What I accomplished during early Covid lockdown

I encountered NCSW for the first time in 2019. I was following one of the instructors, and she mentioned teaching at the 2020 workshops. The class she was teaching was full, but another one looked just as interesting, so I signed up for a workshop in Embroidery on Unusual Surfaces with Unusual Materials taught by Jennifer Moss. 

The 2020 workshop happened a week into a 100 Day project I had signed up for, so I was making tiny embroidered pieces that were framed and photographed at the end of each day. I used the embroidery ideas I was getting from the workshop and elaborated on them in small repetitive ways. I took that practice home with me, to continue on with the 100 Day project and then March 2020 happened, and the world changed.

Needing the stability and routine, I kept going with the tiny embroideries, and when the first 100 days finished, I started another hundred, and a third hundred after that. It was hard to know how or when to stop? The pandemic was not over. I could keep going for a while yet. But when I said “I can stop any time” a good friend pointed out that was kind of a dangerous phrase, and another friend told me I was making him tired just following me – so the day after Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were inaugurated, I stopped. Exactly one leap year from starting, and in a completely changed emotional landscape. 

I have all 366 pieces mounted together on the wall over the table where we eat. It is a gratifying display of tenacity, and creativity, and I get a little thrill of delight when I stop to stare at it. 

 By Lee Thomson, NCSW Planning Committee Member and Board Member

www.leethomsonart.com