February continues....

February, one of my favorite months, continues, and I am celebrating this evening! I am celebrating because I just finished writing the last of the instructions for my hearts sale which will start as soon as I get it all together.

I usually post everything at one time, but this year I've been doing it differently. For several days I have been posting a heart or two from my past. I have been stitching lots of hearts for a long time now, and tomorrow morning the 9th and 10th will find their ways to my website.

This year I succeeded in stitching 5 new hearts and those are the instructions I have been working on since I returned from Callaway School of Needlearts on January 19. Finally (FINALLY!) I just put the last of the graphs into place and the last heart is set to go.

The last heart, which is really the first heart, was a bit of an adventure. I intended it to be one sort of heart and it just cried out to be another sort of heart. One cannot deny its place, so I let this heart follow its bliss (thank you, Joseph Campbell, even when it comes to needlepoint hearts).

So the heart won, and I am thinking of breaking tradition and posting it all on its own so that I can write about it. I am considering giving it pride of place for a couple of days before I introduce the other four new hearts. The odd thing is, for years I intended to make the heart that this one turned into, I just didn't intend this heart to become the one it did. Convoluted, isn't it, and I am not sure I am making good sense.

What does make sense to me is the idea that a design tells me where it wants to go. I have said for so long: the skill doesn't come in predicting what will work, which thread will work or which stitch will work. The skill comes in learning to watch a design and see where it wants to take me. I say this all the time and that's why the little heart won.

I've snapped a few photos; I just haven't had time to stuff them into MacSoph and have a look at them. If they turned out well, watch for my first new heart in a couple of days. After I finish posting my old hearts.

I guess the frames on my home page have been empty long enough now.
It is almost time to fill them.

Gay Ann