I CAN BARELY SEW ON A BUTTON, but that doesn’t stop me from feeling a kinship with Alicia Paulson, whose needle and thread seem as natural an extension of her hands—and more to the point, her spirit—as a pruner or long-handed shovel are to mine. With them, she cultivates a charmed botanical world I love getting lost in (lately, she’s making a real garden in her Oregon back yard, too). Meet a treasured pen pal of mine—and maybe win one of two copies of her delicious new book, “Embroidery Companion,” that I bought to share with you:
From the first time I landed on her popular blog Posie Gets Cozy, I knew there would be a connection—again, though I was the hopeless (and embarrassed) girl who hemmed her junior high school dressmaking project right onto the lap of the skirt she was wearing, and when the bell rang for next period had to go there “wearing” both.
Alicia (self-portrait, left) welcomed me into her sewing circle, anyhow, charming me in the funniest Alicia-style ways. I mean, what’s not to like about a woman you don’t even know who says, “I want to be a gardener. Like Margaret.”
A woman who emails you—though you are still total strangers, really—and asks you about the potato she has planted in a smallish flower pot, and how to care for it? (Answer: Get it out of the confines of that pot, a.k.a., my curriculum of How Not to Grow a Potato 101.)
A woman who sends you links to funny cat trick videos? (And who understands when you send her back jpgs you took of your Jack the Demon Cat’s ultra-pink paws?)
A woman who with counted cross-stitch, traditional embroidery and crewelwork skills created places I want to go and flowers I want to put my nose into, like these:
A woman who writes things like this, about the months following her very serious accident—at 29, Alicia was literally hit by a truck, and almost lost one foot, undergoing many surgeries:
“Embroidery was my best travel agent—and doctor,” she says. “Through almost every moment of almost every day of my recovery, I stitched a wonderland of hearts and flowers. Each morning I set about creating the world I wanted, so different from the world I was in. Every night I fell asleep with a tiny garden in my hand.”
In other words, she gardens within the confines of her embroidery hoop for exactly the reasons I dig and plant and prune inside my deer fence. In order that I may thrive. Sound familiar, anyone? Tell us about it, and win the book.
How to Win ‘Embroidery Companion’
ALICIA PAULSON’S LATEST BOOK includes 30 of her own designs—from an entire alphabet adorned with petals, to a crewelwork Tree of Life wall hanging, and pillows bordered with strawberries or blooming with stylized dahlias. There are fanciful animals in Alicia’s garden, too—the “place” she conjures just teems with color; it lives and breathes.
To enter and have a chance at winning one of the two copies of “Embroidery Companion: Classic Designs for Modern Living” that I bought for this latest book giveway, all you have to do is comment at the end of this post by doing this:
Tell me how you are transported—whether it’s pruning or mowing or maybe something other than gardening altogether—in the way that Alicia describes. (Or if you’re shy or perhaps otherwise feeling speechless, just say hello, and we’ll count your entry anyhow.)
I’ll pick two commenters at random after midnight Friday, September 3, when entries will close. Good luck!
More about Alicia
- Wander through Alicia’s world at Posie Gets Cozy, her bountiful blog featuring much more than needlecraft.
- Browse the assortment of craft kits and patterns (free and to buy) in her shop (products are listed down the right column…scroll!).
- Want a copy of “Embroidery Companion” right away? Buy it here.
(All photos here and in the book by Alicia Paulson.)
I am an avid gardener who also loves needlework- unsurprisingly my needlework always focuses on flowers and sometimes my bunny whose manure keeps my garden looking good! Alicia’s book looks beautiful and I would love to get my hands on it! Right now I have to get outside and pick all the tomatoes and make sure the dahlais are properly staked before Hurricane Earl barrels through! Enjoy the weekend everyone.
I am touched by how many comments involve a gardening grandfather. Mine fed the neighboorhood out of his wonderful garden and I now have my own little herb garden with flowers and a few veggies. I love the start of Spring when its time to plant and you believe anything can grow!
I tried to figure out what it is for me…I have lots of hobbies that I really enjoy, sewing, knitting, gardening. I’m better at some than others, and I spend most of my free time knitting. But when I look back into my life, the thing that really transports me is writing, and specifically poetry. It is how I begin to understand myself. It is something I need to do more.
