^Today’s stitch meditation
Here’s another path I followed away from my funk into creative mode. This time of year a lot of artists do some kind of 100 day “challenge.” I’ve participated in one of these challenges once before but it was for any kind of artistic effort and I was circling the hole of deep depression. It didn’t work for me and I went in the hole and didn’t finish the challenge. Nowadays my mental health is much better (thanks, vitamin D supplements and therapy!) and I’ve found that the way my brain works it can persist in a long term project much better with some kind of structure. I think that is why I am more attracted to fine craft rather than anything goes kind of art.
Artist Liz Kettle is leading this community project in a private Facebook group but many have tagged their meditations in Facebook and Instagram. I’ve made a slideshow on the front page of my website and will be adding to it as I get around to uploading photos.
The point of this is the meditation – NOT slow stitching, which is very similar but generally has more design thinking involved. In these stitch meditations, you settle into the process of the stitching itself. No pins, no taking out mistakes. Just stitching.
I can’t say that I’ve completely followed these “rules” but for the most part I have and it has been very calming and centering once I enter the flow of the stitching. Usually what works best for me is just straight running stitches and using my scraps just as I pull them out of the box. Later I may or may not trim the edges. I might pay attention to the color of the thread or I might use whatever I pick up first. The blocks are approximately 4 x 4 inches but I don’t worry about keeping them square. I’m using a very loosely woven old curtain for my backing cloth.
At the top is number 33, and I’ve added 28 and 22 below as some examples. I skipped a couple of difficult days but usually I simply started something and then finished it the next day if there was a problem with pain or travel.
If you follow me on Instagram or either of my Facebook pages, I post these daily (usually) with a bit of commentary (usually).