#live it

I've been subconsciously wanting to dye my hair lighter for YEARS and just never did it. Watching Alien has made me really introspective on life and how little time we have. Plus he looks good as hell and I remembered how much I wanted to try.

" Remember, remember, this is now, and now, and now. Live it, feel it, cling to it. I want to become acutely aware of all I’ve taken for granted. "

This sampler was made after I mis-typed “love it” several times in a DM with @msgraveyarddirt and we decided that “live it” was actually an excellent motto and she joked that it would make an awesome sampler. Little did she know that I would tuck that idea away and that sampler would travel across the Atlantic a year or so later for her birthday.

I used motifs from Charted Peasant Designs from Saxon Transylvania edited and introduced by Heinz Edgar Kiewe, 1964 (personal library).

Notes from the book on the patterns:

Pattern #1: “Fleur de lys” border, procession of (Italian?) stags, tree of life (16th century)

Pattern #2: peacocks and the trinity of paradise, Michaelmas daisy (aster grandiflora), “S” scroll (symbol of social medicine)

Pattern #3: tree of life a trinity, flower: Campanula carpatica (19th century)

Pattern #4: star of Bethlehem (quaternity cross), Flower (chamomile = emblem of health)

In addition to the version I did for the sampler I’ve included a photo of the the first item I embroidered with this pattern, a “dress” that I use on my Morana doll throughout the year. These are probably some of the tiniest stitches I’ve ever done.