Hello!

The last couple days have had me thinking and pondering about my artist residency project. I had a carpal tunnel flare up and it made me wonder if hand stitching work was the right thing for me to do. I took a rest from hand stitching for a day or so and things have calmed down again. I may have overdone it because I was excited to get started and did too much in a couple days.

The plan was to stitch everyday. I don’t have to make a project a day which I think I got in my head would be a neat thing to do so I could document my progress over the next several months. It would be a neat thing to do but some days, it isn’t able to happen. Life with a 5 year old is fun but also busy.

This past weekend, I went to a hand sewing meetup put on by the quilt guild I’m in. It happens once a month and we sit and stitch and chat. Everyone brings their own project to work on whether it’s quilting a quilt, hand stitching a quilt binding down, English paper piecing, embroidery, or knitting. Sometimes I go without a project and sit with everyone to be in community. This time I took some yo-yo’s I made and decided I was going to stitch them down onto a small piece of fabric that will become a drawstring pouch. I already had fabric cut so I stuck with the same color scheme as the drawstring pouch in my previous post. This time I took my time with my stitching as we all chatted and it felt more organic and less rushed. I was there a couple hours and had time to do the echo stitching on this piece and to do some boro or running stitch on the piece of fabric that will become the back of this pouch.

I haven’t had any pain or numbness in my hand since I stitched on this pouch. It’s important to be aware of when I’m doing too much. I thought I was done once I did the echo stitching but pulling it back out and looking at it tonight, I think it needs some other stitches. I’ll try it and see what happens.

Last week, I was able to see my studio space for the artist residency and I can’t wait to move some items in tomorrow so I can start patterning and making some larger stitched pieces. My goal is to work on my stitching each day and experiment with different stitches. I want to see how they look or what kind of texture it adds to the fabric. Hoping to get into the studio the end of this week but the weather has been pretty cold here in Oregon. Blizzard conditions in the mountains today but it may be cold enough in the valley to have snow or inclement weather this weekend.

Happy Stitching!

Camille