The Month of Hearts

I welcome this month of hearts.  First and foremost my own which seems to be pumping along the way it is supposed to. *smile*

Secondly the whole symbol that the heart shape means to me. It means love and friendship and caring and beauty.

I wish for each of you a heart happy month filled with love, and joy -- fun and laughter.

As you can see my hands and heart have drifted back to punch needle! A perfectly quiet way to fill these cold winter afternoons.

"Let my soul smile through my heart and my heart smile through my eys, that I may scatter rich smiles in sad hearts." - Paramahansa Yogananda

Getting Started

Beginning any project is always exciting.  There are all sorts of possibilities ahead.

And then reality sets in.  This owl is going to be stuffed so I'll need to make a front and back.  This owl is going to 'loosely represent' the "Great Horned Owl".  This owl needs to have thread colors blended.  This owl will require punching from front to back and back to front and constant attention.  At least he'll only be 5-1/2" tall when completed.

This owl  is proving to me that I can be happy while quietly (or not so quietly) driving myself crazy. *smile*

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success." - Napolean Hill

Practice Patience

Quietly, but not always calmly, I labored over this new design.  At the very beginning, before I even cut fabric or took a stitch I decided to put words or phrases on each doll.  Words that would reflect 'living' ideas I'd like to delve into deeper.  The phrase 'practice patience' was the first one I came up with.  I have no idea why, but it fulfilled a prophecy as I began this new design.

Sometimes, knowing what you want to do and actually being able to do it, does not happen.  But I persevered.  Through linen that kept wanting to squizzle beneath the sewing machine foot to the previously read story about faces.  It almost seemed that this doll was not meant to be and yet I just knew I had to make her.

And so, between the two of us we pushed onward.  Now she sits upon a shelf and serves as a reminder that patience can work.  Sometimes you have to 'settle' for something a bit different than your original dream - and that's not a bad thing.

"Patience is the art of hoping." - Luc de Clapiers

To Be A Tree

If there is such a thing as reincarnation - I think I want to come back as a tree.  As I make my way up the hill each day I often stop to look at the trees.  I mean really look at them.  Studying the way they stand there day after day, month after month, year after year.  They are so strong and yet so flexible.  They sway in the wind, they grow leaves and then shed them each year, they dig their roots deep, deep into the earth. 

Sometimes as I walk I will spot a tree that has lost a branch, or as in the case of this picture a piece of the tree has been whipped away, leaving a large jagged piece behind.  What happened overnight to make this happen?  I don't remember hearing the roar of wind, I don't think there was lightning overnight -- but there it is, evidence that something took a piece of this tree away.  And yet, the tree stands there strong and true.  As the leaves come back that scar will be covered over and become invisible from my view point down here on the ground. 

I like to talk to the trees as I walk -- thankfully there is no one around to hear me.  When I talk to them I thank them -- for their bright, new green in spring, the shade they give in summer, their bright colors during autumn, and their bare branches against a bright blue sky in winter.  Oh yes, I long to be like one of these trees.  Perhaps I should start practicing their grace and patience.  Perhaps I can even begin to capture the peace that seems to belong to each and every tree.

"Praise and blame, gain and loss, pleasure and sorrow come and go like the wind.  To be happy, rest like a giant tree in the midst of them all". - Buddha

Along The Way

My beading journey has led me down paths I've never before traveled. Sort of like going into a forest, without a compass, turning this way and that way - but loving the adventure of it all.

Along the way I discovered sculptured beading. I'm not even sure if that is the 'real' term for it - but for me it is when you have a three dimensional form and you bead it thoroughly, creating a beaded sculpture. This idea amazed and intrigued me. On one of my thrift store visits I found a pair of white kid gloves and immediately I could see one of them completely covered in white beads. I realize now that to take on a project like this, so early in my beading days, was utter folly. But -- I had to try it. And so I began to bead this glove.

Beginning with the fingers (the most difficult part of the whole thing I soon learned) I beaded and beaded and beaded. I do not normally keep track of the number of hours any piece takes -- because I don't care -- but out of curiosity I kept track of the glove work time. When the four fingers you see here were finally finished I had put 46 hours into them.

Once the fingers were finished the glove sat on its tray, waiting patiently until I had recovered from the trauma of the previous beading. Trying to stitch beads deep between fingers that didn't want to move and trying to keep from going blind while distinguishing between the 'different' white beads (which after all looked almost exactly the same) was quite a task for this novice beader. Finally -- I moved onto the thumb, beading slowly around and around. At least there is only one thumb on a hand!

Because I was doing other beading, in between glove work, I was learning and even developing a beading rhythm which I didn't have when I began this project. I was also learning more about the beads themselves and how they often dictate where they will go and what they say.

All the while this unfinished project was waiting patiently for me...

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience". - Ralph Waldo Emerson