little different,  That is exciting, Exhilarating, I always have a plan,  Much to my chagrin, I try my best to cater to what others want, What others need, Forgetting my unique qualities in the process. All of us have a purpose, Everyone strives to be accepted, To be loved, to be special, Maybe being special is realizing we are All the same, But a little different in our own ways. This piece is available on my Etsy shop.   https://etsy.me/2R3zWG8

Infinite Love is my latest piece.  It signifies a love that is unending.  It has no beginning and has no end.  This piece features two hearts brought together by an infinity sign in the middle.  There are 6 French knots on either side.  Six is the number of Venus and it signifies completeness, beauty and high ideals.  That says it all.  The completeness of finding a love that compliments you and makes you feel whole instead of broken.  A love that is beautiful enough to withstand the trials and tribulations that life brings and the high ideals that with the right person by your side anything is possible. This piece is available on my Etsy site.  It would make a great wedding gift for the perfect couple.be it at the beginning of their time together as an engagement gift or after many years of a happy marriage.  It is something I’m hoping for in my remaining years.  This piece can be found here in my Etsy shop.  https://etsy....

Stitching has always brought me peace even as a young girl at the side of my grandmother long before I started to sell my work and call myself an artist.  It is literally the only time in my life when I just chill and be.  My grandmother taught me everything.  How to thread a needle, how to do certain stitches, how to use a crochet hook and a knitting needle, how to find peace in a moment.  It has gotten me through many of my most joyful and traumatic moments. This piece was just an exercise in peace.  A time to just be without a particular destination.  Filled with lovely peaceful shades of blue done in straight stitches and French knots.  A slowly running river or a beautiful blue sky, whichever I was imagining.  A time to just focus on peaceful blues while the world outside is raging.  To quiet the ever present noise in my head.  I hope you like it. This piece is available on Etsy and can be found here.  https://etsy.me/...

Sheep are simple animals that have symbolized  benevolence, honesty, nobility and peace. I think that sums up their place as my favorite animal to hand embroider.  The simple pleasure of dozens of French knots for those times when honesty and commerce meet.  They have always been my favorite thing to embroider and a favorite among my customers.  They are scattered in the mountains of Upstate New York in far lower numbers than their living counterparts. The holidays are a wee bit of a struggle for me as both of my parents died the first week of January a very long time ago.  I’m determined this year to be a bit different and sitting down to embroider some sheep with just a little background noise was just what my soul needed that day.  They are just so simple.  A little circle, a head and some black for the bottom of their legs.  But they give me hours of enjoyment as we all know French knots are the stitch that makes the tangled stitch heart go pi...

Hi All!  Its been a long while.  I figured its time for me to express myself again and restart my blog again, hence the title of this blogpost.   My Etsy shop has been up and running for a year now and I've made 50 sales.  Quite an accomplishment for me as in my previous attempts I was not as successful.  I am still a waitress.  I passed another milestone birthday.  I'm still single although much more happily single than I was in the past.  I've been embroidering up a storm it's still the one constant in my life. Speaking of embroidery since that is the point of this blog, the piece above is a custom order for my friend Clif.  Its a lavender garden made completely of French knots in lavender(of course), green and eventually blue.  It's a work in progress.  It's my second attempt as my first attempt wasn't really working that well,  sometimes life gets in the way of embroidery.  The world and my life have been a bit u...

With Valentine’s Day right around the corner and The Beatles swimming in my mind I thought I would share my latest piece.  I have been working a bit more at my day job but still adding hearts and pillows and art to my Etsy shop.  I am loving the peace, tranquility and meditation of my fingers and the needle moving and the colored thread being left on the fabric.  I am trying to remember simpler days when a great tune and a block of several hours used to be my favorite thing and it seems to be working, I’m embroidering again.  Not so much to music but to Netflix instead. My son is very happily in love as are some of my friends and I am rekindling my love of the stitch so all is good in the world.  I am so enjoying my job as a waitress and am very happy to have landed where I have.  My embroidery work is fun again too.  It’s been a weird(very weird) winter and well being an empath in the current days has been a challenge but thankful to escape to a resta...

