with needle and thREAD

Last winter, I learned to knit. It was a great, grand, and glorious thing. I loved plunging headfirst into the world of knitting. Such  nice people I found there! Such beautiful projects I found there! I discovered great joy and enormous peace in knitting. And I loved creating beautiful things for the people I love.

I joined my friend Ginny's Yarn Along with unbounded enthusiasm. Those Wednesday posts were my favorite and almost always, I found time to read everyone else's Yarn Along post. Endless inspiration and eye candy.

Alas, I sneezed. And wheezed. I am very allergic to animal fibers. I knew this, of course, before I began to knit. But I thought I could knit around that fact. I could. Sort of. I would find a pattern I loved and head off to translate it cotton-ese. I knit beautiful handspun cashmere generously provided by the best knitting mentor a girl could ever hope to have. Eventually, even that made me itch and wheeze. I persevered in the cotton department. After several months of nearly manic knitting I developed tendonitis. Ginny is a dear in-real-life friend. She pointed out that knitting cotton is especially tough on one's tendons. No kidding.

Around this time, another friend was encouraging me to learn to sew. As I began to explore the world of sewing, I discovered a beautiful fact: those who sew speak the language of cotton. They don't look at cotton the way that knitters do. They love cotton! Embrace it! Revel in it! Here was a way to create I could acutally jump into with wholehearted gusto. 

I learned to sew. I am learning to sew. And as my enthusiasm has grown, so has my desire to "talk sewing." A few weeks ago, after being quiet for a couple of weeks here, with nothing really to say, sewing came bubbling up out of me. I posted pictures of my girls' handmade Easter dresses and pretty much begged you to talk sewing with me. And you did:-)! I visited some new-to-me sites and saw such pretty things. One of the dear ladies who read that post wrote and asked if I'd consider a linkup party like Yarn Along, for those of us who sew. 

What a great idea...

I ran it past Ginny and she said go for it!

So here I am introducing to you needle and thREAD. What have  you been sewing lately? Or are you embroidering? Pulling a needle with thread through lovely fabric to make life more beautiful somehow? Would you share with us just a single photo and a brief description of what you're up to? Are you reading something wonderful, a volume you just can't put down? Are you listening to the audio version so that you can sew and read at the same time? Would you talk sewing and books with us? I'd love that so much. Please come back every Thursday and share with us!

Here's a  button for your post (you can even choose your color), that way we can find our way back here to see what other people are dreaming up to do with needle and thread.  Go ahead and put it in your sidebar, too. If we want to talk sewing and reading on a regular basis, we have to spread the word!  

And if you're knitting instead, or knitting as well, please be sure to stop by Yarn Along and tell my friend Ginny hello for me:-)

This week, I began to stitch the embroidery in the center of quilt squares. I'm putting together a quilt that's a hybrid of two sewalongs at Clover and Violet: Embroidery 101 and Garden Steps. This is a very longterm project. I packed three squares to take with me to Florida last week, but I never got to them. I did finally pick up the embroidery this week at home. I've never really embroidered before, so it's a bit rough, especially at the "learning curves," but I think I am going to like it! (Isn't that a great embroidery hoop? I read about it on Pretty By Hand.)

I read several books during Lent. If you were away from the 'net and missed it, pop over and see what I had to say about the fabulous Style, Sex and Substance. Then, I didn't read at all last week as I hustled around like crazy. Now, I'm sighing contentedly into reading The Jane Austen Guide to Happily-Ever-After, a book which was recommended to me by a lady who reads my blog and thought it would suit me. She was right. I'm very much enjoying this modern-day application of Jane Austen civility. And, since endless pictures of my Kindle aren't very much fun, here's a peek at the actual book cover.

What are you reading and sewing? Leave a link to your blog so we all can see or upload your picture to the needle and thREAD flickr group.