Raising two children I find it is not often that I have something to show from all my work. At least not something tangible and visual. My work is in dealing with the most important most invisible things in life. My sewing/embriodery is the balance to this. Sewing is something I can begin and finish, a progress that I can see with every new stitch. My heart swells with every finished project. I want to scream “LOOK!” and just walk around with it in my arms. It forces me to live in the moment. That simple, peaceful, productive moment of creativity — where all is well.
I am transported by my garden because when I walk into it, everything else falls away. The smells – when my first basil comes up I’m in heaven! And I love the miraculous progression from seed to tumbling plant that is bearing delicious food, with just the work of my hands and sun and water. It makes me feel like some things are still right, some things can be relied on and those are the things that deserve our attention and faith. The immediacy of the need of the garden is what I love.
i collect color.
this means
i flower~garden as best i can in the florida heat,
i buy yarn even though i do not knit
and
i have jars of crayons stacked on my window sill.
i collect color
and
if i cannot grow my colors i buy them
and
often i seek them out on blog’s
such as
Yours
and
Posie Gets Cozy,
which was my first book~marked blog Ever
years
and
years
ago.
{{ i hope i win as i have alicia’s first book
which is plum yummy }}
Ah, the rich gardens of wool crewel bedspreads! And if you are so lucky, to be surrounded by a canopy of crewel beddrapes! I love that Jacobean aesthetic.
I love to garden and sew and photograph. When the three are mixed together, it is as if the laundry gets done on it’s own, the dish washer empties itself and the kids are always quiet.
My favorite escape was an embroidered bird on a branch that made it onto a quilt I made. I loved the time I had to create that and to live in a different place for a bit.
After many, many years of “knowing” I couldn’t draw, I was moved to give a book about which I had read, The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, a try. What I found out is that I CAN draw! When I see something I want to remember or just something I want to “see” in a different way, I can whip out a little note book and a pencil and actually draw something on paper that I can look at and recognize as what I am seeing. Picasso need not be concerned, but I cannot tell you what a difference this has made to me!
Alicia AND her book sound like they work just the same magic.
Welcome to all — and particularly to first-timers. Those of you who are regular know that on typical posts, I give a personal welcome to each first-time commenter. Obviously if I did that on these giveaways, I’d have the most comments — and maybe win the books myself! :) Instead, a group welcome will have to suffice here. Hello to:
Burndett, Leanne, Barbara, Lisa, Joanne, Sheri, MaryJo, Cathi, Teri, Linda, Becky, Cat, Ginger, Janel, Charity, Peculiar Whimsy, Nellie, HB, Julia, Joanne, Raji, Cathy, Caroline, Claudia, Linn, Christine, Toni, Sharon, Kathy, Lisa, Charlotte, Dorothea, Mia, Laura, Jamie, Janet, Andrea, Krista, Nancy S, Nancy, Corinne, Patty, Adrienne, h30mel, Jenn, Stephanie, Delilah, Leslie, MoniCue, Ali, RachaelDaisy, Jenny, OjaiGal, Sharon, Patty Rose, Susie, Barb, Katie, Allison, Mira, BethF, Livy, MzTallulah, LoriAnn, Desi, Laura, Samantha, Victory Garden Yarn, Susan, Sally, HR, Kelly, Hayley, Martha, Molly, Anita, SK, Cori, Georgia, Deb, Carlee, Ali, Marie, Barb, Michael, Amanda, Ellen, Concha, Julie, Annie, Ana, Jennifer, Heather, Brittany, Sabine, Ann C, Jill, Michelle, Mona, Laura, Lori, Karen, RaeJean, Jamie, Renee, Mary, Beth, Jennifer, Missy, Carrie, Mims, Some Pink Flowers, Polli, Kate, Annie, Wendy, Jennifer, Beth.
Phew! So glad to “meet” so many who admire Alicia as I do.
I like to watch things grow
the word nursery means 2 different things to me.
In my 20′s while I was training it meant an intensive care nursery where sick babies grow into bigger, stronger, healthier ones. Or, a well baby nursery where babies are check out and screened to home to their regular homes.
