The Right Alice

Sometimes all it takes is for one person to believe in us. Often we don't even believe in ourselves, but there is someone out there that chooses us...that picks us out of a crowd...that knows we have what it takes to accomplish something for ourselves that we never dreamed possible.


I never imagined that this piece would end up being about Alice. In fact, I started the journey completely infatuated with the Mad Hatter and the idea of perpetually having tea. I knew those two things were absolute.


But over time, as I stitched and studied the story...I chose to remove the other characters at the tea party...the Dormouse, the March Hare and the Cheshire Cat. But what about Alice? Alice was growing in my heart day by day. And so I decided; Alice had to be on the block and she had to be Big Alice.


And holding the key? Well, of course. She's the key to the entire story...and she's the key to her own happiness, her own success, her own life.

Yet it's the Hatter who believes in Alice from first sight of her. Everyone else in the story is convinced that Alice is the "wrong" Alice...and even Absolem, the hookah-smoking caterpillar says that she is "not hardly" Alice...meaning, that he was reserving judgment until she had proven herself.


But not the Hatter. The Hatter needs Alice to slay the Jabberwocky...to free Underland from the treachery of the Red Queen...and he never doubts that she can do it. And to Alice, it seems to be the most impossible thing she could ever dream of...to have the strength to wield a vorpal sword and slay a Jabberwocky? Even in her craziest of dreams, she wouldn't have imagined that possible for herself.

Yet the Hatter did. And he had faith in her and he waited and waited for her to return. Their relationship in the story is very special and Alice becomes Big Alice because of him.


Don't we learn life's lessons through great stories? And isn't the craziness of Alice in Wonderland one of the reasons it has such mass appeal...such outlandish characters saying the silliest of things...and those silly statements resonate with truth.


I love this story. It teaches me that believing in someone I love can mean the world to them. It teaches me that what doesn't kill me, makes me stronger. It teaches me that believing in myself, believing that I can accomplish six impossible things before breakfast, makes me a GIANT. And makes me the star attraction in my own life.


I have really enjoyed blogging this journey bit by bit. And I have to admit that I'm a bit down now that it's over. I always need a few days after ending a big project, finishing a great book, throwing a big party...to wind down...to write the experience to my hard drive...filing the lessons learned for future use.


Thank you for all your support and your encouragement along the way. It means more than you might imagine.


And so you don't have to work too hard...here's what I added to the block from last time.

• The blue butterfly in the upper right corner to signify Alice's transformation
• I darkened the center dark grey piece to give it more depth like a hole
• I added some three-dimensional ferns and more curly ferns to the forest

• I added more Tulgey to the Tulgey wood
• and I put a few beads on the seams in the center...
• And I gave the Hatter a hat pin. It's a size 15 beading needle with two size 15 beads glued very carefully to the tip. I put on my small fingers for that task!

And now it's done.


I put all the pictures in this Flickr album and I made a slide show...it's kind of fun to see the block grow over time...kind of like time-lapsed photography.

Have a great day everyone and thank you for coming on this adventure with me!