31 little blocks, side by side, one per day. I keep saying there is no plan, but of course there is a plan – the plan is to stitch a little box for every day of 2022. What I mean is, there isn’t a design. There isn’t a design or drawing for each day, I just thread a needle and see what happens. And really, this isn’t true either. It would be more accurate to say that I thread a needle and reflect on where I am in time and space and then translate that feeling into thread on linen. It is mindful, and it is meditative, to witness the passing of time in this way. It means we are alive.
Some days seem longer than others. Some days bring bad news that hangs around for weeks. Some days make you feel lost. Some bring peace.
The fact that days always have more coming after them I think can bring a helpful sense of perspective – if every day is followed by another, then sometimes the next day can be a new beginning. I find optimism in this stitch journal, and I find myself wondering where I will be in say, May or June, and what the days will bring to me. Or what I will discover in them. Sewing, for me, is always about healing and connection, about anchoring myself to my life with thread, stitching old wounds closed, looking behind and ahead while standing in the present.
Tomorrow is 1st February, Imbolc in the pagan calendar. The first day of spring, where hope reaches a tentative hand out of the cold ground, clutching the green shoots of new life.
you saved the best for last in that image with the woven patch, the Morse Code dots and dashes, and the variegated thread … I imagine you watching the colors changing with each new stitch … in the moment
Yes, the colours seem to happen on their own. I really like space-dyed thread, I like the unpredictability of it. This coming from someone who doesn’t usually like surprises 😄
and now I’m wondering what variegated threads you are using …
Ah, mostly hand-dyed crochet cottons and perle… plus some standard DMC stranded threads here and there.
It seems very early to be thinking of Spring, but seeing your January stitches, it’s clear that time has passed!
Yes, it’s still cold, but you can see the arrival of spring in the changing light. You can feel it in the air, you can smell it on the wind. Snowdrops and celandine are waking up, the trees and shrubs are sprouting buds and catkins. That’s the way it is in my little world, anyway 🙂
hope is always there.
Always