The Medicine Bear represents powerful healing to the Zuni. It’s always in this rounded form, and usually has the arrow and often has a small offering of feathers or stones attached at the top. While this is a popular fetish, my favorite carver of medicine bears is Stuart Quandalacy, I think his stuff is stunning.

Anyway back to the needlepoint. The design is going to fit into a Stirling leather tool tote which is in my stash. A medicine bear in a shade of Impressions that reminds my of a type of Agate with a turquoise arrow will be in the lower right corner. I’m thinking of stitching it in an Offset Scotch to mimic the striations in many stones.

The remainder of the needlepoint is going to be a patchwork of patterns from Native American baskets, mostly from Alaska and British Columbia, although they are pretty universal. They will be stitched in black Vineyard Merino and straw colored Lorikeet and are Bargello adaptations of the patterns found on the baskets, which are made by coiling.

My plan, which is a big jump for me in designing, is not to plan to size of each patch in advance. I’m going to work on them as I go along, fitting each one into place around the bear. I’ve got several pages of drawings of basket patterns from a Dover book as well as some others for picking the designs.

With the strong focal point and unity of thread, it should look good.

So why is this a health needlepoint? Largely it’s because over the next couple of months, I’m hoping to be doing lots of healing myself. I’ve suffered from mild to moderate fibromyalgia virtually all my life and I’m be starting a treatment program for it today. Since I’ll be spending plenty of time in the car and waiting around, I’m figuring I’ll need needlepoint and it would be good to be stitching on things which would keep me mindful of relaxing and getting better.

Besides the fact that I just love the idea behind this. It will be an ebook later in the year, with this project along with additional Bargello patterns based on baskets.

Related posts:

1. January Twinchy Challenge – The Great Southwest
2. Southwestern Twinchy Gallery
3. Kilim Inspired Free Needlepoint Pattern
4. My Answers to the Needlepoint Survey
5. Needlework and Health

. . .According to research at the Harvard-affiliated Benson-Henry Institute for Mind Body Medicine, the repetitive motion and focus of needlework can elicit what’s known as the relaxation response – a calming meditation-like state that slows heart rate and causes blood pressure to drop. In addition, a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society suggests that knitting is associated with a lower risk of dementia for those 65 and older.

Thanks to industry publication Creative Leisure News for alerting me to this.

Related posts:

1. Keeping a Needlework Journal
2. Ultimate Big Book of Finishing, Needlework Knowledge and Techniques – book review
3. Beth Kindler Hendzlik of Threadworx Journal – Designer Profile
4. Why December Is Like Needlework
5. Threadworx Journal – product review

Oh and my migraine is in its second day.

Does this sound like you?

What we both need is a stress release. Something which takes us out of ourselves, let’s us go to another place in our minds, and something which puts us into a nice relaxing zone.

In other words we need stress release. For me, and probably for you, that means needlepoint.

Doing needlepoint does relax you and any needlepoint will get you into a relaxed zone where your blood pressure goes down, your breathing becomes deeper and slower, your muscles relax and your heart rate slows down. All of these things are signs of stress and removing or lessening them is a good thing.

But what if you don’t have enough time to spend awhile relaxing and doing needlepoint?

Then you need something faster. First find some needlepoint which will not require you to think too much or to make decisions. This might be some already-started Bargello, it might be a background using your favorite stitch, it might be an area of Basketweave on a complex canvas. For myself, the stitching would have to be with a single strand, already cut thread (I hate stopping and plying threads).

Now thread up your needle and start stitching. You can relax even more by elevating your feet. Deliberately slow down your breathing to make it in time with your stitching. Inhale deeply as you bring the needle out of the canvas. Exhale as completely as you can as you bring the needle back into the canvas.

If you breathe deeply as you stitch, you will find that even a minute is enough time to relieve some of the stress of your busy day.

I’m going to go do just that and then go back to work with, I hope, some relish for the tasks at hand.

Related posts:

1. Needlepoint — the “new knitting?”
2. Stitching on Vacation
3. Stitch your Stress Away – More New Stitches
4. Threading the Needle
5. Stitch Your Stress Away — Three More Stitches