Tangled Stitch

This is my favorite work in progress.  It started as nothing and now it is something.  Isn’t that the way   God made the world?  He started with nothing and made this beautiful mosaic of colors and textures from the tiniest bird to man to the largest elephant.  All of us beautiful in our own way.  The beauty of a tree in a breeze with its leaves swaying to and fro.  The beauty of a cardinal in the tree.  The beauty of a young couple in love walking by the tree.  The sound of rippling water of a creek whose water feeds the tree.  To me embroidery is that tree.  This piece is all connected by thread on black fabric bringing light to the darkness.  Bringing me peace to my all too active mind.  Being love.  Being safe.  Being alone but not alone.  Being thankful that something can bring light from my darkness.  A gentle breeze rustling through my tree.

Well it's been a while, a long while.  I've not quite found my voice or my vision yet but I haven't given up.  This piece is called Marmalade Skies and it was inspired by the Beatles.  When I think of marmalade skies I think of some sort of psychedelic dream.  Most of my work is inspired by some sort of psychedelic dream.  I get stuck when I change my vision and try to do work that will appeal to the masses coming from my slightly more than ordinary mind.  Stuck in the mud of brown and ecru and country red. Not that there is anything wrong with brown and ecru and country red but my heart sings for turquoise, orange and lime green.  Color wakes me up from the ordinary world of perfection that lies outside my window on a sunny day.  I can't compete with Gods vision.  I can't recreate the sound of the birds, the briskness of the air, or the snow glistening on the pavement. I can only march down the road of making my life more colorful.  Of ...

 March 17th came into my mind today and I wondered why so I thought I would see what came up on that day and why it popped into my head.  I'm sorry to say I think it popped into my head because of the dreams and life I expressed an interest in on my blog on that day.  My art and my idea for a business. I kind of let it slide .It wasn't really that I didn't intend to follow through, but my mind wasn't quite ready for such a big dream at that time.  I had just crashed and burned in a plane that  I didn't know how to fly.  I know that I am ready for that dream now.  But I've added a few passengers. I'm going to take christening outfits with me.  I love to create them and they are inspired by the divine.  I don't use patterns, I just kind of make them up as I go along.  I made quite a few and I have pictures so I'll share one soon.  I  don't have a picture of the one I'm currently making as to be quite honest they don't look like...

This little heart started out as a ordinary apple tree, but somewhere along the way it became an apple tree heart with the leaves shaped like a heart.   All of my work begins as one thing and ends up something else. That is how I embroider.  I start out with a simple design and then I let the needle and thread kind of do whatever it wants to.  It makes every peace a one of a kind.  I don't use stencils, I just draw with invisible ink and then I just let my needles and thread take over.  I let color, texture and imagination take my embroidery to whatever it needs to be. Lately I've started drawing a bit more but still add accents after the outlining process.  I never know what color thread I'm going to use  until I pick it out.  I love the randomness of the process.  That is how I stitch french knots too to add random texture.  I love texture and subtlety.  Most of the time the textu...

Today I realized that I have not picked up my knitting needles yet this year. I love to knit. I love the fibers and the textures and the colors and the speed(although crochet is a wee bit faster). I knit for fun. Embroidery gets me to my center, knitting helps me run away from responsibility. I've been so good at trying to embroider each and every day this year, but I seem to be avoiding the current project I am working on so I think I'm going to answer the call of the knitting needles and take a break. Perhaps I will even take a road trip next week to my favorite yarn shop a couple of towns away. This purse is in my favorite color green. It uses mohair and cascade and a few other special yarns that I just adore. On our gallery visit last week I somehow got into a conversation at a gallery about felting and although I love the way it looks and it is so very popular, I prefer to knit with texture and color and patterns(or not). So off to the yarn store and perhaps by ne...