Happy New Year from me and the squirrel.  Hope this blog post finds everyone happy and healthy.  This little guy is available in my Etsy shop(www.etsy.com/shop/debstangledstitches).  He is also a new design.  I made a lot of new designs in 2018.  Many more to come also.  I found my inner critic and I’ve silenced her so I take a few more baby steps out into the real world.  I made a promise to myself to add a blog post at least once a week so here is this weeks.  If you think of something you might like to see me conquer send me a comment.  I’ve added some lovely new pieces to my Etsy shop, a peace heart filled with pastel color French knots and a butterfly.  Have a couple more coming tomorrow so take a gander.  Keep on stitching!

It’s been a while hasn’t it.  I’ve been busy trying to get my work done.  Work for my Etsy shop, work for Valley Artisans Market, work in my day job, work on myself.  Work never ends as it seems the rain doesn’t either.  Been so gloomy and cold.  Rain, freezing rain, ice.  Great weather for embroidery though.  Usually working in my day job though on these kind of days.   I had a lovely Thanksgiving with my beautiful son and his lovely girlfriend.  Have seen some of my beautiful friends but overdue for an outing.  Lucky fortunate gal who needs a little sunshine.  Will be adding some new ornaments to VAM and Etsy soon.  20% sale on Etsy.  See you soon.  Deb

Hi All.  Life’s been a little hectic.  Working a wee bit more as a waitress so I’m not listing quite as often.  I am still making a commitment to myself and my customers to share closeups of my current listings which is what I’m doing today.  One of my favorite winter scene ornaments.  Red curtains in the windows, red bows on the trees and white snowflakes which are French knots.  Winter scenes ares some of my favorites but I love to do anything with French knots.  They are my yang to my yang and details just thrill me.  Don’t forget the closeups are an exaggerated look at the pictures the ornaments, t are pretty and dainty and detailed in their simplicity in person.  I will be sharing more ornaments soon and will also have new listings.  Drop me a line if you’d like to see something specific. This beautiful ornament can be found by clicking on this link. https://etsy.me/2NYlytR

Welcome to my Etsy Shop. I am a hand embroidery artist/fiber artist.  I have been hand embroidering almost all of my life since my grandmother taught me when I was five years old.  I started selling my work when my son was two, when a friend admired my work and told me I should be selling it.  That was 25 years ago.  At first I did craft fairs and sold my work in stores.  I made hand crocheted christening outfits, baby clothes, and hand embroidered pillows and ornaments which I had hand drawn and hand embroidered.  Because I hand draw all my embroidery work all of my pieces are one of a kind.  At that time I lived on Long Island and had a nice mix of stores that I worked with and private customers.  About 15 years ago I moved to upstate NY and found my artistic side.  I found myself joining an artist coop and creating things I had never imagined I was capable of.  I’ve done craft fairs, have my work in a wonderful artisan market, several...

Autumn Tree is now available at www.etsy.com/shop/debstangledstitches.

Hi All!  Been busy making and adding to my Etsy shop.  It’s ornament time so I have to start focusing on Christmas ornaments.  Not that most of my listings haven’t been ornaments but I’ve been focusing on the artistic aspect of them.  Now I have to focus a bit more on the Christmas aspect.  A lot of my ornaments are designed to display year round so in my outlets in the real world I sell them year round and try to keep them generic enough so that people see them as little pieces of art to display all year round.  That continues even until Christmas but people have their favorites which they buy year after year often buying them for gifts.  Up close and personal you can see with your eyes that they are all different, but on Etsy I’ve been listing them one at a time. I make them the way I do because I love them.  I make little stocking ornaments too but they are strictly Christmas ornaments.  I make pillows which I may try again but mainly at t...

Hi All!  I’m trying something new on my Etsy shop.  Sets?  At the moment this is my only set but if I see some nice stats I will probably do it more often.  I’m looking for some feedback on this one.  One type of ornament such as the three cats and their Christmas gifts or different ornaments bundled together?  There is a discount on the sets $2.00 on each ornament and shipping remains the same so there is a discount on that too.  Please let me know what you think on this one.  Thank you for reading.

Three lovely goddesses awaiting a new home on my Etsy page.  www.Etsy.com/shop/debstangledstitches.  I love creating goddesses, to me every woman is a goddess.  These three represent the night, the garden and the fire.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.   Thank you for reading.