Take a Step Back....Take Time....

Take Joy

  While working on my casket this week, I have spent hours in quiet reflection....literally, hours. But this is me, this is how I enjoy my sewing~ its not so much the end product to get finished all of the sudden and stack up on a shelf....but more of the doing that I enjoy. It's not that I think I am old fashioned...I know I am old fashioned....and thats not a bad thing. I see it happening all around me...every day...everyone is in such a hurry. Why? What ever happened to enjoying life?  Life as in....every second of every day? Weather doing the dishes or digging a hole or stitching? What is the point of zooming around like a chicken with your head cut off....being a nasty person, pushing... shoving...to get where?  I have come to the conclusion these people have no happy place.
 Life has gotten quick! One can mail a letter to the other side of the world and back again in 24 hours...need to talk to someone ...just call them~ nearly everyone(but not me!) these days has a cellular phone and has obviously no problem talking wherever they are at...news happens one second and the next everyone knows about it. Quick hurry~ we need to go here or there~ zoom here or zoom there....come on~ hurry hurry!
It makes me sad. The children hate it when I have no TV days....when I make them sit at the table to eat supper....ahhh what happens??? No shows? No mindless dribble streaming from the electronic babysitter in the living room? What happens...we all sit and talk and end up having a nice time.

  Stitching to me is no different. Why do it if you don't enjoy the process? Stitching can pass the time when you are bored.... or when you are nervous or even upset about something....but its more than just passing time. Stitching can teach you things...about the fabric and thread of coarse...if you listen...but it can also teach you things about yourself. Unknowingly, we put all of our emotions into our stitching~ and weather we like it to or not, they show up again in the finished piece. Did Michelangelo hurry to paint the Last Supper in a weekend??? When you see a piece that speaks to you~ do you hear a voice in your head that says...'wow', that must have taken alot of time....I could never have the patience for that'....My answer to you is...sure you do! When I stitch, I am truly in my happy place, and spend my time remembering my early days learning to sew with my Great Grandma, my Mother, my Aunty Becky.....I also look at embroidery like a huge puzzle, full of tiny little pieces that each have their own way of going together. I enjoy the process. 
 I think, if more people took the time to slow down, and enjoy their process, whatever it may be, the world would be a much happier place.

So been working on my casket and spent a bit of time trying to decide what pearls to use for my initials...I have some pretty small, about 1.5mm seed pearls....and then I have some ridiculously tiny ones that are supposed to be 1mm...but I think they're more like half a mm....anyway, the top picture is my doodle of how the larger ones looked...which wasn't too bad, but up the the smaller ones (bottom foot of the R), they looked huge and clunky!

 Of coarse,  I decided I liked the little ones...really? I have to like the little ones? I cant even see the damn hole in these things!

 Need I even mention, the holes are so small, not even my smallest needle would pass thru them? 'Bring it on'  I say to myself...Ill just have to thread each one on by hand, no needle. So me being me, challenged myself to whip these little buggers into submission. I know how I would like my casket to look when I get it finished~ and the big clunky pearls just werent there in that picture in my mind. Would you go with the big pearls just because they were quicker and easier?? If so....why? Stitching is not a race. Its not a competition...well, unless you are specifically stitching a piece for a competition....but otherwise....why take the easy quick road? Why stitch the same thing over and over again??? Try something new!  Challenge yourself the next time you find you are at a fork in your stitching road....the path less traveled may have more challenges for you, but in those challenges are more rewards

It took me over 4 hours to get these little whatnots on here, but here they are to stay. I have marked my territory. I haven't done 90% of the techniques I'm planing for my casket before...but thats not bothering me any...it should be fun and interesting and frustrating too....but as most of ya'll know my favorite thing to say is..... Just do it!  When you are at that fork in the road...don't stand there puzzling....Just do it!

Take your time! Take Joy in your process!