I didn’t pick up a needle this weekend, except to do a bit of mending. Saturday we set up at Santa’s Toy Show in Highland, Indiana. We’ve been doing this antique and collectible toy show for probably twenty-five years and it amazes me each time to see many of the same dealers and the same customers. We’ve watched kids grow up and have their own families and seen those kids grow up. It’s gotten much smaller since it’s peak in the 80s and 90s, but it’s still fun.
Sunday we visited another conservatory, this one in Lockport/Joliet is called Birdhaven and it’s another nice one. As a postscript to my Liberace piece, here’s a photo of a candelabra cactus, complete with it’s own spotlight.
All the while I was thinking about the March TIF challenge. Once again the theme has my brain running. I also like this color scheme. I’ve long made a practice of trying to pay attention—to the beauty of a vegetable as I slice it, the sparkle of a snow flake as I shovel, and the flow of each stitch as I embroider.
T
here was a book back in the 70s called “Be Here Now” by Ram Das and that’s what I’ve always striven for (with limited success).So I have a huge archive of little moments of great meaning—it almost feels like too many ideas.
The first thing that came to my mind was the poem by Blake: “To see the world in a grain of sand.” Tanguera posted more of it on her blog. I played around with an electron microscope photograph of sand thinking about using it as a basis for embroidery.
The second thing was a stitch. Just a single stitch. Each stitch is the first stitch and all stitches, pulling the thread through. And so I’ve thought of doing a page with just one stitch. And then I thought of one stitch growing into dozens and hundreds.
I also thought of my niece’s recent stitched piece (link to blog page) and how it’s one small beginning but is part of a long chain with links going back with mom’s embroidery, and her mother’s tatting, and back further most likely.
