A Round A Day-Revisited.

So, remember my crazy year of embroidery when I stitched a 3 inch embroidery every single day?

I do too.

I felt very accomplished but the pressure of EVERY DAY affected me so much, that a break from embroidery totally seemed warranted. 

I jumped into yarn projects and set my floss aside. I was too busy to feel bad about my little hoops and teensy finished pieces stacked on the shelf. They sat in chronological order, for 8 whole months.

Until a friend asked if I would show them and talk about them at the college library. I was assured it would be totally casual, with no need to be nervous.

I was nervous. But agreed. Then I got excited. And started doing some new embroidery. Then got really excited. I pulled down those piles.

Minna helped me sort. We separated them... Flowers. Animal and bugs. Blackwork. Misc.

I hooped my 40 favorites. I love how they look in their hoops. 

The kids had memories of each and every one. The days and times they were stitched came easily to me. Some so vividly, they brought tears.

I printed photos from the blog of a few to display together with their hoops. It was hard to choose just a few.

I started framing some of my new pieces. My year log project was embroidery to photo. My currant project is photo to embroidery, and feels just right.

I needed to find a way to display 365 pieces! Some were hooped. Some were sewn into buntings. Some I stitched to fabric in a big vintage quilters hoop. The rest were left in a basket to dig through and feel.

Two years worth of embroidery was all packed up and whisked into town.

I laid each one out and about 10 times more people came to see them that I had imagined. Including, the newspaper. (Wish I had brought along a stylist and a wind machine.)

I talked all about how I learned embroidery, why I decided to do the 365, and myself. 

The words came smoothly and the conversations so fun and happy. The little pieces of cloth sparked memories in everyone; of art school, grandmother's hands, stitching tortilla napkins in Mexico, hand quilting and canvas embroidery.

It was awesome and everyone was so supportive. (And made me feel a little less crazy for doing it in the first place.) 

Thanks to all, so much, for cheering me on, asking me to show them, coming, seeing and talking to me about these little pieces that created a journal of a year of my life. What an amazing place I live, that gets excited about all forms of art and has no problem putting embroidery on the front page.

Pretty darn neat.