4. July 2024 •

Here and now – studies of NOW

For my mother, who passed away 8 months ago. Obviously NOW is all we have.

The mind trap and the solution

Again and again I find trapped in my mind, not only pondering about personal stuff, but also about all the rough stuff happening in our world.

Some say, only meditation can help us to escape this rat race in our mind. I have found another foolproof recipe: Crafting, be it stitching, embroidering, crocheting, whatever, creating something with my hands really always works to ground myself into the present moment, into the NOW.

So I thought, immersing myself into NOW is best made while creating studies of NOW:

Studies of NOW: 01

NOW almost invisible – hard to find and even harder to stick with.

[Seed stitch, stitched with sashiko yarn from @anjarlampert´s wonderful haberdashery shop on handwoven linen from my grandmother´s heritage.

I really like the subtlety of white on white stitching and I highly recommend Anja´s webshop for top-notch yarns, needles, tools and all things you need for stitching and quilting. Not cheap of course, but high quality.

NOW stitched white on on white linen in work — My preferred tool for sketching is my aqua trickmarker. Just wash it out in water and it disappears.

NOW stitched white on on white linen on snow

Studies of NOW: 02

NOW omitted in earthy running stitches building a circle

NOW in the midst of the circle of life.

[Running stitches stitched with nature dyed Kakishibu sashiko yarn on musselin, rescued from the streets]

Kakishibu is a form of liquid made from un-ripe persimmon, then fermented and used for hand dying this amazingly beautiful yarn.

NOW omitted in earthy running stitches building a circle hanging on a branch in snowy landscape — The letters are cut out linen sewed on with running stitches.

And because all good thing come in threes:

Studies of NOW: 03

NOW omitted in white running stitches on light blue cloth

Or is now the void amidst the chaos of life?

[Running stitches, stitched with high quality sashiko yarn on light viskose-denim, having been pants in their former life]

In a book, which I unfortunately cannot remember anymore, I read something interesting:
The society found a solution to remind their citizen aka themselves to the importance of staying in the NOW by setting free lots and lots of parrots, croaking “Here and now“ over and over. Could be annoying though 😉

If you want to see more running stitches stuff, please go here!