Positive Focus Sunday - Back to My Creative Roots!

 I started my handwork love decades ago. I first started with a small embroidery project, a Jacobean design of a tree. I assisted my mother in doing a large crewel work picture. I stitched lots of pre-printed pillow cases. And then I moved on to counted cross stitch. Lots and lots and lots of cross stitch.

Back in the day, I attended a weekly 'Stitch-n-Bitch' group at my local needlework shop and made some great friends, one of which I am still friends with. I wrote a newsletter for the shop, stitched models, worked part time there and hoarded collected patterns. 

After several years, I got tired of cross stitching. The 'perils' of being a single mother and changing interests moved me into knitting, crocheting, quilting and costume making.

Then...

I rediscovered Nora Corbett/Mirabilia Designs and started this witch. She got worked on and then put away as I was in the process of buying my home and moving. She got pulled out this past week and just needs her beads now (and a tiny bit of tendrils and leaves from the pumpkin). 

What prompted it was the Winter Olympics. 

If you are any kind of fiber arts person, things like the Olympics bring out all kinds of stitch-a-longs and knit-a-longs and crochet-a-longs. And I got sucked into it.

Along with 'Electra', I had also purchased 'The Willow Queen' by Nora Corbett.

She has now been started as of Friday evening. And when I went to the needlework store to get the fabric for her, these followed me home.

They are all 'kitted up' (I have everything for them) and the sampler in front has been started. Like reading books, I usually have several projects started and will work on them depending on my mood. 

Anyway...

When I sat down to start stitching and had all my 'stuff' around me, the feeling of peace and contentment that came over me. It felt so good to have my feet up, the TV on to something I could watch without having to pay much attention to and plying needle and floss. I realized how much I had missed doing this. 

Part of the reason for being away from needlework is of course all the cross country moving I did in the recent years. And my stuff being in storage. Plus there wasn't a needlework store anywhere nearby where I could wander into for inspiration. And most of my stuff being in storage didn't help either. 

Now I have a store about 30 minutes away (very drivable). And they are really nice there, which helps. Or is that enabling? 

Plus I have been bitten by the Mirabilia/Nora Corbett bug and have a list of patterns I MUST do! And with Texter moving her stuff out of the house, I can start getting to my bins of stuff. Friday and Saturday found me making excel sheets of specialty threads and beads I have as I pull out a bin at a time to check what's in there. Now if I can convince the kittens the stuff isn't for their play. I keep finding items they have dragged off around the house.

And I'm sure it won't be too terribly long before I can set up a sewing area again! I am so excited.

But for now I have to go watch some more Olympic competition and doing a bit more stitching.