I said I wasn't going to do it...but I did. I wasn't going to pull out the side panels to my casket until I have my 'work' done.....I should be doing tax paperwork...but its SUNDAY! It's supposed to be 'my' day. I got my morning work finished...I just couldn't help myself.
I had to share this picture with you, while wishing you a Happy Stitching Sunday~ this is one of my needles! He used to be straight. I have a good half dozen needles along the edge of the panels, ready to be plucked at any particular second...anxiously awaiting their turn to get to stitch something.....they're all like this! This one is actually the 'straightest' of them all.
I love stitching~ have decided 2019 will be the year I finish this casket, period.
Why wait for tomorrow, when I can stitch today? Bring it on I say!
Earlier this past week I received a wonderful email from a reader that touched my heart so much, I asked and received permission from Frances to share it with you all here~
"Happy New Year and a big thank you from the UK. I became aware of your website last year and as the months have gone by have found myself drawn to it again and again. I'm sure you hear this all the time, but your work is truly exquisite and you have inspired me to pick up a needle after many fallow years. I dipped my toe in and worked a little stumpwork lion and having finished that have embarked on a much larger project that I am working on every spare minute I get. So, thank you Rachael for sharing & inspiring"
I am so blessed, truly, to get to share my love of early things and embroidery with you all here on my blog. It makes me so happy when I get emails like this, to know that I have inspired someone to pick up a needle again after some while off, or for the very first time. And just look at her lion(click on to enlarge)~ he is super super wonderful! My favorite are the wrapped parchment strips in the surround. Each parchment strip must be cut, then wrapped individually with silk floss... a process that takes forever. I am super proud of Frances!
We have emailed a few times and she has shared her newest project she is working on now, as well as some earlier ones, and this sampler above is one of my favorites, I just love it.
The glorious circle of sharing and inspiration~ Frances was inspired by me, and shared with me some of what she has done, and in turn, she has inspired me so very much, and I hope, you all too! It's never too late in the day, or the week, or your life, to pick up a needle my friends!
I'm not being hokey, I really do wish Peace & Happiness for any and everything that walks or swims or flies the earth in 2019. Wouldn't it be great. I am going to try to do my part, to be more patient, and more accommodating and understanding to anyone I should encounter. Perhaps I should print out this picture of Moxie...this is how she smiles at me....and show it to anyone having a bad day...I mean, who can not smile back at that little face.....
I hope everyone had a Happy & Safe start to their New Year. I finished the front panel to my casket before Christmas. Here is a short couple second video of how my mermaid, Taormina's tail came out using the beetle wings....sooo pretty
I did change the design a little as I went along~ I had originally planned to have a full side view of a fish in the grotto with her, but as I was working the water, he just started looking more and more like a beached whale....so he is forever swimming beneath the surface of the water. Instead, I decided to put just a tail there, sticking up out of the water
I worked the first one in green, same beads actually that I used for Taormina's tail....I liked how it looked in my hand....so stitched it on the panel. Didn't like it. It just got lost in the water~ looking from afar, one couldn't really tell it was there at all. So...I took it off, and decided to make the fishies carp, an ode to my youngest daughter's goldfish that we just lost, Mr. Timms.
Mr Timms was a pretty awesome goldfish...daughter was fishing one day at the lake in the park in town, and caught him...as in, on a hook, instead of a trout. We brought him home and put him in our outside pond, where he was very happy and survived a winter and many snake attacks that killed off his fellow fishies. Years, as in, YEARS, later, husband decided he no longer wanted a pond outside for all the snakes it was attracting, so Mr Timms got to come live inside. This fish. I mean. Oh My golly. he got HUGE, and lived for years and years and years! We were all sad when he finally passed away this last summer...so, Mr. Timms is forever on my front panel now
The contrast is much better, as you can see here. Don't ever be afraid to take something off of your embroidery if you don't like it.... even if you have spent days and hours and hours on it.....
Mr Timms is on the left, talking to Taormina. She is hand sculpted by me in mache, with glass eyes, holding a wooden mirror and comb.
Perhaps 2019 will be the year I finish this casket~ I hope so. I have just the two side panels left, but cannot start them for a while yet, probably not until I get back from teaching at Colonial Williamsburg in Feb/March.
