Wonky Stitchery

As soon as I saw this week's DOCUMENTED LIFE (DLP) prompt, "Incorporate Fabric Onto Your Page", I got that whole Cotton Council theme song stuck in my head...you know, "The touch, the feel of cotton, the fabric of our lives."  Yeah...it's been playing on repeat in my brain ever since Saturday morning.  I'm glad this was an interesting prompt, otherwise I would be severely annoyed right now...

Aside from having the cotton song in my head, the other thing that happened right away was that I knew I was going to embroider the fabric that I would add to the page.  Here's what I ended up with:

Muslin on the right, Martha Stewart Acrylic Paint in Putty (Satin finish)...the muslin and the paint actually match pretty well...or at least close enough to work for me!

So I started out with two pieces of muslin in an embroidery hoop (because the muslin I have is very thin and the floss colors would show through otherwise...).  And in between the two layers of muslin, I added a piece of paper with some journaling I did about some stuff I wanted to get out, but didn't need to ever look at again.  I do believe that's a new take on hidden journaling...at least for me.

At any rate, I kind of made a reverse Mandala, starting at the outer edge and working my way to the middle with different stitches and various colors of floss.  On a side note, I learned to do embroidery when I was a kid, and I used to have such perfect, even, little stitches...I don't know what happened to that skill, because my stitches are SO not perfect, even, or little anymore...but I did remember how to do a French Knot without having to look it up and the last time I did a French Knot was probably 15 or 20 years ago, so I feel pretty positive about that...

The good thing about this is the floss colors, because they distract from the uneven everything else...

After I finished my embroidery piece to my relative satisfaction, I started putting down paint on my spread.  For some reason, I chose brown, turquoise, and silver...even though they didn't seem to match my fabric piece IN ANY WAY...  

Once I started looking at the embroidery and the background together, though, it started to remind me of something Native American.

I was going to use a quote from a fantastic poem called "Story From Bear Country" by Leslie Marmon Silko (which you can read HERE...the poem starts after the third sentence...I don't know why they have it laid out like that...), but I couldn't decide which part to use.  I played around with the thought of just copying down the whole poem, but decided against it.

"Though at times you'll be at your knees, it's better than just running blind.  I'll push you straight into the deep.  I'll challenge you, boy, every time." -John Butler Trio

Instead, I ended up using lyrics from this song, "Ragged Mile", by John Butler Trio:

I love this song and it's got that awesome tribal beat to it.

The lyrics actually go a long way in putting a positive spin on the journaling/frustrations I had written and then locked away forever in between my two layers of muslin...

Close-up of wonky stitchery...which is hiding even wonkier feelings underneath...stupid wonky feelings...

I think I like this spread...at least (or maybe I should say especially) the embroidery part of it.  I don't seem to find Zentangles very zen and I don't get that meditative vibe from fussy cutting like other people do, but, for me, there is something to be said for picking up a needle and thread and just letting what happens happen.  I think I may have to make sure to do a bit more of the flossy fun in the near future...if for no other reason than to get my stitching skills back in good order...