The other day I was asked 'what do you do' - in relationship to craft/art. The description listing all of the needlework types I have been involved with over the years would take forever -- it's quite a long list.
My 'handwork' began with my husband's grandmother teaching me embroidery. While I was pregnant she bought me little flannel gowns from Woolworth's and I embroidered their printed designs. My next step into needlework came many years later when I worked in needlepoint. Still I worked from a printed pattern. From needlepoint I went on to counted cross-stitch.
After cross-stitch I began making cloth dolls. Finally I was making my own designs and patterns. I soon became surrounded by dolls - paper, fabric, painted and stitched.
One day I discovered "Somerset Studio" and then "Cloth Paper Scissors" and my stitching life took a tremendous turn. No more carefully constructed patterns and lots of improvisation as I spent five years creating book art. Mixed media became my mantra but still there was plenty of stitching both by hand and by machine.
From book art I moved on to beading. I couldn't string jewelry I had to stitch it - and so beaded embroidery became my 'new best friend'.
These days I feel the tug toward using more fabric and embellishments, the need to put more of 'myself' into a piece rather than regulated loops. We'll see where this journey goes -- but I know quite well that I will always be holding needle and thread in one form or another.
"A line will take us hours maybe; yet if it does not seem a moment's thought, our stitching and unstitching has been naught." - William Butler Yeats
