It has been too long! Just an update on the move and my new studio. As you may know, we have relocated back from overseas and are living in Ellicott City, Maryland. I have only just begun to feel settled here. Just before Thanksgiving, we finished the last of our unpacking!

That isn’t to say I haven’t been working. My new studio was one of the first places I unpacked (and not just because the movers put half of our kitchen stuff in there!) And voila, here’s a pic of the new space:

It has been an adjustment. I have more room, but virtually no natural light, so I have put daylight bulbs in the ceiling. Happily, that means I can work at any time, day or night, and I lose track of time while I’m in there.

My second “studio” in the house is the couch, where I do all of my stitching. It gets pretty messy after awhile. I know I need to tidy up when there are needles on the floor and I’m tracking bits of embroidery floss on the bottom of my socks.

I think it may be the cold grey weather and my desire to be comfy and cosy, but my stitching has been all-consuming, lately. These are all stitched on kimono silk scraps I order online. I will take the piece of fabric and sort of riff on the design or play off of it as I’m composing my embroidery. Lately, I’ve been so prolific with these, I finish one piece and immediately go on to the next.

One day, I was looking at all the leftover thread and marveling at how beautiful the colors looked together so I started a crazy sampler to use up the scraps. I’m debating right now how big to make it.

Using these scraps on an extra piece of cloth is so freeing. I have let go of my expectations and overly-determinate thinking as I work. All I have to do when I pick this hoop up is fill another square inch with marks.

Well, that’s all for now. I am painting with oils so that side of things is going a little more slowly. More updates to come soon!

In the meantime, I recently updated my shop with my new hoops and some other recent pieces, so check it out!