October 9, 2020
Oct. 9th, 2020 07:15 pmI'm not sure what to write here today. I've been feeling a bit out-of-sorts today, like I didn't want to do anything - felt kind of annoyed at having to do anything, if I'm honest - but also didn't want to do nothing. I've been both restless and bored.
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shaterri suggested that I write here about embroidery, which is something I've been doing a lot lately for stress relief. I'm not particularly good at embroidery. I'm slow. I tend to just outline everything in back stitch and not do enough other stitches, unless I'm doing a Dropcloth Sampler.
But I still keep coming back to it. It feels good to have something to keep my hands busy, and when my hands are busy and I'm focused on the stitching, the chatter in my mind quiets. It's not quite like meditation, but it does seem to help my anxiety.
Right now my current project is stitching up some napkins for a friend as a housewarming gift. It's not traditional at all. She wanted lotuses on them, but instead of making a border, I decided to make a big lotus in the center. I was going to stitch words around the outside as a kind of border, but I ended up incorporating those into the center too. So basically it's not super functional, with a big stitched lotus in the center. It might be a weird thing to wipe your hands on during dinner. But my friend loved the first one, so I'm hoping she loves the rest. The lotus itself is from a pattern by Sublime Stitching, but the words are done in my handwriting. The color choices are also mine. The first one was a lilac with purple accents, and the second is pink. The third is going to be a deep purple, and the fourth is going to be a gray or light blue to hopefully look like a white lotus. The words are gathas from Thich Nhat Hanh. They are "No Mud, No Lotus," "Open Mind, Open Heart," "Listen Deeply," and "I have arrived; I am home."
My other embroidery project, that I'm procrastinating on, is from a kit. It's a lot more advanced than I'm used to. I think I can ultimately do it, but I'm nervous. It's maybe for a friend's Christmas gift, so I want it to be done really well. Although if I can't get it done by the winter holidays, it can always become a birthday present.
One thing I like about embroidery is that there is a whole craftivism movement, where stitchers do things like urge people to vote, stitch up BLM patterns, give parts of their earnings to charitable organizations, use recycled mailers to help the environment, etc. One project, the Tiny Pricks Project, stitches up quotes by DJT. I'm not sure if it's for catharsis or for art or both. I think the idea is in part to bear witness to what has been going on over the past four years. Another asks you to contribute a representation of your story to a collective art installation.
Not usually embroidery, but the quilting done by SJSA is pretty rad.
I like the idea that something that is such a big part of women's history is having a resurgence in both a 21st-century and a political way.
shaterri suggested that I write here about embroidery, which is something I've been doing a lot lately for stress relief. I'm not particularly good at embroidery. I'm slow. I tend to just outline everything in back stitch and not do enough other stitches, unless I'm doing a Dropcloth Sampler.But I still keep coming back to it. It feels good to have something to keep my hands busy, and when my hands are busy and I'm focused on the stitching, the chatter in my mind quiets. It's not quite like meditation, but it does seem to help my anxiety.
Right now my current project is stitching up some napkins for a friend as a housewarming gift. It's not traditional at all. She wanted lotuses on them, but instead of making a border, I decided to make a big lotus in the center. I was going to stitch words around the outside as a kind of border, but I ended up incorporating those into the center too. So basically it's not super functional, with a big stitched lotus in the center. It might be a weird thing to wipe your hands on during dinner. But my friend loved the first one, so I'm hoping she loves the rest. The lotus itself is from a pattern by Sublime Stitching, but the words are done in my handwriting. The color choices are also mine. The first one was a lilac with purple accents, and the second is pink. The third is going to be a deep purple, and the fourth is going to be a gray or light blue to hopefully look like a white lotus. The words are gathas from Thich Nhat Hanh. They are "No Mud, No Lotus," "Open Mind, Open Heart," "Listen Deeply," and "I have arrived; I am home."
My other embroidery project, that I'm procrastinating on, is from a kit. It's a lot more advanced than I'm used to. I think I can ultimately do it, but I'm nervous. It's maybe for a friend's Christmas gift, so I want it to be done really well. Although if I can't get it done by the winter holidays, it can always become a birthday present.
One thing I like about embroidery is that there is a whole craftivism movement, where stitchers do things like urge people to vote, stitch up BLM patterns, give parts of their earnings to charitable organizations, use recycled mailers to help the environment, etc. One project, the Tiny Pricks Project, stitches up quotes by DJT. I'm not sure if it's for catharsis or for art or both. I think the idea is in part to bear witness to what has been going on over the past four years. Another asks you to contribute a representation of your story to a collective art installation.
Not usually embroidery, but the quilting done by SJSA is pretty rad.
I like the idea that something that is such a big part of women's history is having a resurgence in both a 21st-century and a political way.