Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party!
This week I have been thinking about stitching as medicine. The process of taking repetitive stitches, slowing the breath, being only in this moment, and concentrating on a simple task engages the parasympathetic nervous system in a way that nothing else does. It forces the body to relax and to heal. It's called the "rest and digest" or "relaxed and content" state, and for me there is no quicker way to achieve that state than by hand stitching.
I haven't had much time for hand stitching this week, which is usually when I need it the most. So I spent last evening hand stitching the finishing touches on the fabric bowl I made this week. It was a completely frustrating machine process making this bowl (you can read about the construction here), but adding the hand stitched touches was the best part. I added a key, a wooden heart, and the letters J O Y.
Here is the finished product. It turned out to be a lovely bowl, made from an ugly fabric, created by a frustrated sewist, on a sewing machine with terrible tension. Sometimes you just have to push through the ugliness and frustration and hope for a good result. And then the hand stitching calms you down enough to appreciate what you have created!
What are you hand stitching today? Are you adding some embellishments to something you have made so you will like even more? Share your projects with us by linking your blog post below.
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13 comments:
Your bowl came out very beautiful. I can not see any ugly fabrics, just a beautiful color. It is good to calm down, and hand stitching is a nice activity with calm. I also have to work to calm down, go a little more slowly, breathe deeply and relax. Wishing you a relaxing week! :-)
The bowl is lovely....I'll have to google how to make them!
For all your angst and frustrations in the sewing of your fabric bowl, it looks great. Such a clever idea.
Sometimes the angst reminds us how much we need and appreciate the calm. Lovely bowl. I have never made one but should give it a try sometime
Turned out great!!
I love that you put 'joy' in your basket -- well done!! :)
Despite all the aggravation caused by making your fabric bowl it turned out great. And its good you finished it too (I probably would have thrown it out the window!)
Your bowl is very pretty.
You perservered and ended up with a gorgeous bowl. I would have quit just as soon as the tension started causing problems. lol
I so appreciate this Sunday post & a reminder to rest.
Your correlation between a quiet activity and rest/healing is very true for me. I've found that knitting in particular has relieved pain when not even drugs can. I'm not sure how, perhaps the soothing rhythm of physically knitting or the thought involved blocks painful signals to the brain. However it happens, it's wonderful. Hand quilting also helps. I sure enjoy seeing everyone's projects.
Lovely bowl, I’ll have to try one of those someday
Yay for perseverance, sewing therapy, and a great finished project!
Since hubby's job ended, I've found myself doing more hand stitching. It does calm me more than machine stitching. No rushing hand stitching. The bowl turned out nice. I'll make me one, one of these days.
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