[...] a lot of art about my own body last year before, during, and after surgery. I even wrote about it here and here. As an art therapist who works in a hospital, I’m always interested in [...]

I’ve been stitching regularly for many years now. I do believe taking up cross stitch saved my sanity at a trying time in my life. I was in graduate school and having a miserable time. I had moved far away from all of my family and friends, and my boyfriend, to attend this school. My fellowship was demanding, my class load was demanding, my roommate was impossible to live with, and I was horribly lonely. I had done a few small cross stitch kits when I was in high school, but hadn’t done one for years. Suddenly I was obsessed with the desire to create something again, something that wasn’t school-related, and that would keep me busy when loneliness consumed me. That was 20 years ago, and I’ve been stitching ever since, expanding my techniques, trying new things. It really has been a form of therapy. When my mother-in-law was sick with cancer and dying, I’d sit in doctors’ waiting rooms and at her hospital bedside, crocheting away. I noticed a lot of patients in the waiting rooms knitting and crocheting, too. It’s definitely therapeutic to keep your hands and mind busy with a steady rhythm to create a beautiful thing.