handstories

In Seattle & thereabouts

    There are days when you just need soothing.  Stitching this silky moon from Jude was just that.  Like stitching water.  It grew into the tenth moon cabin block.

    Favorite fabrics, some took a while to find.  Somebody really needs to get some ducks in a row over here.  That pink cloth looks like it might be too much, but I'm hoping it will be balanced out once it's surrounded by other blocks.  Or it can come out later.

    A visit to the Bainbridge Art Museum...

    Upstairs, in the Sherry Grover Artists' Books room, there is an exhibit going on... "Every Day & Special Days".

    What a happy honor to be a part of it!

    And to share a space with so many wonderful works, including dear Velma.

    There has been some searching for my best Self .  She seems to be M.I.A. a lot lately.  It seems Moon and I are working hard to create many memories that we will hopefully laugh about some day.

    Also on Bainbridge Island is the beautiful Bloedel Reserve.

    Most of the photos I took were of water.

    I just love this willow.  It holds the memory of another willow, that held a memory of another willow for my mom.  All of the willows held/hold happy moments.

    The day ended with a beautiful ferry ride.

    Wishing you the bluest skies.

Sailing, cinnamon rolls & moon dreaming

"She Journeyed On"

    When I found this tiny ship in a bottle on my basement shelves in the school I was leaving after 23 years... I didn't think twice about keeping it.  Whoever it belonged to before, clearly the universe meant it for me.  It was time to set sail... 

    I wonder if I'll ever stitch such a grand ship (or be able to?)

    How many candles can you fit on a cinnamon roll?

    Nineteen.

    For Moon.  

    We were glad for the decision to only put the candles on one roll!

    I'm the only one in the house who still asks for a cake.

    The tiniest of scraps can make a world.

    There was a fall on the front porch two days ago- stepping down the front porch stairs with arms full of damp laundry to put out on the drying racks, turning around to reclose the door that hadn't quite latched, tripping over the now trailing bedsheet in shoes that were too loosely tied...

    Falling so slowly that there was time to wonder if I could catch myself, or would I go off the edge of the porch taking the window boxes with me, or maybe (as the stumble picked up speed and turned into a tumble) go through the screen door, and most importantly a quick prayer to the sky that no one was coming up or down the sidewalk and that none of the neighbors were looking out of their windows. 

    All the while fumbling to get my hands untangled from the laundry to stop the plummeting off of the porch.  One hand got free in time to grab the screen and push it into the watering can, jar, etc. that later needed retrieved out of the ferns below.  I landed in a full out sprawl-splat, knocking the flower boxes a few inches over the edge, but not off.  Banged and bruised, but grateful that there was only the cat as a witness.  Still quite sore, but the bruises are getting pretty.  Just don't bounce like I used to.

    Friends are sailing out on the ocean, with experienced friends to help them on their first sea trip.  Hoping they're gaining confidence, and that I'll be able to have a turn soon....  They left Portland on Friday and will reach Point Roberts (the tiny tip of the U.S. that's attached to Canada) by Tuesday.  With the help of a find-my-friend feature on the phone, I'm able to see about where they are, and was excited and envious while watching them cross the bar from the Columbia River onto the Pacific.  It's such a beautiful powerful spot where the river meets the sea.

    Dreaming of a moonlit sail...

"Moon Dreams in Blue"

Moons & mountains

"Moon Story"

    It was K's birthday weekend.  We spent a day out in the world!  In Tacoma, first there was a visit to the Museum of Glass.  A few favorites...

    "Signs and Signifiers" by Sarah Gilbert.  "Signs and Signifiers is meant to reference a collection of family photos.  Each hand representing a different person, and a different record of lived experience- some young, some older.  Each hand has an image in the middle.  These images are all meant to be signs, signifiers, and tools used to find our way through life...."

    "Aurora Orange Basket Set with Night Black Lip Wrap" by Dale Chihuly

    Top of one of the "Crystal Towers" on the Chihuly Bridge of Glass.

    "Seafoam Pavilion" on the Chihuly Bridge of Glass

    We also went to a minor league game- Rainiers vs Bees.  I found some shade to knit in, but still managed to get sunburned.

    It was a good time on a beautiful day, including the drive home with views of Mt. Rainier and the moon...

    Very happy to have another year to celebrate with K.  I've probably told this story many times before...  It was just after his 17th birthday when I got to know him.  Visiting a church youth group with a friend, riding in a van.  I heard a couple of guys in the back talking about how one of them had just gone to his first movie for his birthday.  I wondered what kind of guy didn't go to movies?  It turned out that guy was K, and I ended up talking with him for a long time that evening.  I was dating someone else at the time, but wrote in my journal, "I'm never getting married, but if I do, it will be to someone like K."  So smart for sixteen, if I do say so!

 

A thousand little things &/or stitches

    Thinking about the cycles that happen with stitching, and in relationships.  Both seem slow going and growing at times.

    Last night I dreamt that I was transported to Italy.  So happy, I tried to call Deb G. to tell her, but then the sky exploded with flames...

    The relationship with this bird is tenuous at best.  I fill the birdbath each morning and try to keep out of sight when he shows up.  Landing in the Japanese maple outside the window of the front room, yelling at me if I'm within view.  The other morning he saw me and then went to the porch, continuing to yell on the other side of the door, while snacking in the window boxes.  He likes to eat alone.

    Some of these are mixed colors, many of them are not.  I have an addiction to blue paints.

Tree dreams

    Today's trees made while remembering lots of camping trips- good and not-so-much.

