The introduction for this post ended with an impassioned plea to count my media as vital, as beautiful, as ultimately relevant as those others. These little hangings are a synthesis—unabashedly made for the valentine's day etsy market, using machine embroidery (well, at least it's freestyle machine embroidery, though that's ony because a) they haven't open-sourced the software to program embroidery machines and b) at this point, even if they did, I couldn't afford one)—yet incorporating one of longest loves, fabric, thread and yarn, assembled in bits and pieces I've scavenged and collected and begged, that somehow sing to me in a way that perfectly shaped even fat quarters from the store never could.

1st in the series. See the etsy listing for complete specs, larger images, closeups.

Their flaws are my flaws, imperfect, to be worked around and incorporated. Without the tears, rips and stains, I'd be frozen into immobility, hardly knowing where to start. I'm very grateful to the many friends who've given me the things i've used to make these pieces—Yvanne who gave me piles of 3x4" fabric samples, to Nidhi who gave me her kids’ hand embroidered Indian cotton castoffs that my children then wore to rags, those self-same offspring who found outrageous sparkly magenta fabric somewhere and gave it to me, to Page who has given me luscious kimono scraps she loved and never used, to Posy who took me at my word and gathered bits of fabric and snips of yarn no more than an inch or two, even my spouse, who, bowing to wifely pressure switched to 100% cotton pants (even though they wear out faster)...all of these people, and their generosity, have contributed to these little wall hangings.

2nd in the series. See the etsy listing for complete specs, larger images, closeups.

Wall hangings completed 2nd week jan, photographed 13jan, post 14jan09.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.