Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Heart-Centered Stitching

This morning I opened up my email to a free monthly newsletter I receive from Creativity Portal...and found my way to this article written by Naomi Rose in 2006 titled Listening Your Book Into Being.


As I read, I found myself substituting the title "Listening my Needlework into Being"...

And substituting the words "writing" and "write" with the words "stitching" and "stitch".

What does it mean to learn to listen to yourself? Especially when it comes to stitching...

Here I took the liberty of paraphrasing and making the substitutions....

To learn to listen to yourself when a project first comes and knocks at the inside of your heart’s desire requires a “willing suspension of disbelief,” as Samuel Taylor Coleridge put it in the 19th century — only in this case, it’s suspension of disbelief in yourself, and in what is coming forth and how it’s telling itself to you. We have come to believe that stitching comes in fully formed, organized with subheads, logically developing from one point to the next. But stitching from the deeper Self has more unique, custom-tailored, mysterious ways of telling itself to you. So for this — to hear the wisdom, beauty, and translucence that is wanting to make its way up and out into your awareness, that you can begin to move with it and create something beautiful from it — you need to be able and willing to listen.

I love this thought. For a long time I have known that my projects do not progress in a linear fashion. But they come to me...little bits at a time...over time. All the time.

My ideas start as small seeds, and some of them grow and gain weight and others do not.

The first thing I do, is write down that little starter-seed of a thought...and sometimes it sits in the notebook for years.



For some, I create a collection box for the materials that will go into my project...threads, fabric, quotes, images, beads...anything really...all collected as fertilizer for my little seed...until it gains momentum and bursts into a full-blown sprout.

And sometimes it lays at that state for some time...until the next piece comes along. Often I will pause working on a piece because there is something missing. And I know I have to wait, and listen, until that something comes to me. And sometimes, it takes me a great deal of time to find it. But I have great patience for this waiting.

Today, I have opened a collection box that has been waiting for about two years now. It's for my husband. And it comes from my heart.


I'll be using Allie's freezer-paper curved-piecing method to kick start this project into blooming.

And so, I guess if you have ever wondered why a project dropped off the radar of this blog for a while...it's because I'm waiting for something to present itself.

I am in no way linear. And feel no pressure to complete one project before I start another.

To me, I am always working on all of them...

I'm feeling Spring coming on...and you may see lots of things blossoming. But there may be some jumping from one project to another. Please bear with me...It's part of who I am.

13 comments:

FlowerLady Lorraine said...

Oh my, this post touches my heart and brings tears to my eyes.

Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady

Carol- Beads and Birds said...

I knew this about you. Like when you posted the queen's crown and we never saw even a bit of the project it was intended for. As a friend, you sit and wait for the next stage. In a few weeks, you go back to see if you missed a post. I have learned to bide my time..all in good time. The queen appeared. I wonder how many books she sold.

Or like the snow flake.

Gerry Krueger said...

I can wait...you're worth it and I'll just keep working while I wait... Hugs Ger

coral-seas said...

This should have been obvious to me but sometimes it needs someone to point you in the right direction. I have these seeds of ideas but I don't write them down, I hold them in my head. Sometimes I collect bits together but they may not be all in one place, certainly not in a designated place. I need some seed beds!

You are such an inspiration to me.

By the way, one of my seed ideas is for/about my husband. Maybe I'll make that my first seed bed.

Thank you for this wonderful post.

gracie said...

Wonderful thoughts...lovely pieces of you when they appear...that is why I keep visiting.

Mosaic Magpie said...

Your stitching just like your ever evolving blog is what we love about you. I am never sure what will be here, waiting for me. We catch a glimpse of a beautiful example and see it months later transformed into something we could never imagine. We are here watching and waiting for you to create your magic!
Deb

Marty52 said...

And who you are is such a good thing. :)

I like to do the same thing... I have several boxes that have "the beginnings" of CQs in them. They all swim around in my mind and surface while I'm at a fleamarket or thrift store. I have a sketchbook that I use, too. It has little snippits here and there and then those snippits start growing. Midsummer took up most of the book!

Anonymous said...

All good things are worth waiting for - however long it takes.

Kay said...

Thank you for your post today. I feel like I have been given permission to have more than one project that I am working on with no guilt! I have always had that little voice in my head telling me to finish a project before starting another one.... but with stitchng I find that it doesn't really work that way, I need time for these pieces to speak to me, so Thanks you!

Vicky aka Stichr said...

isn't this how we all work? sometimes getting to the finish line is all i can think about, but most of the time i stop to nibble on some flowers.

funny you, and others, would come out with this idea now...i just told my husband yesterday that i hope there is a sketchbook challenge 'clue' that will work for him so i can do something about him. he is a very difficult subject.

Rachel said...

I don't think there are many of us who really develop our ideas in a linear way.

Speaking for myself, though, I don't listen to myself - I listen to the project itself...

JoWynn Johns said...

Thanks for your paraphrase, and the whole post. Just what I needed as I wait to find out what I'm going to make, how I'm going to get back into stitching.

lifemyway said...

I really love this post. Sometimes I put so much pressure on myself to finish a project that it just sucks all the enjoyment out of it. I love the idea of wiating for the project to come together in it's own time.

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