Of Needle and Thread

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