I can't seem to get focused on the things on my stitching 'To do list' this month. I have a lot of things on my mind and the 'real life' decisions that I have to make have been leaving me feeling quite drained. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to live a life of escapism? I would happily live in 'stitch world' forever :) But as much as I like to pretend I'm still a kid, part of being a grown up is facing up to things that are wrong and working hard to put them right rather than just hiding or running away. But I'm happy to say that I think the biggest decision has now been reached and it is likely that I will be moving house soon, so exciting times ahead :)
The one thing that has seen a little work is my cat squares cushion. This was the first ever patchwork project I did many years ago now. It was before I took my basic patchwork course at college, I had no idea what I was doing and it shows in the results,
lol. I just had this pile of kitties that I'd cross stitched and nothing to do with them so figured I'd make them in to a cushion.
The blue fabric is some sort of heavy weight cotton that I picked up at the local furnishing store all the squares were hand cut and hand stitched, no measuring or marking which is why everything is all over the place. Well some of the kitties whiskers are now hanging off and the fabrics are getting pretty beat up so I've been wanting to try and revamp these poor kitties for a while.
So the cushion has now been unpicked and the process became pretty symbolic for me given where I am in life at the moment. In my mind this old familiar piece became a representation of my history, my old life. The stitches became representative of my memories, so the unpicking was like shifting through hundreds of memories, remembering laughter and tears. Gradually the layers have been stripped away and I'm left with all the good reusable bits.
Just like the kitty squares my memories may be a bit faded and tattered round the edges, but they have helped shape who I am today. And just like me these fragments are ready for some new fabric to join them back together and make them whole again.
Now to decide exactly what that fabric will be ......