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I've been stitching this for a while now and finally finished it last week. the pattern is originally from the rrrad and crafty Bee Listy, who you might recognize if you hang around Mr Xstitch a lot or just appreciate people who are "mad as hell and sticks needles into things to sublimate [their] rage".
Except lovely flash tattoo stuff like this, she also blogs at queercraft and stitches amazing portaits that I could never finish, since I know how much time and hard work she must put into them.
I played around a bit with the pattern, mostly the colours (and now I think that maybe I should have stuck to the original, since I managed to fuck up the shadeing a bit) but also the text. The quote comes from the EZLN, the Zapatistas, in Mexico and in english it translates to "everything for everyone". Words that maybe should be the goal to set out for in any political project. I tried to make it come alive a bit more, using silver metalic floss for parts of the dagger, but it's tricky to photograph it well.
Today is not just the first day of my summer vacation (yay!) but also apparently a little bit of Christmas in the middle of June! I woke up to find that not just my order from Sublime Stitching had arrived (yes, I too finally succumbed to the greatness that is Jenny Hart), but I also got the latest issue of Hoopla in the mail! It's even bigger & better than #1, so I'm very happy & not just because some of my work is featured in it (Rayna, I promise - for next issue I'll write something proper & exclusive).
I especially appreciated the piece by Betsy Greer about stiching/crafting as a form of dealing with emotions & it's sort of therapeutic effect. I can really understand where she's coming from there, since I often use cross stitching as a way to focus my thoughts on something that doesn't hurt or as something that just blocks out stuff I don't want to dwell on anymore. But it also works the other way, when I feel happy & content with life & know that I'm making something that someone will appreciate 'cause it's made with a lot of love & attention. So it's really like the emotions go into the stitching & it can force you to think about stuff that you really don't want to think about, or sometimes not think at all... So go ahead & order you're own copy of Hoopla & if you have a distro or some other way to spread the word, why not order a whole bunch of them?
Last but not least, some of you wondered about the "handicraft for handicraft" swap from the latest post... So here's the result.
It does look a bit weird right now 'cause of the bruises & the fact that it's not really finished. It will probably take at least one more session to do the colour of the butterflies and the shading of the fairy. But I'll have to wait a while & see that it heals okay 'cause I have this palet disorder called Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura, which makes my blood all wonky... It's basically "hemophilia light" & is an autoimmune disease that makes my immune system target & eliminate the thrombocytes that makes the blood coagulate. So I have a tendency to bleed very easily & get a lot of bruises. But I'm really happy with the tattoo & think it's gonna be the prettiest one ever when it's completed.
I feel that I've hyped this cross stitch so much that I don't even know what to write now... It's a gift for friends working at Swahili Bob's Tattoo & Piercing here in Stockholm. We're trading handicraft for handicraft... The text is the swedish version of "no pain, no gain" or literally "if you want to look nice, you have to suffer".
I'm struggeling with a lot of frustration & lack of inspiration right now... Trying to finish two projects that both include stupid birds, but nothing turns out the way I want it. Stupid, stupid swallows & magpies. & of course they're embroiderys that i've promised to do for friends so I just have to finish them.
Anyone out there who's got at good pattern/design for a swallow? Think traditional tattoo style. I just can't stand starting over for the fourth time & once again realize that the design or the colours doesn't work the way I want it.
Here's a picture of a stupid swallow:
I've been stitching this for a while now and finally finished it last week. the pattern is originally from the rrrad and crafty Bee Listy, who you might recognize if you hang around Mr Xstitch a lot or just appreciate people who are 
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