How One Embroiderer Turned a Coronavirus Creative Rut Into a Charming Daily Art Project

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When COVID-19 lock­downs began, New Zealand-based embroi­dery artist Amy Jones, aka Cheese Before Bed­time, felt like she was in a cre­ative rut. “I’ve been soooooo unmo­ti­vat­ed,” she shared in an Insta­gram post at the time. “My eyes have been glued to the lat­est updates, I’ve been busy enter­tain­ing the kids and clean­ing the house (cos kids!!).”

To help her­self dur­ing this try­ing time, Amy insti­tut­ed a 30-day embroi­dery project. The theme was open. “They’ll just be reflec­tions of my thoughts,” she explained. The first day had to do with the coro­n­avirus (nat­u­ral­ly), but as the days went on, the tiny stitched draw­ings show­cased the rich­ness of her dai­ly life. From piz­za to plants to sil­ly jokes, each embroi­dery sym­bol­ized some­thing for Amy.

“I am proud that I have made it to the end,” she wrote, “and proud of the piece as a mem­o­ry of this strange time.”

The coro­n­avirus art project did­n’t stop with the first 30 days. Since fin­ish­ing the first iter­a­tion of her coro­n­avirus art, Amy has been work­ing on anoth­er piece of fab­ric with the same dai­ly reflec­tions. She hopes to do two more and have four pieces in all.