So Sylvie

I celebrate Sublime Stitching today, discovered from a button on Oh Joy's sidebar! It's the brainstorm of amateur embroiderer Jenny Hart from Austin, Texas. No, that's not a slight. She admits to being a naive stitcher. She took up embroidery while her mother was recovering from breast cancer surgery and was frustrated with the lack of simple instructions and contemporary designs for beginning crafters like herself.

Embroidery was unchartered territory for her but she decided to break down the musty dusty barriers that held the craft in a closet full of cobwebs. She filled a void by authoring how-to books, with the idea of making the craft more accessible, and creating alternative embroidery patterns for the hip crowd.  "This ain't your Gramma's embroidery!" is her slogan. Her fans include Elizabeth Taylor, Ben Harper, and Laura Dern.

She bridges a gap between grandma and punkster, having appeared in Family Circle Magazine and on the Martha Stewart Show, while at the same time customizing wardrobe for a Flaming Lips video and hailing as a card-carrying member and founder of the Austin Craft Mafia.

Although by now she can't claim to be inexperienced (as witnessed by the awesome example above), her work having been exhibited throughout Europe, South America, Mexico and Japan. In fact she's in two group shows right now if you're in Milwaukee, Wisconsin or St. Petersburg, Florida.

There's a "How 2" page on her site with easy to follow diagrams of basic stitches to get you started. And boy have people gotten started! Since 2001 she's inspired legions of intimidated would-be stitchers and experts alike. There's a whole Flickr group devoted to Sublime Stitching.

Congratulations to you Jenny on your successes, and here's hoping other women have become inspired to break through their creative blocks and jump in. I love this quote from her: "I'm an art-school dropout who completed a degree in French instead. I was really unhappy in art school." Let this be a lesson to you gals. You can be a brilliant artist in your own right if you choose to be. Try, in whatever way you can, to do what moves you, what brings you pleasure.