Healing Heart...

When you are sorrowful look again in your heart, and you shall see that in truth you are weeping for that which has been your delight. ~ Kahlil Gibran


We are truly empty-nesters now. I haven't posted for a longer period than I would have liked, but we have been caring for our remaining dog, Ruby. She has had paralysis of her back legs since last fall and started having grand mal seizures in December. She had been doing okay until these past two weeks when she began having cluster seizures every day that we weren't able to get under control. She had not been her true self for quite awhile. This Tuesday, March 17th, she went to be with her sister and best friend. It is unbelievable that she would leave us this soon. It has been six weeks to the day of her older sister leaving. If I didn't truly know of her illness, I'd say she was dying of a broken heart and missing her best friend. I hope that they are running and playing together at Rainbow Bridge. They have been such a huge part of our family and the adjustment of such a quiet house is really difficult. After loving and caring for them all these years...I feel very empty and a little lost right now. I have had such a heavy heart and shed so many tears these past few days.! Today I feel stronger and hope the puffiness around my eyes returns to normal soon. I'm going to miss my two little best friends...immensely! Today I felt like sharing and getting back into a routine. After I post, I'm going to go in my bright art room, turn on some music and do some beading. Today...I am ready for that. Enough sorrow to share...on a happier note...

On March 5th, I received from a new friend, Monica, 'OUT OF THE BLUE', a piece of art that is so awesome! This 'Epigram' and 'DIVA' is STUNNING and I feel so honored to have her! I have to explain that I sent Monica some treats when I sent her my squares for Pink Artist. I did this from my heart because of the friend she was to me...reaching out, guiding and pushing me forward to blog and share. I told her to PROMISE ME, as a friend, NOT to do anything in return! I was so grateful and flattered that she thanked me by bundling something up and paying it forward. It brought a huge smile to my face and heart that she was truly going to keep this promise. However, one dear friend, did NOT keep her promise! She wrote and said ~Smile~...I just wanted you to have something from me! To say I was beside myself is an understatement! I couldn't believe that she would share something so treasured with me. She knows who Made My Day!!! I just love her, the colors, the texture, the words she has to say... has Monica written all over it. She's looking over me in my art room to remind me to keep exploring, that art equals identity, that my feathers will shed periodically and be replaced by new growth, that the clock says tick-tock, that sometimes while working I may have an epiphany, and that I do have a pulse. But mostly she will be right there to remind me of Monica and her cheerful, endless supply of encouragement and support she shares with all! She has the biggest heart! I can't thank her enough and the 'Diva' will be forever cherished. Talk about smiling and warming your heart and soul! With that, I have started to make something for her. I am not the fastest beader, so it will take a little time, but something is in progress and I will share it sometime soon.

Here she is in all her Glory...

















I will have to take a picture of her in my art room to share soon!

The other thing I was going to share was the first piece of bead embroidery I started in the fall of 2005 and am still working on. I haven't worked on it in quite awhile and am anxious to get back to it soon. It is 22" x 22" and was inspired from Margaret Ball's book Embeadery. There is a quilt of two hands that are beaded with different stitches and background was, I believe, free-motion quilted. I thought it would be neat to trace my family's hands and bead a small quilt for us. I started with a heart in the center of the sun and the sun's rays spiraling out from that. It is our hearts (love), warmth, and hands all together that symbolizes all of us...our family and our friendship. With our hands in each corner I thought I would bead things in each of our hands that represented each of us. I sketched everything that was going to go into their hands and then did a lot of research to come up with the correct insignias, symbols, colors, etc. Researching took quite a bit of time. It is a kind of wild piece, but I like it and it means a lot to me! The scraps of blue material that is basted around the edges is not a part of this piece, it is temporary, my thread kept catching on the batting and getting fuzzies on the black cotton. Spencer's hand was done until I took a picture to share. I decided to take out his Capricorn sign and redo it because it looked like a blob and you couldn't really define what it was. I need to redo it a little slimmer than I had before. As you can see, Spencer our youngest, is a gamer and always has been since he was little. The golden triangle is the Triforce symbol from the game Legend of Zelda one of his favorites. Each triangle represents power, wisdom, and courage. He loves Halo and poker night with his friends, swimming, is a certified scuba diver, is VERY bright, loves having bucks ;-), drives a jeep, loves music, gives to the red cross and uses his thumb on the cross button of his controller, and is a Capricorn. Blake, our oldest, has a teddy bear because he is a big teddy bear and hugging him is like hugging one...6'4" - 265 lbs. His t-shirt has his fraternity initiation number. He graduated from O.S.U. (Oregon) and the beaver is the mascot. He is a Scorpio. He was in the Phi Delta Theta fraternity in college and has that insignia on his thumb. After graduation he was hired and works for Jeld-Wen (doors and windows) and now lives in El Serrito near San Francisco. Need to finish up his hand, then on to dad's and then mine.

I have learned a lot working on this piece. The sun, heart, rays, and outline of hands are all done with 11/0's. I learned very quickly that I needed 15/0's to do the detail work on the hands. I have ripped out a few times! ;-) I maybe should have put pellon underneath for more stabilizing, even though, cotton-batting-cotton is fairly stable. It already feels very heavy and I can imagine how heavy it will be when it is done. I thought I would hand quilt between the sun-rays, and in the beginning thought I would bead the entire hands. But I am contemplating finishing the background in the hands with embroidered french knots. I don't know yet, it is still a work in progress...slow progress...but it is the one piece I always come back too. I told my husband that I am going to start working on it during the day for an allotted period of time.
















































Hope you are well and I will share again soon. Keep pursuing art...life and dreams! Lisa