The big reveal: Persephone was invited to a party! Today is Resting Stitch Face NYC’s one year anniversary, and the stitch faces are celebrating.

They may not look like a party animals, but they do enjoy a social gathering now and then.

Particularly if there’s a noteworthy event, good friends, and NYC-centric treats like black-and-white cookies from Zabar’s . . .

. . . and Momofuku Milk Bar’s Birthday Cake.

The sugar high is intense.

Many cellphone photos were taken:

A good time was had by all.

On September 14, 2017, my daughter and I created the Resting Stitch Face NYC website, and I posted my first blog post. My goal was to create a unique stitch face and put together a new blog post every week for one year. I also made a rule that I could not acquire any new materials or otherwise spend any money to make the stitch faces or their clothing, I could only use old stuff I already had lying around, or found, or was given.

And—I did it! I missed a couple of weeks for holidays, but I have done 52 stitch face blog posts in total (this post is number 53). Each stitch face is made from a different fabric, and I didn’t buy anything, not even stuffing or thread—although you may notice, if you look closely, that recently the thread doesn’t necessarily match the fabric it’s being used on. I’ve run out of the neutral colors. (Of course, I did spend money for the photo shoots, for such things as admission fees to museums and exhibits, and ice cream, and cronuts. For the stitch faces.)

In the course of the year the stitch faces and I have:

—visited all five boroughs.

—traveled by subway, bus, ferry, car, gondola, airplane, and tram.

—seen places I had never been and probably would not otherwise have gone.

—met people I would not otherwise have met.

—had conversations I would not otherwise have had.

—been yelled at only once.

Some results of this project for me:

I have greatly improved my hand-sewing skills and learned (more or less) to use a non-cellphone camera. The latter is because my daughter abandoned me to go back to school, so I had to take the photos. She still edited them, however, thank goodness.

I now take more notice of what people wear, and wherever I go I look for possibilities for a good photography backdrop. Before I throw anything away I think about what I might reuse it for.

I have learned a great deal about my beloved town. I have become very aware of the fact that New York City is made up of islands. There’s a lot of water around here, something I’m capable of forgetting from day to day as I traipse through the canyons of midtown. Gazing out over the water contemplatively is something you can do right here, within minutes of wherever in the city you may live. I’ve also learned that there’s a whole lot of New York City outside of Manhattan. I mean, I knew that, I just had not really experienced it first hand.

So, now that I’ve reached this milestone, I am taking stock. I will keep making stitch faces, but I am not going to continue posting every week. Laugh if you will, but honestly a stitch face per week is a demanding schedule.

Also, it’s becoming more difficult to come up with new locations. I have learned that not every interesting or fun place is conducive to a stitch face shoot. For the most part the stitch faces have received a warm reception out in the real world, but there have been exceptions.

I am thinking of different directions to take the stitch faces, and I’m open to suggestions.

Which brings me to the most important aspect of this project: friendship. Thank you to everybody who: donated materials, helped with photo shoots, contributed ideas for locations, read the blog, commented on the blog, liked the instagram posts, commented on the instagram posts, made me my very own beautiful Resting Stitch Face NYC business cards. You are all generous and wonderful people and I’m thrilled to have you in my life.

I believe this project has made me a better person.

I’m not going to end this post with a quote, as I usually do, but with a painting. Followed by a quote.

This is the painting:

It’s by Magritte, and I saw it at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. It’s called Les valeurs personnelles (Personal Values), and I was struck by it because it reminded me of the stitch face project. The stitch faces don’t have their own separate small world, as regular dolls often do. The stitch faces live in our world, except that some things they interact with are stitch face size and some things are our size, and they just have to navigate existence in two different, well, dimensions.

The painting’s placard reads: “In this room of oversize objects, you might wonder how large you would be relative to the comb or the goblet. Would you fit in the bed? Could you lift the bar of soap? Some may regard these questions as liberating, imaginatively shifting between the possibilities, but others may be disturbed by the lack of definite scale. Magritte’s dealer Alexander Iolas initially found the work nauseating, to which the artist replied, “A picture which is really alive should make the spectator feel ill.”

Well, I’m not sure about that. I don’t want the stitch faces to make anyone feel ill. But anyway, I thought this was interesting.

Any and all feedback, comments, suggestions, questions, are wholeheartedly welcome. Thanks for a great year!

xxx C