In my 30′s and 40′s it now also means a place to stop on the way home from the other nurseries to buy some plants to grow in my garden – usually flowers.
which I have always thought of as my own well baby garden
I learned how to embroider from my italian grandmother but, never thought of embroidering a garden until I read this post
I’ve always loved gardening, but hadn’t been too sure of my abilities until a few years ago. I live in a co-op complex where we have a large space for vegetable gardeners to try their hand at growing. One year, we realized our garden space might be taken away due to a shortage of parking spaces (no!) so I stepped up to the plate, thinking I was going to do paperwork and organizing, and found myself digging in (literally) and enjoying the many fruits of my labour.
The last few years have been difficult health-wise and I am now on permanent disability. I find solace in the garden and have grown (pun intended-ha) to love my experiences with dirt. My chard grows like a weed, my beets and cukes are soo incredibly sweet (I even made pickles for the first time-yay me!) and my sunny yellow Toms make the best sauce for shrimps. I love my garden and love how it challenges me physically to exercise those arthritic joints. Besides, I’ve met some fantastic neighbours who have become more like friends to me. The best part for me? The fresh air is absolutely intoxicating!
Thanks for the chance to win Alicia’s new book! I’ve been a follower of hers for some time and can truly atest to the healing powers of handicrafts. I am always inspired when I visit with her and am also grateful for the discovery of your blog. A new friend who also loves to garden. Yes, life can be good :)
I am lucky enough to have several “escapes” that transport me this way… I would say that quilting/fabric play is the BIG one (as evidenced by my enormous stash of cottons), followed closely by any other type of crafting or drawing, gardening (flower more than vegetable, but veggies will work in a pinch), scratching (sometimes bizarre!) thoughts into a journal, playing with my children (ah, the nostagic smells of Crayola crayons and Play-Doh!)…
LOVE to read Posie for her many inspirations… looks like I need to add you to my list as well!
Thanks for the giveaway!
There are a number of ways of transportation that come to mind when I think about gardening. We live out in the country in East Texas and keep a big garden where we grown southern favorites like okra, butter beans and purple hull peas. We also love to grow herbs, zinnias, potatoes and asparagus. I suppose the neatest thing that I experienced in our garden this summer occured when laying a soaker hose through our tomatoes. We probably had about fifty tomato plants all together planted in rows about 3 feet apart. Our tomatoes were already caged and had grown quite large, lush and beautiful. I got down on my hands and knees and crawled between the rows, pulling the hose through and laying it beside each plant. The soil was cool underneath me, the tomato plants made a thick canopy over my head. I was in a jungle. And that smell, brushing up against the tomato leaves. The smell of summer and anticipation of the delicious bounty that was yet to come. The pleasures of gardening.
I love Alicia’s work, and have always wanted to get more into embroidery, thank you so much for the chance to win a copy!
Sometimes when the weather is just the right kind of cool and damp, I’ll be wandering through a forest trail somewhere, and come upon a mossy patch, or a little grotto, and feel a kind of wonder. I think it goes back to my childhood love of enchanted woods and fairies. So walking trails with my camera in search of flowers, mushrooms or ferns to photograph is my transporting hobby. I can be there for hours! I really should do it more often.
What transports me lying down on pillow at night, closing my eyes knowing somewhere in my nights sleep a dream may come, a quiet visit from my mum and dad, long passed now visits in my dreams. We do varies different things and yet it’s the talks that touch my heart to hear their voice often I a hug even if only in a dream, I smile. I wake my day is already complete as I had a visit from two very special people who even in dream show me how much they love me still, how close they really are even if only in a nights sleep.
I have a brown thumb, my husband is the one who is great a gardening, and he has been nice enough to plant 5 rose bushes that give me so much happiness every time I look at them. I love going outside early in the morning and admire the roses covered in dew and snip a few to bring them inside.
But the thing that gives me peace is crochet. I was 8-years old when I first saw my aunt teaching my older sister how to crochet. I wanted to learn so badly but they wouldn’t teach me because I was too young… So I stole one of their magazines and thread and taught myself how to do it, which accounts for the funny way I hold the yarn. But it has been my favorite hobby since. Now,, twenty years later and after 3 kids, I still find the time to crochet, I love the whole experience, choosing a pattern, the feel of the yarn in my hands and the finished product.
