My voice

Artist tend to have a style that is distinctively theirs.  As I have been experimenting this year I have wanted to find something that was distinctively mine.  It does not have to be a brand new technique that no one else has ever done--but wouldn't that be fabulous and make me famous--but it does have to be something that when people see it they will say, "I bet that is jdemilo's" 

So, as I was sitting on the couch adding more handwork to the Center of the Universe I started to realize that I really like doing handwork.  I like that better than heavily encrusting my work with machine quilting or embroidery so that the piece can't even bend.  I like it better than fussily drawing patterns or fusing 12 zillion pieces of fabric to tell a story.  Not that there is anything wrong with those techniques; they just don't sing of me.

I like doing handwork.  I like that it takes me back to my young days as a Merrihand and Gay Note in the Primary where I first learned hand skills.  I like that it is portable.  I like that I can sit beside my husband while I do it.  I like that I can let my mind wonder while my fingers are busy.  I like the feel of my love going into each stitch as I work.

I don't want to be an embroiderer like my grandmother and follow other people's patterns or even like the quilters of old with their crazy quilt where embroidery was added just for the sake of more stuff.  I want the handwork to tell a story of its own in harmony with the fabric.  Fabric that I have designed with all my new surface design skills.

I am so excited to be adding my new surface design skills to my old skills and singing a song that is all me--my past, my present, and now I think my future too.