Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Finishing what I started (seven years ago)
It strikes me odd that I have never shared this project here – especially given its long history. Started over seven years ago, in my last months of living on the Sunshine Coast, this is a project from my ferry-commuting days – a cross-stitched top for a pillow. Taken from a book of India-inspired stitching designs, I modded the project for the larger canvas and worsted wool yarn – and had most of the main pattern done when I moved back to Vancouver in 2006.
Although I was enamoured with the floral design, the background stitches in white remained unfinished – so tedious they became – and eventually this project ended up in a box in the sewing room where it then sat for years.
About six months ago I buckled down and finished the last few hours of background stitching, vowing not to put it away until I had turned it into the pillow I planned for all along. But again, it sat until I tucked it under the sewing table to deal with *later*.
And later apparently came this past Monday.
I’ve been thinking about purchasing a meditation cushion and mat because I intend to continue this daily meditation thing I’ve started and would rather not have to use the bed pillows anymore…… but I remembered this canvas tucked away – and decided to create an overstuffed cushion for just that purpose. It seemed so *right* to create my meditation cushion out of this well-traveled handwork – a project that gave me ground during some difficult months all those years ago.
And so I stitched a two piece back onto the tapestry and created a pillow out of cotton canvas and leftover pollyfill and scraps – making sure that the pillow was a little larger than the case so it would bulge out and make for a firmer wedge off the floor.
It is definitely a comfortable sit, though I don’t know if the inner pillow will hold up like a firm meditation cushion might over the long haul. For now, because we only really do have the present and the future doesn’t matter, this object is in my meditation space – and brings a new grace to my practice each time I come to rest on it.
Red Cedar 
It’s lovely . . . and it sounds like you finished it at the PERFECT time!