Hello! Your blog is beautiful – I came through a link from Alicia’s site. My husband and I recently purchased our first home – this blog will be the perfect resource for next summer’s garden!
In the spring and summer I spend my time outside in my gardens surrounded by my beehives. I love to collect plants from loved ones and then use them in my canning or soapmaking adventures. In the fall and winter I spend my time in my craft room usually sewing or scrapbooking. The hum of the sewing machine is a sound that relaxes my soul and I made sure to spend as much time on it while my babies were growing inside me so they would hopefully have the same experience.
Late winter, when my seedlings are starting to emerge under the lights inside, is a magical time for me. So much potential for the coming gardening season…new life…the first scent of soil, while the snow is still swirling outside.
I love to mosey through over to posey gets cozy because I am so inspired by Alicia in so many ways. Thanks for this opportunity . . .
Knitting, and particularly knitting patterns which incorporate leaves, are my way of “gardening”———-> my knitting needles and the process of creating, transports me to a serene, happy and content place.
I love gardening in many ways, but this summer we were blessed with a bumper crop of green beans. And there have been so many days in the last few weeks, where I have come home from work, grabbed a bowl and then just gotten lost picking beans for dinner. Somehow I can spend ages just poking through the leaves, visiting the spiders, checking out the vines, and just completely meditating while my fingers search out pods ready to be picked.
I grew up in South Africa, literally spending every day playing and swimming under the African sun, in our back yard. My Mom transformed our garden from nothing into an amazing garden filled with colour! I watched that garden grow – my parents lived in that house for 32 years. Because of my husbands job we have moved around alot and I am yet to own my own home and garden. I decided after a few months into our first rental that I didnt want people to walk into my home or garden and realise it was a rental – it was my home, so I painted and I more importantly I gardened. We have lived in a few homes now and I always smile when I do my final walk around when I leave because I am leaving a piece of myself somewhere in the world – my garden. I am proud to say that the gardens always look a little better than when we first met. Every garden always has plants that mean something to me – that bring back memories of South Africa, Virginia, Germany, the United kingdom. Moving is hard. Every time it means starting new, having to find your way around, make new friends, moving further from family but being in my garden and planting the old favourites and adding the new memories, I am surrounded by my old friends and family. And thats it in a nutshell ….when I walk into my garden, wherever that may be in the world… I’m always home.
I am transported to the past when I garden. I have so many fond memories of my Dutch grandfather working in his garden or hot house as a child and when I am involved in my own garden I can’t help but feel reunited once again.
My mother, who was an avid gardener and president of her local garden club, died 16 years ago. I have some rudbeckia that was transplanted from her garden (long since mowed over by the people who bought her house) growing in my garden. Every time I see those cheery flowers winking at me with their kind dark eyes, I am transported back to my mother’s garden and the oasis of beauty and renewal she created there.
I followed Alicia and then my sister introduced me to you. A perfect combination and no small wonder that your kindred spirits found one another. I used to earn my living by gardening until my third round of Lyme Disease. The illness that it brought made normal living pretty uncomfortable, but knitting and quilting transported me during the dark days of IV antibiotics. How can the spirit NOT rise when witnessing a handful of zinnias wading in a mason jar on the windowsill? I think that you and I garden in the same location (Hudson River Valley?) and thankfully, I am able to create beds and borders again, although I will never again do it professionally. You and Alicia have both inspired me and I thank you! I’d love an opportunity to win the newest book.
Gardening is my escape from the world. Especially digging and weeding. There’s something so rhythmic about the motion. When I come inside a few hours later, completely oblivious to how much time has passed, I am always amazed to realize how centered and calm I feel. Somehow I only recognize how stressed I was once the stress is finally gone.
I’ve recently started learning to sew, and it’s become one of my favorite past-times. Sewing on the machine is fast and exciting, but stitching by hand brings about the same feeling of calm that digging does. And embroidery (though I only know how to do simple lines/curves) turns out to be the perfect activity for the daily train commute. Portable peace! Who would have guessed!
