Doodle Stitching

Friday was my day off last week and I decided to do only the things I truly wanted to do. I don't think I even vacuumed or washed the dishes (which is actually an amazing feat of will power if you can believe it!).

So what does "doing what I want do" constitute? A three-hour trip to Chapters! And it really was three hours of booky goodness because my brother was kind enough to drop me off AND pick me up. Yay!

I bought an awesome new sewing book but I will expound its virtures in another post. What I want to tell you about tonight is the inspiration I found while browsing through the home section... you know, where they keep Christine-crack items such as journals, stationary and every brillant office gadget you had no idea you needed.

While perusing the journals I couldn't help but notice the ones with famous quotations printed on their covers. Some of them were lame. For example, "Reach for the moon because even if you fail you'll be among the stars." How is that inspiring?! I don't like it.

But one jumped out at me and seared itself on to my brain. A few sage words from Mr. Henry David Thoreau: American author, naturalist, transcendentalist, tax resister, development critic and philosopher (thank-you wikipedia).

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined."

Well that's a nice sentiment if ever I heard one. And one that I need to meditate on and repeat over and over to myself. It's the law of attraction neatly packaged into 13 words and I thought to myself, "That's something Dennis and I need to remind ourselves of on a regular basis."

[If you know me personally, you know why this struck a chord. If you don't know me, suffice it to say, I am currently hinging my life on hope and the aforementioned law of attraction. Which is an admittedly flimsy ideal when up against the constant barrage of daily life, especially in the service industry].

Skip forward 3 hours from my Chapters adventure. I'm clicking through my favourite blogs and link from feeling stitchy to the wonderful world of Aimee Ray. Her website is dreamfollow.com for goodness sake! How could it not be love at first sight? Her work is based on the premise... well, she explains better herself in an interview with feeling stitchy:

"I have always done random sketches in my sketchbooks, usually tiny and done with very little thought- almost stream of consciousness. :) They can be actual drawings of things or just abstract shapes and lines. I guess it just struck me one day that some of them might make cool embroidery art, so I blew one up and transferred it to fabric. These have become some of my favorite embroideries I have done."

I love this idea! I absolutely adore the art of embroidery and am taken with the idea that you can create anything you want with a needle and thread.

So, borrowing heavily from some of Aimee Ray's designs I found on flickr, look at the pattern I designed! I'm super proud of it and am working on it every spare minute I get. I think it's going to be AWESOME! If it turns out as nice as I hope, I will frame it and hang it in my sewing room as a constant reminder that every stitch I sew is me heading confidently in the right direction. :)