Tangled Stitch

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...

What is perfection anyway?  This hand embroidered vintage motorcycle kind of encapsulates my understanding of the word.  It’s a metaphor for how one careless word or hundreds of them can slowly chip away at ones self esteem until there is nothing left but rebuilding the pieces.  I made this motorcycle several years ago, I was still married then.  I looked at a picture of a vintage motorcycle and tried to embroider it meticulously bit by bit as my embroidery needle is a better illustrator than a pen.  It took me weeks and I was oh so proud of it.  My then husband took one look at it and said it was awful as the tires weren’t round enough.   He was probably right but I was shattered nonetheless.  It was during my get out of my box phase.  His one remark which by the way wasn’t meant to hurt me ,just an observation, made this art piece a devastating  failure.  It’s probably why I still have it today. Perfection is an illusion.  It...

Love is always the answer, Even when we don’t know what the question is.  Is it knowing that they are always there even when you are alone. Is it the laughter you hear, the kisses down your back, the body next to you in bed, Love is infinite, unending, powerful. It can move mountains, transform, protect. Love transcends togetherness, it’s always there.  It never ends. It’s the words to s song that plays in your head. It’s the journey to wholeness in ourselves. Love is the motivation for change. Love is our hope and our promise for the future. Love is our bond and our connection to the past. Love is always the answer, even when we don’t know what the question is. This lovely heart can be found on my Etsy shop.   www,etsy.com/shop/debstangledstitches 

Love, Peace, Joy, Sheep, Hedgehogs, Pine Trees.  I can make a beautiful hand embroidered heart ornament of anything you wish.  Each one takes a little piece of my heart along with it.  The ornaments range in cost from $15 to $22.00.  Each one is hand drawn and hand embroidered.  They make a beautiful gift.  You can find over a hundred different hearts and pillows on my Etsy site.  https://www.etsy.com/shop/DebsTangledStitches?ref=simple-shop-header-name&listing_id=736483373 Here’s a little Janis to enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7uG2gYE5KOs&feature=share

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...

This is my favorite listing at the moment.  I’ve been doing roosters for a couple of years but they are usually white or multicolored.  This little guy marries my tangled stitch ombré approach and my more sensible primitive style and I just love him.  Not just a wee bit but seriously love him.  With Valentine’s Day just around the corner my heart needs a little red rooster on a sweet little heart to wake up my artistic soul.  Life’s been a little hectic and I really do want my Etsy shop to succeed so I’ve been burning the midnight(and 2 in the morning) oil trying to come up with some new and exciting ideas and how to market them on Etsy.   I have a couple or orders too which makes me ever so happy.  But I need to sleep too and stay warm. And create.  I have several new pieces on Etsy in case you haven’t been there in a while.  Take a gander and keep moving forward and hopefully this little red rooster will awaken both our get up and go attitu...

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...