Another new start for 2025 is a hand embroidery project I started. I met Rebecca DeVaney of Textile Tours of Paris when I went to Paris in 2023 with my friend, Julie. And from then on I was a Rebecca devotee. So much so that Julie and I took a quick road trip to San Francisco to spend an afternoon with her. Rebecca teaches online embroidery courses (among other things) and this year, she started a course called, Tender Whispers from the Heart. You can read more about it here. We embroider literature, or in my case The Preamble of the US Constitution.

Here’s my current status:

I regret choosing such big lettering and I’m thinking of restarting with smaller letters. I do want to do more than 1 project this year.

I chose to do this particular project because I am swept away with the daily barrage of Executive Orders being signed that essentially destroys the foundation of our government. The feelings of unsettlement, of fear, of hopelessness envelopes me and I am inspired by how art and embroidery can be a quiet and empowering form of resistance. It provides me with peace while I stitch.

Stitch on,

Melanie