The earliest memories of my love of gardening came from the roses outside my mother’s kitchen window.
Their warmth and sweet smell always a tonic for quieting the mind and comforting the soul.
Their colors were happy and soft.
Petals delicate but strong.
My mother’s roses grew year ’round.
She decorated my nightstand and bathroom with a modest vase and bouquet of her roses.
What a sign of love and caring.
The fruits of her labor nurtured growing.
There was so much to do and still time enough to smell the roses.
I can’t look at a rose without reflecting on the happiness they have brought me in life.
Of all the beauties in mom’s garden, roses were the one true constant.
All the senses are alive when one is present in the garden.
Alicia thank you for your inspiration and notice of the small things in life that matter to so many.
I garden, for that is my painting, my tapestry, sometimes my photography, and a general way to fill my life in retirement. This year, because of arthritic knees, but mainly a back with degenerative discs that cause severe pain bending over, I feel so hampered. It’s great to take pictures of the wonderful plants that reappear naturally, resurrect my fairy garden and add annuals with somewhat pain tolerance, plus I took on building a raised bed (4×4) because I wanted to eat even more localling. Some harvest has been good and other things have failed.
However, I have not embroidered much in these years as I did when I had a hope chest and did pillowcases for my forthcoming marriage. This author reminds me it never to late and I still have time to write poetry and get to the oil painting I have promised myself to do while I can. I have set up the easel!
Thanks for the reminders.
I spend a LOT of time in front of the computer, so when I can take some time to go outside, into my garden, it’s precious to me. I love to see all of the creatures in the dirt–yesterday I was working on my CRAZY tomato plants, and I encountered several lovely spiders, a ladybug or two, butterflies, and a beautiful tomato hornworm (aren’t they just lovely!). The birds were chirping, a soft breeze was blowing, and that incomparable smell of tomato leaves. Ahh, heaven!
I just watched the movie Bright Star, about John Keats and Fanny Brawne, and the movie highlighted both gardens AND hand-sewing…lovely lovely lovely.
P.S. I love this blog! And I love Alicia’s blog, too…
Wow, I’d love to win this! But on to transporting…. ahd how I get there.
I’m a digital artist which means I spend loads of time in front of a computer screen…
When I reach the end of my day, I love to relax and stretch and bend in my garden. The thing that really does it for me is pruning bushes… I love the sculptural part of it! I become engrossed in the cutting back and forcing the shrub or plant to let light in and to take form and grow!
Choosing the cuts and learning to strengthen the form of the plant is also a part of the sculptural play. I love the tactile part of it, and it’s another opportunity for visual delight!
I container garden where I live as there are no beds to do so but I incorporate flowers into my environment…just finished sewing curtains for my bedroom with huge rust and coral peonies on them….ha! I don’t even know if peonies come in that color…but they are gorgeous! I appreciate you offering Alicia’s book “Emboidery Companion”. I follow her blog and get so much inspiration. Her book looks fantastic and would love winning it.
Just being outside is an escape for me.
Transportation…I love this idea. Every time I look at a children’s book that is illustrated by Garth Williams I am transported. I want to live in the world he created. A softness and a curiousity fill the pages! My favorite book from childhood was Charlotte Zolotow’s “Over and Over.” Garth Williams’s imaginings of Zolotow’s words were so wonderful…almost as if they were one. I go to that place when I want to be transported!
I,both sew and garden. I’m in my garden at 6am many mornings – I think, plan things as I’m working, I find it very therapuedic toiling in the soil among my flowers wich I have planted from seed or divided. I am facinated by the life cycle.
1. I LOVE Alicia Paulson’s blog! I want to live in her house!
2. I tried to garden years ago, and failed terribly. But I did have success with Peonies (my favorite), Lilies, Lilacs and Old Roses. That was until I moved to Florida. I’m amazed that people actually garden here.
3. So, instead of growing flowers, I find that I love to paint flowers! Who knew?
While telling you how much I love to work in my garden, what I really really love is to sit in it. We have seating arrangements at various vantage points and each gives a different view. Plus each is perfect for a particular time of day.
