What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

A Work Table of a Quilter?

About 10 years ago, Elizabeth Barton asked me to make value studies of the design I had chosen to do in her class.  No problem.....How many?

8

I beg your pardon?  Did you say 8? OMGosh!  Are you crazy? I sew.  I do not spend time coloring ... in greys!

I’m just about finished with my big improvisational stitching piece that I’ve been working on for the last 7 months or so, and it’s bittersweet.  It always feels like a tiny death.  There’s sadness and a kind of grieving that happens.  Sometimes I just leave it up on my design wall and look at it […]

 Last week I explained how I create an idea from the very beginning.  This week I actually put it into practice.  With the Sacred Threads Art Show deadline 7 weeks away, I really need to get my act together.  Of course, after the year I've had, sometimes I forget where my act actually is so I can get it together.  Luckily I found some creativity I had squirred away for a rainy day and the design is well on its way.  

Red and Orange Streak, OKeefe

Yesterday I released a new Youtube Video with the same title. Go check it out! There are a few other key factors to interpretive hand stitching, improvisational hand stitching, expressionist hand stitching or whatever else you might want to call it.  I think all of these are good descriptors of my process when taking a […]

Yesterday I released a new YouTube Video: My Top Ten Favorite Threads For Hand Stitching. As a follow up to that video, I’m adding my favorite materials to use, as well. Click on any highlighted text for more information. Fabrics: Pat Pauly’s gorgeous hand dyed linens.  My absolute favorite thing to stitch on is 100% […]

So here’s the thing…  I feel a whole lot better when I show up even when I feel awful, even when I feel things are rough and I’m tired, even when I don’t want to.  I’ve also learned that showing up anyway is the single best remedy for not continuing to feel that way. Except […]

Stitch, put on the design wall, evaluate, consider, take down, add a new element, stitch, put back up on the design wall, take a photograph, consider, have an idea, take down, thread up a new color, take a chance, take a risk, take a breath, stitch and then the tears arrive.  Not a few drops […]

In 2015 or was it 2016(?) things were in flux. I was re-evaluating what I was doing, where I was headed, what I wanted…  There were a number of things going on that led to this, but it was one of those moments that didn’t seem particularly extraordinary or even interesting, but in hindsight I […]

“We are what we repeatedly do, therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit.” Aristotle I always think about repetition when I’m stitching.  Stitching a few french knots?  How about a few hundred?  And what about some bullion circles?  A whole cluster of them is even better! In nature repetition is a constant and […]

This blog is a reminder of my mother.  She was my biggest supporter and commented over the years more than anyone else. It was through this blog that I often kept in touch with her and towards the end it was the one full proof way I knew I could reach her, especially when my […]

Five years in, along came Tessa.  Now I diligently exposed her to all sorts of media as she grew up, hoping

I just finished editing the final video of our Africa trip. If you’re interested in following along I created a playlist: African Adventures and you can subscribe to get email notifications whenever a new video is posted. The last video of that trip will post on Saturday. A couple of fun things are in the […]

As it turns out the bobbin winder on my new Bernina is broken. Silly me, thinking I could wind the bobbin upside down, I didn’t realize this until it was too late, and it did us both in. Off to the shop it will go, but in the meantime, I continue to fine tune my […]

There are still spaces left for The Basics Workshop! This workshop is for any and all who want to learn basic design concepts, techniques, stitches and have lots and lots of fun. Hurry and sign up now before it fills up. I did a livestream for my Patrons yesterday using my newly organized space and […]

When COVID hit New York City over a year ago now, death was no longer an abstract idea. People we knew were getting really, really sick, a few of them died, a few are still not 100%. When the mobil morgue parked just blocks away from our building to handle the overflow of dead bodies, […]

I’ve been traveling. Though I must say that though this trip to visit my mother and sister is a long one, involving connections and then an hour and a half drive, it was about as flawless and easy as traveling can be during these bizarre times. First off, the La Guardia Airport has done an […]

As I mentioned in my last post, I put my hand stitching aside in order to take a Pat Pauly virtual workshop. It was all about line, setting, composition and boy did she pack a lot into those two days. So much fun! I’m not a quilter. I just have to say that. I mean […]

Wait, what??? I know, I know. You’re wondering if you stumbled upon the wrong blog. You’re thinking – what has she done? Where are all her beautiful threads that I so covet? What’s going on around here? Never fear. My threads, and everything else hand stitching related, are all, somewhat, neatly stacked on the floor […]

I’ve always worked with my hands. As a child it was embroidery with a hoop and sewing my own clothing. At around nine years old my mother taught me to knit, then there was a brief macrame obsession in the 70’s where I decorated my bedroom with intricately knotted macramé pot hangers into which I […]

Someone commented on my Youtube channel about messiness, saying that she was happy my work area isn’t pristine as that would be intimidating. And it made me think about the various stages of messiness. The gradient scale of messiness, because this is important.   1. Kind of “messy”, but it’s not a problem and anyway to […]