    It's been too many years since we last camped.  One of those not-so-much trips led the boys veto the idea over and over afterwards.  In their defense, it was a really bad trip.  Hot, too hot for a campfire, too hot to cook, huge horseflies, mosquitoes, etc...  There were tears and tantrums from a few of us, until we finally gave up and took our sweaty-dirty-camping-clothed selves to the somewhat fancy restaurant at the Lodge down the road, and paid way too much for a mediocre meal in air conditioning.

    I'm looking forward to camping again, once it's just the two of us.

    There may be way too many Big Plans floating around in my head for the just-the-two-of-us days to come, but a soul can dream of trees…

A joke with a small side of weary

Pine Needle

    (Get it?  Please laugh.)

    Finished shirt.  It's ok.  Deb has given me some good tips for the next one...

    I'm sensing a theme in the recent paintings.  Noticing that a lot of my "self portraits" are screaming.  I suppose you could imagine they're singing, but I know the truth.

    A strange moon in the works...

Jumping all over the place

    Yesterday's wish for a boat...  Actually, it was a wish to be in a boat, in the middle of the sea...alone.

    There are seventy days until Moon goes to college.  Being a summer birthday, we waited a year to put him into kindergarten.  It seemed like a good idea at the time.  He'll be nineteen in a couple of weeks, and is more than ready to move on to the next phase of his life, as he constantly reminds us... sigh.  While we're going to miss him (and I think he'll miss us too, even if he doesn't know it!), we are all ready to love each other from some distance! 

    This parting is going to be so much easier than Blue's (some of you may remember my mama drama- part one and part two).  Being second, and going to school only an hour and a half away should make for a much less dramatic transition.  Finger's crossed.

    Jump!  (I have a cousin who writes "Jump!" whenever changing topics without a segue.)

    Inspired by Deb's lovely dress, I pulled out my copy of  The Act of Sewing, consulted Deb (many thanks!), and have almost finished a version of the shirt.

    Weirdly, I love making bias tape (first photo), but really dislike hemming.

    Jump!

    There will be new pieces in the shop tomorrow morning.  A few longer moon cloths, two tokens, a tree and one peaceful boat (without me in it). 

When we speak of moons

    Friday morning, a cloth of gifts that felt full from the start.  (Thank you Jude, Deb, Deb and Tina.) That hill, from the get go, felt moon-ish to me- color, shape, and connecting with the pink moon above.  I've compared hills to cakes.  So cakes can be moons, too.  Maybe everything can be a moon?  And a cake?  Maybe everything is everything?

    This was my daily painting first thing that morning.   I hadn't connected them until just now. 

    And then, in the afternoon, a dear friend on a road trip, sent this from Utah...

    Everything is connected.  I'm pretty sure of that.

    I had thought that this was done, but after looking at this photo... no.  More balance was needed in the lines around the hill- a wider arch, and a wanting to carry the lightness of the hill color beyond.  Also, that top "circle" filled with golden stars and dots... not right.  (It's so hard and tedious to pick out those dots, especially when they're double stitched, tweezers help.)

    Yes.

    And YES.

    I seem to be disappearing or is it fading?  From here and other places, too.  Jude says that she can't comment here.  Wondering if there are others?  And what to do?

    Keep looking for moons, I guess...

Haze

    Even colors seemed too hot to look at for the last few days.  I appreciated the coolness of this Threadcrumb moon.

    Saturday 102°, Sunday 104°, Monday 108°

    Sunday and Monday set record highs for Seattle.  Since 1896, there have only been three other days that have been 100° or over in Seattle.  Last week, when I first saw the forecast, I may have cried.  Today is blessedly only 84° (3:00 pm), so far.  Perspective changes things.

    It's an old house without air conditioning.  We did the open/close/cover dance with the windows and doors.  Scattering and moving fans as needed.  On Sunday I pulled out the old wading pool (congratulating myself on being a packrat).  Lunch was IN the pool.

    Family down in Oregon had it worse.  Mom said it was 117° at one point yesterday.  My brother lives in the next town.  Neither of them have air conditioning either.

    A spray bottle of cold water and mint leaves became my new best friend, traveling everywhere in the house with me.

    Only a few stitches happened during the weekend.  Early.  Before my fingers were too sweaty.

    There was salad after salad.  We had washed, chopped, made of all of the ingredients before the wave- lettuce, tomatoes, mint, nuts, corn cut from the cob, shredded chicken, dressing, etc... putting them in containers to pull out for meals, everyone serving themselves buffet style.  Anything to lessen movements and heat.

    By Monday it was too hot to even go outside (except to hand our poor mail woman a cup of ice water, with appreciation and an apology for our hill), so I filled the tub instead.  I probably stood in it at least once every thirty minutes.  K. laughed when he passed by and saw me brushing my teeth while wading.  Happily the toilet is positioned right next to it, so I was able to sit for a spell with a book now and then.

    Moon and I had a short tub party.

    "Moonfall"

    Today I am grateful for 84 and being able to hold a needle again.

Skies & water

    After stitching myself into a mental corner on a a couple of pieces yesterday, I thought a straight-forward tree might help to shake things loose.  Using Deb's moody cloth for the sky should have been a hot pink flag of what was to come.

    I have an idea for a quilt.  Something simple that I can work on in the evenings, not requiring sharp eyes, because I don't have enough projects half-started.

    Remembering the rivers and lakes that we grew up swimming in.  Remembering Dad tossing me off the fishing boat into the lake to "teach" me how.  Remembering frantic dog paddling and screaming at him to pull me out.  He didn't.  I swam.  Bike riding was the same story, at the top of a small hill on a gravel road with a ditch to one side and blackberry bushes on the other.  It was his way.  Sink or swim, or crash into blackberries, as the case may be.

    There was a very frustrated crow outside the bedroom window early this morning.  It cawed itself hoarse and finally gave up.  By then I was wide awake.  Blue spots represented the croaky caws in this morning's painting.

    And then this happened...