Latest Stitching Projects

Last year, during Stitchtober, I started thinking of other series of images that might work with the prompts from @ajpritchett. While he and most of the others who stitch do individual pieces, I have done two that incorporate all the prompts. Two years ago, as I read the prompts, I thought of fairy tales (blog post #stitchtober2021), and last year the prompts made me think of Greek myths (blog post Stitchtober 2023). One of the categories that I thought might work with typical Stitchtober prompts was tarot cards, but I wondered if I could even stitch 12 or 13 tiny tarot cards, so I decided to try stitching one.

When I think of Tarot cards, I think of the Rider-Waite deck and as a collector of suns specifically of the sun card. Stitching a 2″ version was not easy and I can say with certainty that even if this year’s Stitchtober prompts work perfectly, I will not be stitching a piece that includes 12 or 13 Rider-Waite cards.

I stitched the card on white duck fabric using only 1 or 2 strands of embroidery thread, and although it was challenging, I ended up being pretty pleased with it. At first, I thought I would frame it in the hoop, but when an embroiderer I follow on Instagram wrote that her round flower design wasn’t round enough, I thought. “Well then, my little rectangle definitely isn’t round enough!” So I decided to look for a frame. I was headed for Michael’s when I thought of the local shop Four Sided instead, and I found the perfect frame – a small (2.5×3.5) shadow box frame from Lawrence Frames.

I didn’t know what I was going to stitch next, but a few days after I finished the tarot card, I read an article about Clint Eastwood. He was asked how he stays so productive at his age and he answered, “I never let the old man in.” I loved this sentiment and did some research on it. I found out that he has been saying it for years (sometimes saying “never” rather than “don’t”) and that he originally attributed it to an older man that he knew. It also turns out that after he said it to Toby Keith, he wrote a song based on it called. “Don’t let the old man in,” and it was included in the movie “The Mule.”

I had just received a notice for jury duty and my husband pointed out that I could decline due to age. That didn’t feel right to me and when I thought about the quote I knew why. And I also knew I wanted to embroider it. I pictured it in a black and red tattoo font. I had a piece of 20 count linen that seemed like it would work with letters that were 10 x’s high, so after doing a little googling, I designed a font. The Michael’s I go to has been out of black embroidery thread for a while, so I bought balls of cotton perle and used two pieces of black and one of red.

At first, I just stitched the letters – using “never” rather than “don’t ” and changing “man” to woman. When I finished, I had no idea what I was going to do with it. Then, at a street fair, I saw a silkscreen or painting of the Chicago flag on a stretched canvas and thought, Ah hah! I could stretch it over a purchased canvas if I could find one. It turned out there are stretched canvases that are 12″×4″. 12 inches was perfect, but 4 was a bit big, so I added the heart. It was too small to stretch around to the back of the canvas, and after a few days of mulling it over, I settled on gluing it to the sides with fabric glue (it was barely big enough on the bottom) and then gluing 1/2 inch twill tape over it to cover the raw edges. I think it came out even better than I could have expected.

I hung it next to my bed, which was looking a little lopsided after I put the cross stitch cats I stitched many years ago above the tribute to my youngest sister. I put the tarot card on my dresser, and I must say my room is getting pretty full of my embroidery!