15" x 15"

The story of "Nine Lives"

I'm sure that you've heard the expression that a cat has nine lives. Sometimes a piece of needlepoint has nine lives.

This canvas collage is titled Nine Lives because it had many difficulties and yet it survived, in fact it survived very well! For starters, as I began creating this piece and writing about it in my journal, the pen ran out of ink!

I wanted to create a canvas collage from the fiber and fabric already in my stash and not have to go shopping. It was to be a geometric, comprised of two inch squares of quilting fabric and lots of blank spaces for needlepoint stitches and embellishment. This was to be an easy fun piece to complete while in Florida during January. But . . . shortly after arriving in Florida, (you guessed it...) I headed for the needlepoint shop in search of MORE threads. With full renewed enthusiasm I began stitching furiously on the vibrant border.

In needlepoint language, I can't count! That means that when I have to count holes or canvas threads, I usually miscount. Even so, I still chose to stitch a border that required an accurate count and I even had trouble cutting the squares to size. I must admit that I've become very proficient at concealing those areas with appliqué! When this happens, I tell myself that I'm far too spontaneous to follow rigid rules or that creativity shouldn't have boundaries. That excuse didn't work very well because I felt that I had stitched myself into a corner and I couldn't work my way out.

When I returned home, I pinned Nine Lives onto my design wall and tried to forget about that frustrating creation.

One year later, I was back at the same needlepoint shop and Charles asked me how the piece was going. I said, "It's still in work." He replied, "Of course, it will never be finished you know!" Wow! Is he clairvoyant? My friend Shirlianne was with me and I can always count on her to support me. Her retort was "Rosalyn always finishes her pieces!!" Who would be right?

The piece remained on my studio wall for another year until my stitching friend Lenny came to visit and look at some pieces in work. Sometimes, "work in progress" means that they hang on the wall while I procrastinate. Lenny spotted Nine Lives and exclaimed, "I love that border! I love those colors! You must finish it!!!!!!" After fully interrogating her to be sure that she really loved the piece, even I thought I should finish it. Convincing myself that the lack of rigid perfection would enhance the feeling of the piece allowed me to be much freer on the canvas.

I worked with great enthusiasm until once again, I realized that the piece wasn't "working". This time there just wasn't any excitement. It was just another piece. What had gone wrong? I had used phototransfer, beads, metallics, couching, felt, wool, appliqué, cotton, silk, overdyes. None of this produced drama, only lots of "nice" stitching.

One day, I was working in my studio with my painting friend Marilyn and I just couldn't get the piece to have any excitement. We talked about possible solutions and I thought, "I'll just cut this piece into sections and reuse it in a different piece." I would re-cycle it! Frustrated, I had my scissors in hand, poised over the canvas. I can still see Marilyn as she calmly stared at me saying, "that's a very brave thing to do". I thought does she mean "stupid" and not "brave"? I put the scissors down. "Now what?" I thought.

Marilyn convinced me to start cutting other squares of fabric at random and throw them onto the piece to see what would evolve. After a while, I began to see that what the piece needed was the introduction of an oversized bright bold print. Nine Lives needed a huge infusion of Drama to save it's life. I stitched and embellished, then reworked some areas and had a fabulous time completing the task.

In retrospect, this was a huge design learning experience, a great deal of fun some of the time and I can't wait to show Charles the finished result. I really do my best to complete each of my pieces. I learned early in my stitching career that each needlepoint has a story to tell and I want to experience the stories.

The saga wasn't over yet. My framer, who does everything beautifully the first time, had to frame this piece twice. On the first try, the final row of stitching was partially covered by the matting!

>Click within the stitchings to see the detail images: