writer
When a dome falls over your entire town, cutting you off from the rest of the world, things can get a little stressful. One of my favorite parts of the book (and show!) was watching how people handled that stress–whether it was admirable or terrifying.
This embroidery is from Under the Dome and, well, has language that’s a little NSFW. Click through the jump if swear words won’t offend.
Valar morghulis. All men must die.
This theme and these words come up over and over again in the Song of Ice and Fire books, the series that includes Game of Thrones and its sequels. As those who watch the show and read the books know, in George R. R. Martin’s world, a lot of men must die.
This one is for my mom. Most of you are familiar with this E. E. Cummings love poem, but I believe this particular line can speak to many kinds of love.
I don’t live near my mom. My parents are in Atlanta where today I believe they are going on a motorcycle ride in the nice Southern weather. So we can’t spend this Mother’s Day, or many other days, together. But my mom has made me strong, so that I can come to New York and go to work and build a life. I bring her strength and her love with me always.
I talk to my mom just about every day. (I asked my sister once if you need your mom less when you get older. She said no.) She listens to me when I go on and on about some boring thing that I’m now super interested in, or she lets me explain the plot of whatever book I’m reading, and she celebrates with me when things are good, and is sad with me when things are sad.
Continue reading “i carry your heart with me (embroidery no. 9 and happy mother’s day)”
This week’s quote is from Cannery Row by John Steinbeck. I loved the characters in that book, and I love love love the parties they throw. The whole town shows up and to a raging party–but was anyone actually invited? It doesn’t matter. It’s the talk of the town, and everyone is going. See more of my thoughts on Cannery Row and the charming people of that story here.
For #familybookclub this quarter, we read Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. (We’ll plan a video/phone chat soon to discuss!) In Middlesex, our narrator tells the story of a Greek family over three generations and a rogue gene that shows up in the youngest member of the Stephanides family and changes his fate.
Our narrator Cal is born as Callie. He is intersex, and has both male and female genitals. His family raises him as Callie, a woman, and later, after learning more about himself, he becomes Cal, a man.
To tell how Callie became Cal, he begins the story of his ancestors, starting with how his grandparents, who are brother and sister, fall in love. As Cal learns more about who he is, he visits a doctor, who calls him a hermaphrodite. Cal is young, and still Callie at this point, and doesn’t understand the word. So Callie looks it up in the dictionary. And to her horror, finds the words “see synonyms at monster.”
Continue reading “see synonyms at monster (embroidery no. 7)”
I can have oodles of charm when I want to. This quote is also from Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut. I love his writing because there’s a darkness and a kind of rambling that has these brilliant quips and nuggets of truths.
No new embroidery this week–instead I got everything I have already done ready to put on the wall above my bed. A few weeks ago I was struggling with what to do above my bed, and I think this might be my new solution.
To get the hoops ready, I first had to paint them.
Then I placed the embroidery back into the hoops and loosely sewed up the back. And then it was time to hang them up!
#fatcat helped.
It’s been really great to take a step back and see all the work I’ve done so far. I’m really proud of my progress as a new embroiderer and excited to see what I’ve made displayed in one place. I think I can easily add more as I keep going, which was important to me, too.
Back to a new quote next week. After my vacation I’m really inspired and am excited to get going on some new quotes!
This is part of an embroidery project I am working on to sew some of my favorite quotes from books and post the images here each Sunday. Let me know if you have any quote suggestions! You can see the other quotes in my embroidery project here:
Have you ever noticed how in TV shows and movies, everyone is always on some sort of quest? The characters have to find all the horcruxes, go battle vampires (Buffy, not Twilight in this instance), or escape from a terrifying reality show and certain death.
Real life, for me anyway, is nothing like that. Real life is slow. Real life is researching at a desk instead of running around the world. Real life means planning, and meetings, and slow, constant frustrations.
That’s why I like making things. Each project is an adventure, even just from your own apartment. It’s a little way to create something, to do something new, and to accomplish something even when all the other frustrations seem like they won’t go away.
I had a week like that this week. Nothing big–we are all healthy and happy. But little frustrations have made it difficult to get things done. And it’s made me feel kind of like this week’s quote.
Embroidery no. 4! We’re really hopping now. This one is also from the Dark Tower series, and from one of my favorite love stories. It’s from the book Wizard and Glass (Kindle version here) and you can see more of my thoughts on it in the posts on youth and echoes.
“Go then. There are other worlds than these.” These words echo over and over throughout the Dark Tower series, and first appear in the first book The Gunslinger (Kindle version here). I read Stephen King’s series for the first time last year and fell in love. I love the characters, I love the crazy plot twists, and I love how much fun these books are to read. I’ve written a lot about them and have enjoyed all seven books up through the surprise ending.
Continue reading “there are other worlds than these (embroidery no. 3)”
Rae Nudson 
