lost legacies 2 - what stilled your hand

 but i am also planning another piece, also based on another woman’s work: what stilled your hand? - this is inspired by unfinished embroidery and one piece in particular 

i have many unfinished pieces, but i know why these are in this condition - but when i see older unfinished pieces i wonder what stopped work - the investment made in this work was comparatively much greater than my own investment in much of mine: i have plenty of spare time and enough funds to allow me to pick and choose what i do, but in the past most women were not in this position - embroidery was not usually something a woman did for her own pleasure, it was usually for some purpose - so abandoning a piece might imply something much more pressing which prevents continuing with it

i have written few lines expressing my questions about the abandonment of the work, which i originally intendended to use as an overlay, but now i feel that is too “clunky” or obvious - i think i will use those as my accompanying text

stitcher, i wonder what stilled your hand?

what change or loss made you drop this peaceful work,

and leave your quiet place?

what fate cut this thread for ever?

was it illness, a death or war?

or did your muse abandon you?

the world never knew the pleasure this lost work could bring

so my current aim is to find some way of representing that in a translucent overlay to the incompleted work - that will be achieved on fine silk gauze but my dilemma is how to represent the potential blocks visually

i think i will invite other stitchers to stitch their own interpretations of the motifs left untouched, to be attached on the overlay - to suggest what might have been created by the orignal embroiderer, and as a contribution from fellow stitchers