Jan 28, 2021

Each day when I pick up my thread journal, I open up my box of leftover threads and contemplate the colours in the box. There is no planning of stitch or colour until I open the box and let my mood sort through the colours until I find one that speaks to me. Every time, the perfect colour and stitch comes to me. 

Today's choice took a little while. I woke this morning to the news that my brother's ex-girlfriend had committed suicide. As I contemplated my journal and dug around in the box tonight, I found this bobbin of shiny blue and purple thread that seemed perfect for her. This one is for you, Stef. I hope that you have found the peace that you did not have for so many years here on Earth. Fly high, my friend, and shine bright.

 

Jan 13, 2021

 The journal is coming along despite the strong urge I had the other day to cut it up. The fella and I have separated and the fabric is from one of his old uniform shirts. I am glad that I did not shred it in a fit of pique the other day and I am using it as a way to heal. My relationship with stitching is longer than most relationships in my life and it has carried me through many times when I needed to heal.

Forgive all the pet hair on the piece despite my best efforts. Pet hair is both a food group and a good luck charm in this house, or so I tell myself.

Happy stitching!

Jan 4, 2021

 Day 4 of my 2021 thread journal and I am still very excited about this piece which is a refreshing change because I have not been excited about stitching, or really anything, since the pandemic shut us down in March 2020. Maybe the glimmer of hope that the end is near with the arrival of vaccines has sparked me again. Perhaps it is denial that life is going to drastically change in this house in a few days. At this point, I don't care what has sparked this excitement that saw me designing in my head on the drive home from work last night!

I am excited to see how this will turn out! There are some ideas rolling around in my head as to how to incorporate the names of the months into the design. No firm idea on "2021" just yet though.

My ornament stitching fell way behind this year so I am still working on little projects to send out as part of Christmas 2020, pictures to follow when the phone camera has enough juice to take photos. I dunno, at this point in the lockdown, restrictions, find joy where you can, who cares if you get Christmas ornaments for Valentine's Day? Does it really matter any more? My rule book has been thrown out the window and lit on fire.

Happy stitching!

Jan 1, 2021

 Here we are in a fresh new year. I honestly don't know where to begin about last year beyond summing it up simply as 2020 and leaving it at that. There is just so much baggage and garbage to unpack that I am just going to look forward into 2021 and let the chips fall behind me where they will fall.

I hope to get back into stitching and gaining my life back or at least living a happier and healthier version than what I was living as a healthcare worker in 2020. My medicine pack is full of vitamins that I take every day to try to avoid getting sick or run down as I deal with stressful shift after stressful shift and curl up on my couch fully and completely exhausted. My partner has been shouldering the load at home because he has been home for months while his employer figures out how to operate under the public health regulations of each province and the country and those of other countries. That support system heads out overseas next week for 6 months so who knows how things are going to go for me in 2021 as I work and look after our critters, one of whom developed a pituitary/hormone disease as the world crashed to a halt in March. Thanks to the pandemic, I don't expect to see my partner again in person until late July.

My stitchy bug was woken up by some posts I saw yesterday about thread journaling where people embroider a little each day for a full year. There are so many variations and themes and ideas that caught my attention and I could not get it out of my head after joining a group on facebook where people share their designs, ideas and work. After hours of mulling things over, I finally came up with this:

The story behind this piece is that the fella' is heading out next weekend and the fabric is from one of his old uniform shirts. My plan is to use a different colour family each month while working from top to bottom with french knots, back stitching, straight stitches and whatever else feels right at the time. Somehow, I will also stitch in "2021" either as the numbers or perhaps spelled out and somehow represent the months either with their first letter or the full word as the colours change. I felt a bit inadequate in not having a fully thought out plan after looking at some of the other pieces where people have all kinds of designs drawn out for each month, but this is my piece and my life so it remains to be seen how things will turn out! Fingers crossed that my stitchy bug stays motivated and creative in the coming months as I try to stay sane, cheerful and without complaint.

Happy stitching!