On Rejection

Rejection is something I find very hard to deal with.  It is like a physical blow to my body and my 'flight or fight' response is immediately triggered.  But I came across this post from Cindy Sherman, on Instagram that made me think again.  (Cindy is famous for her ability to make herself look like anything she wants to portray.)  

If someone so acclaimed is not recognised for what she is most famous for all those other rejections that I have experienced and will experience in the future, are really about the person doing the rejecting!  (It has taken me a life time to work this one out.)   Why am I wiritting about this?  Well I'm putting together a display of my work and I can hear the rejection of it in my head.  I have never been able to fit the 'norm'.  Maybe it is time to embrace it?

WIPW

I have been busy lacing my current lot of portraits onto boards.

I am about to start the final lessons from Sue Stone that I started a few years ago but life got in the way.

I have to put together a display for the Embroiderers' Guild of my work and I am finding choosing what to put in it difficult.  Most of the traditionally stitched pieces of work I have done I have given away as gifts over the years, although I have held onto a few, most of which need to be assembled

or are really large pieces.

  What I have the most of left is the experimental pieces.  Oh well, I will just have to put in what I have.

Schools Back

Yes, the holidays are over.  My grand daughter started at high school yesterday after a 3 year break where I helped home schooled her.  I thought I might be called on to help get her home in the afternoon but her parents have arranged with their employers that they will do this.  Things have changed so much since I had my children.  By the time the eldest was 7 years old and his brother 6 I had them travelling on their own.  They had to catch a bus from outside their school, get off in the busy Fortitude Valley, which wasn't a very savoury place for kids or any one else for that matter, cross a very busy road and then get another bus home.  If they walked home from the Valley the old Italian men who sat in the pub, which was on the way home kept an eye out for them.  They were accosted once and all the men came out of the hotel to their rescue, which they thought was very exciting.  Then I insisted they had to get that second bus, no walking.  But they learnt how to look out for their own safety and be responsible for themselves.   I also took the time to teach them how to be safe on their push bikes in the traffic in the inner city suburb.  My parents had given me similar lessons when I was 5 and 6 years old out in the country where the risks were different but still real.

Today those little boys are in their 40's and the eldest is responsible for his own family.   I know it is easier to take the children in the car to and from school.  There is more traffic and we are more aware of the risks.  Up to 12 years of age it is against the law to leave a child alone, although I'm sure there are plenty of parents who do.  I believe, learning how to look out for your own safety is something that should start early.    I got a call from my son to tell me that my grand daughter had a great day at school today.  Well now this grandmother has more time for stitching

I got my preferred diary, at last.

With all the disruption of illness I wasn't able to purchase the diary I like to use for this year.  I have used this type of diary for at least 10 years and every year I stitch a cover for it.  I thought that I has missed out and purchased another one just to go on with but then I found the one I prefer.

I like it because it is well constructed, there is a list of school terms for every state, it has a  monthly and daily planner page, for this year and next, lots of room for notes and photos of subjects that sooth my soul.

I am pressing on with the challenge, which I will use for the cover of this diary. 

After applying the paint I went looking for other fabrics to incorporate into the piece and low and behold I found an old piece I had stashed away from a workshop I did with Dijanne Cevaal back in the 1990's!  I very much copied her style for this block and I still have not mastered how to free machine quilt.  In this workshop we did Procion dyeing of fabric and them made lino blocks which we printed onto the fabric.  I did the workshop so that I could learn the process and use it with my special needs students, who it turned out, were far better than me at doing this.  (We made a quilt for the local library about the history of the schools local.)

This turtle is just the right colours for my fabric, but, it has thrown a spanner in the works.  I was going to have floral stitching but now it will have to be linked to the sea.  That is going to be a whole new story. I think I will attempt to machine embroider the turtle and although I have put together a whole lot of threads I'm not sure how the rest of this will turn out.

The Design Challenge

I have been slow in getting started on this, but then I'm just slow at everything at the moment.  I still find I have to lie down and just stop at points throughout the day.  Still, I got my fabric prepared and the paint onto it for the first stage.

My tools included 2 sizes of brushes, which I didn't use much.  Some cut up labels off a pair of slacks I have bought and a broken plastic clothes peg.

This was last years challenge and I see I must have used the same blue.  I have done little painting since then in acrylics it has all been water colours for the past year.

Now to let it dry and move onto the next stage.