The Joys of Needlepoint- Yeah, That's Right, I Said Needlepoint!

I'm an obsessed woman. For many years, I have coveted the old art of needlepoint.
I knew how to do it, the mechanics of it, but I'd never done it.
In my grandmother's house, when I was little, there was a giant tapestry- seriously, it was BIG. It hung in the living room over the sofa in the big log cabin when I was very little and, later, in a different house, in the den. It was a needlepoint from the Lady and the Unicorn series, this particular one was "Desire".
My mother made it before I was born. She'd bought it in Italy and spent four years completing it (on and off). I loved it.
Under this gorgeous banner, my grandmother would bring out a tiny silver tea set and we would have tea and I would share my cup and saucer with the stuffed horse I'd named "Preppy" that my grandmother kept in the house for me to play with. Preppy now lives with my mother and my children play with her when we visit and now that tapestry hangs in my mother's house.
I've always loved it but it never really ocurred to me that I could make one too and then a friend came over and sat there doing needlepoint on a scroll frame and flowers blossomed under her finger tips and wool yarn in a hundred colors filled her bag --and I fell in love.

On a trip to Goodwill, I found a kit, it was started but mostly unfinished and it was $2 so I bought it. It wasn't something that I would necessarily hang on my wall. It was small and it was of a macaw. It screamed Golden Girls- but I wanted to needlepoint, so I did. The yarn kept breaking and I grew frustrated until my friend explained that the yarn was old and I would need to buy more and since I wasn't invested in the finished project, I scrapped it.
But I still coveted. I didn't want a cheesy puppy or kitten, I wanted real art- Da Vinci or Lady and the Unicorn-- classic pieces-- or something wild and wonderful- but not Hallmark or Precious Moments style- not because there's something wrong with them- they're just not my style.
I found a counted cross stitch, something I had never done before and didn't entirely understand. It was $4 and new and complete and I got it- it was a peacock and a spider and I knew I could alter it to be something I would like more. So, I dove in, slightly intimidated by the tiny size of the aida cloth and even more intimidated at how many times I had to unfold it before it was completely open.

And then, on Solstice, my mother arrived with a gift sent all the way from England and when I opened it, I found the most amazing Solstice-celebrating needlepoint I'd ever seen. It was the first in a six part series that I now hope to collect and complete. To date, I have finish a the first fifth of it -- and I work on it all the time.
Between needlepoint, knitting, lace work (don't get too excited, I make it up as I go), sewing, needle felting (sculptures and wool paintings), spinning, crochet and cross stitch, it is hard to get to all of it and still go to work, fill any orders I might get and be a decent mother and partner. So, I stay up late and sneak time with all these handwork lovers and achieve what I can in those stolen moments. Sometimes I wonder what it was like when this was what the days were like, needlepoint and handwork arts and if I would have loved living then or whether I would have wished for something different.......