Tangled Stitch

Sorry for the unimaginative title. No photos. It's a weekend and I've been with the men all day and I'm a bit fried. No imagination. No inspiration. Nothing. We went out looking for a certain no contract cellphone for son who wants unlimited texts with the both of them. Trouble with having an only child when they are almost an adult is that just about any sentence by any of us can be treated by any one of us as some sort of insult so it's weekend at the Bickersons. I did find a little embroidery time tucked away in there. I also raided the chocolate peanut butter eggs(why are they selling Easter candy so darn early anyway?). So that is my inspiration for the day. And even though I'm uninspired and frazzled there is no where else on the earth I'd rather be and no two people I'd rather be perturbed by.

Finally a prompt I don't have to use my imagination for as I used my imagination a while back to create Blue Moons. This piece is one of my favorites. All the planets were aligned and it worked as a project, I found the perfect backing to mount it on without having to even manipulate it and it looked beautiful framed. I had a place where it was supposed to go in my imagination but liked it so much it is still sitting on my wall. Sometimes a piece just works, it comes out better then even you could imagine. It kind of makes up for some of those projects that sound great in theory but work better in our own mind. Every artist has them. Those projects that you follow through on, in my case putting every stitch on the fabric and then you end up with what? Lately I've been reworking some of those pieces, I'll add them to my gallery when completed. But the Blue Moons was just a joy. I hope you find your inspiration some night out amongst the moonbeams. Keep stitching.

To knot or not to knot that is the question. I've provided a visual heart pillow with french knots even though I'm not speaking french today and the pillow is quite old. I have dabbled in both knotting and unknotting(both in embroidery and life). I was taught by my grandmother to knot, but I also know that it is more pure and basic to not knot. Recently I have tried to go back to being a non knotter but especially when I am working on my tangled thread designs it is very cumbersome to not knot and it gets even messier then the occassional knot makes it look. So I wondered if any of you hand embroiderers out there knot your knots too? Bloggily I am a bit knotted today as my hubby has the laptop and I am on the slow as molasses tangled with trivia old computer which takes 10 minutes just to go to a different website. So being kind of all knotted up with no place to go I decided to discuss knots of the embroidery kind and hightail it out of here. Just as a footnote to yester...

This is a Welcome Friends sampler I cross-stitched when my son was a toddler. I believe it was from a sampler chart which I purchased. It was long ago and far away and as you can read I can't really remember where it came from(but it is a lovely cross stitch sampler). Back then I didn't even know I had something within myself that others would want to see so I did charts and kits and other people's patterns(Knowing what I know today I would give credit to the designer but unfortunately it so long ago and far away that I wouldn't even begin to know where to look for it). My topic for today sort of relates to it so I decided to share it. Today was a day for clearing out cobwebs. Last night I dreamed of rejection. Faceless people rejecting me and me confronting them. Very vague and I guess I could have forgotten it altogether if I hadn't woken up with that dreaded feeling of rejection that hits you right in the gut. I thought embroidering would somehow knock tha...

No pictures today. I'm busy working on a hand embroidery piece which I'll share soon. It's a goddess. My first one. I finished Crossings last week my new interpretation of a cross, just have to frame that one. I took a creative break last night as I watched the Oscars. I loved it. I loved the Loved the beautiful dresses. My favorite was Penelope Cruz's. I loved the story about how she saw it in a store 7 years ago and said one day she would wear it(how it was still available after 7 years I'm not quite sure). I also loved her speech, somehow when we look at the beautiful talented Penelope Cruz we don't think of her upbringing. I loved all the speeches. I was thrilled with the winners. I don't think I've enjoyed the Oscars that much in a long time. I thought Hugh Jackman was great. I loved the past winners introducing the nominees. I thought the stage was beautiful and I loved the Swarovski crystals dangling above. The only quibble was th...

This is a knit bag I made a while ago but never took a picture of. It was knit using brown sheep sable(love, love, love that color) and cascade turqouise. It was knit in a rib lined with satin. I haven't been knitting very much lately and am trying to inspire myself to put the embroidery needle down and have some fun knitting( I have fun embroidering too but it's different). It's snowing here in my little section of Upstate New York. Not really sticking to the roads and when I went out earlier it was more like rain on the windshield. I came home and listened to CD#3 of Dave Matthews in Central Park, ate a little lunch, did a little laundry and embroidered my new piece. I can't wait to share it when I am finished because it is a project special to my own heart. I'm going to watch the Oscars later. Don't really go to the movies but I pick Sean Penn and Kate Winslet from the commercials. I hope Heath Ledger wins because he was a great actor and he should ha...

Hi All! No I'm not brokenhearted just lazy. This piece is sitting on my family room wall and I have never put it on my blog before. It is a hand embroidered heart on tea stained material and framed. It was done about 2 years ago and although I've gotten a few nibbles nobody else wanted to take it home. I guess perhaps people don't like to be reminded of a broken heart. I thought of a wonderful inspiration about silver, much better then my previous foray. It has to do with my hair which is now brown and blondish but for months was reddish and silvery gray. It drove everyone crazy but it was a life altering thing for me. I finally gave up the idea of being what others wanted me to be. I'm sure we all know family and friends who think they know what is better for your life then you do. I was told I was too young to have gray hair but if I had gray hair I obviously wasn't too young to have it. Seemed to be a constant source of conversation some of which I st...