for fun

You didn’t know…

That I needlepoint did you? You’re surprised aren’t’ you? He he. I don’t consider myself ‘girly’, of course there is a generational definition gap there, but I like my movies to go boom and my literature a bit heavy (Tolstoy, Black Holes and Time Warpss, Cold Zero, Inside Terrorism) or really light (Salvatore, Eddings, Grisham…) and I don’t do many ‘girl’ things (shopping is not a girl thing when you approach it as a planned op; get in, achieve the objective, and get out) but on the other hand I have read all of Jane Austen and Casablanca is on my top ten movies of all time list, right up there with The Dirty Dozen.

I began to needlepoint in 1970 and I consider it the largest contributor to keeping me out of the offices of any and all psychologists and psychiatrists. My best friend, Q’s grandmother, houses my History of Needlepoint Pieces that I have finished over the years, as I have made them birthday, and holiday presents to her for years because she loves the pieces, she just can’t do it. You have to find your own outlet (blowing shit up does the same thing for me, but I have to be located in an geographically hospitable environment, if not – the punching bag will do in a pinch).
Yes it is true, the last time I had to have my knee operated on my surgeon did threaten to test my testosterone levels after I began to run less than a week after the surgery. Hey, like I told him – “I didn’t take the pain medication until after I ran – so I knew if anything was going bleuy.” It sounded logical to me…

I began with simple pieces and wool threads, now I do a lot of cotton and silk. When I have to be confined to bed for whatever reason – I do a piece with gold thread in it – akin to playing tag with a rhino when you are naked and have poor depth perception. Here are a few of the pieces I have about. The “Starry Night” which is mounted on the wall belongs to Q, we had to wait until she settled in one place long enough to have a wall to hang it on! It has quite a legend and it is all written on the back, making it a more interesting piece I think.
The sky has nine different shades of blue in it, and it took me 13+ hours to do the gold. I saved it until I had my knee surgery and knew I would be confined to bed. As it happened there was a 13-hour replay of the Dune movie and television series and wa la!

The Egyptian piece was hand painted for me (all of mine are hand painted, most in London) from a photograph of the coronation medallion of Nefertiti. It was my first foray into using the silk threads – amazing I came out of that sane and without doing physical harm to anyone. The background is in wool, the faces are in silk, and the crowns are in cotton. I’m quite proud of that piece.

J (the story is coming, I promise) says I think like a man but look like a beautiful woman – not a bad resume eh? I’ll take it, and I freely admit that on the majority the thought processes of most women (not all!!!) are beyond my understanding.

All this to share with you something fun.

Ciao