Reboot 2026?

This blog is so typical for me: I love to start new things, but my follow-through is miserable. I'm rather glad to have even this sketchy record of the beginnings of my stitch journey back in 2022, however. 

To recap from 2022-2026, I had a very fruitful year or two of thread painting, but finally got bogged down in 2024 when I tried to stitch a black cat and failed miserably, then started a large hoop featuring an old cottonwood and became bored with all the leafy stuff behind and around it. My next restart hoop was a smaller one of a sunset sky, but the magic just seemed gone. I simply hated the colors. 

I set aside all my hoops and threads, and in fall of '24 I became deeply involved in moving, which took all my energy. 

Once we were relocated to the new place, still living the apartment life in Albuquerque, I found a place for my thread storage box, and filled up a wonderful lidded basket with all my cloth and works in progress, carefully bagged so I could return to each one in time, but until this month, March 2026, I haven't threaded a needle. 

I've been busy painting in watercolor (my first love, to which I always return), and trading small works with people from all over the world. I returned to painting Artist Trading Cards, (ATCs, 2.5" x 3.5" in size), and happily traded them on several Facebook groups.  

But not long ago I had an idea. The pink tree above popped up on my Facebook memories. I'd forgotten about it. Digging through my basket, I found it in it's little bag, still hooped. I admired it and showed it to some friends at church, who encouraged me. Suddenly I wanted to embroider again. 

But what did I want to thread paint?

I opened my phone to look through my "pix to be painted" file and was instantly inspired by a photo of Taos Canyon in shadow, filled with the blue, green, and turquoise colors that I favor most. I had downloaded it from an online group that provides landscape shots for artists to use, taken by Linda Torres, fully intending it to become an ATC painting. This would make a stunning embroidery! Make it small, I thought, really small. 

I made the photo round, cropping out the corners with an app, just to be sure it would work in that format, and it was swinging and swaying in the circle, definitely well suited to a hoop. My creative juices started flowing again, so I found a 4" hoop, printed out the photo, chose some white cotton cloth that I taped over the photo against the window and penciled a drawing, finding the key locations of features I wanted to preserve. 

1- pencil drawing, 2- watercolor underpainting, 3&4- stitching.

 

4" hoop laid atop working hoop

The pink tree, called Spring Plum, had been stitched on top of a watercolor underpainting. I literally used watercolors to paint the lavender-blue colors that you see behind the blossoms. It was my only experiment with that technique, but I thought why not paint the canyon and stitch over that? It would avoid the need to fill in every bit of bright white cloth with thread in places where I might not want to use so much thread, plus it seemed like it would jump start the stitching for me. 

I mulled over that idea for a day or two, then finally got out a piece of the same white cotton cloth (an old sheet, 100% cotton) and my watercolors and gave it a go. It was far from perfect but hey, it worked, so I simply dove in and painted over my drawing. I knew I would stitch darker colors over it, but it was lovely and inspiring to me, making me happy.

So, a couple of weeks ago I started stitching again! I've been taking it easy, not doing much in any one day so that my hand wouldn't become sore. There's no rush. 

I remembered that wonderful pop and hiss, as the needle pierces the taut cloth and the thread slides through to the other side, a soothing sound that relaxes me. Thread painting takes time, as the image emerges slowly. I separate my thread, using only one strand throughout, so it's like painting an eyelash at a time. 

But I think this slow pace is good for me right now, contrasting beautifully with the urgency and speed needed to paint in watercolor.