I moved into a different neighborhood so I could finally have chickens and a garden. It’s been so wonderful I only wish I could have done it sooner! Heading to the backyard on long summer evenings to do a bit of weeding while the chickens run free is a wonderful way to wind down from work and the stresses of commuting. I don’t go in until it’s too dark to see and the chickens have gone in to roost. Then I make my dinner of fresh eggs and herbs from the garden and turn to my knitting.
I love the unbearably sweet handfuls of flowers (from our garden and the wild) that my 4 year old brings me, beaming with joy. Thanks!
Of all things, it’s weeding that transports me. Bending and pulling and watching the transformation allows the stress to just slip away.
Well, I’m both a beginning needleworker and a beginning gardener so I’m usually scratching my head too much over the task at hand to be transported (although spending time around the fine handiwork of others can really pull me in). But when I sing a well rehearsed song with the choir I can really start to live in the music.
I am cross stitching a mammoth flower sampler and nothing relaxes me more! I do wish I could grow some of the beautiful flowers in South Texas!
My deer fence around the garden may be the required eight feet tall, but they still like to nibble anything in the front yard. The racoons just laugh at my attemps to thwart their gleaning and take the tomatoes anyway.
Doodling and dreaming are both good escapes of the mind to places I wish to create. I imagine handwork was the one thing of beauty in a pioneer woman’s weary day that she could hold and make her own. I think the activity of gentle rhythmic stitching, a bit at a time, is just the ticket for having something useful at the end of a stressful week. It makes the dreams come alive.
I do so wish you would add my name to your drawing. I need inspiration!
Thanks for the wonderful words about Alicia.
Gardening and stitching are labors of love that require time! patience! a creative vision! and alot of magic when things work out well, and some frustration when they don’t. I enjoy crazy quilting and cross stitch, it is like painting a garden with thread!
Gardening is my healing love as my son died this past spring and I spend many hours weeding, watering and planting the new growth in my flower and vegetable beds to show me that new life goes on with my son’s memories living on. My son, Andrew, and I had shared our love of gardening together so I continue on. I have a great interest in embroidery and reading that brings joy to me also. Thank you so much for the opportunity to receive the wonderful book on embroidery and gardening connected.
I’m not a gardener, although I do love plants and flowers. I just suck at keeping them alive. I’m an avid crafter and I especially love to sew and quilt. When I’m stitching away or trying to come up with a new design for a quilting project, it’s pure joy and fun. I love thinking of an idea, creating it and ending up with a lovely finished product. It’s so satisfying. When I’m at work, all I can think about is what project I’ll work on next as soon as I get home from work. I really wish crafting could be my full-time job.
I am a hobby junkie, so I escape in many different ways. I have a garden, I knit, I scrapbook, I spin, I sew, I read. I have hobbies ADD. lol Thank you for the chance to win this book! It’s so lovely. I saw it at a friend’s house last week, and I immediately had to open it! My pillowcases need some of those hand embroidered monograms! :)
Flowers make me smile whether real, fabric, paper, embroidered, or drawn. I am also inspired by Alicia. Her blog is amazing. Thank you for your generous contest and please pick me. I promise I’ll stitch you up something! Happy weekend!
Gardening makes me feel connected to the Earth, the earth, the cycle of life and to my food.
Thank you for the giveaway!
ENTRIES ARE NOW CLOSED, and I have picked two winners…but first:
Welcomes to all the first-timers who joined in to say hello since my last official “hello” 100 comments or so back:
Hello to Kate, Holly, Jody, Cricket, Amanda, Catherine, Heather, Missy, Cheryl, Jenny, Melanie, Dulce, Dani, Julia, Allison, Kimmer, Sherri, Sam, Melanie, Allison, Bee, Teah, Amy, Veronica, Nancy, Kathy, Carolyne, Jessi, MLE, Kathy, Catherine, Kat, Queen of Fifty Cents, Nancy, Mollie, Lindsay, Colleen, Sue and Allison.
I’m off now to try to contact the two names I drew at random…more soon.
UPDATE: Raji and Susan (from Nova Scotia) are the winners; books being shipped! A new contest begins 9/7 with a great new cookbook by NY Times columnist Melissa Clark.