handstories

    Not a lot of stitching over the last days.  A little mending and plenty of wondering about all kinds of things, with some anxieties added into the mix.

    I started digging through the studio shelves.  Filled three bags- garbage, recycling and donations.  A small dent.

    Found a few piles of quilt starts, including some that I have no memory of.  Wondering if I can just close my eyes and stitch the odds and ends together?  Make them into blankets of some sort?  Useful, if nothing else.

    One very long night with a mosquito circling around my head.  Even under the quilt I could hear its whining.  There wasn't much sleep the next night either.  In fact, I was having a really good dream, movie star included.  Just as it was about to get good, I told him I was too tired, that I couldn't keep my eyes open, and fell asleep in dreamland, only to wake up in real life even more exhausted.  Drat.

 

    Looking for something to do, that would require no thoughts, I pulled out the spinning wheel.  So much dust.  Honestly, why I forget how much I love to spin, I don't know.

    The glow of yellow skies from the wild fires came back for a couple of days.  We're lucky that the air quality has stayed good.

    Last night there were two brief rain showers.  I ran outside to stand in it.  Hoping for real rain on Friday.

    Today- wave work.  Not how I usually go about starting a piece.  Rarely plan so much out at the beginning.  It's also a little bigger (9x6") than the usual 4" squares.  Not sure where it's going from here...

farewell forties

    Well, it's my last eve of the forties.  I finished up "49" today, with hours to spare.  It only took a year, well, some of it at least.  

    I wonder what new beginnings tomorrow will bring?

tick-tock

        Just a few more stitches left to go in "49".

    Just in the nick of time.

   Other kinds of countdowns going on too.

    I was not ready for this piece of mail.  

    Tick, tick , tick . . .

49 . . . whoosh

It's March again.  

The years are whipping by.

   Almost a year since the start of this. 

    Square 35 - rose flannel, the year Blue was born.  To the left of it, square 34, for a baby we didn't get to meet.

    Square 39 - polka dot for Moon's year.   Sqare 40 - a favorite scrap from a quilt made in honor of turning 40 (though I didn't finish it until 42, and funny, the quilt ended up having 42 squares).

    The birds of square 49 - another favorite.  I just noticed that some of the birds seem upside down, maybe it's an illusion of taking flight.  I feel upside down lately, I will hope it is a similar illusion.

    Tick tock . . . better get stitching.

it doesn't take much

    If I could only make little running,  invisible basting, and thread bead stitches,

    I think I would be plenty happy.

silly but smitten

    The borders of "49" were needing another layer on the back to support the stitching.  Covering the backside with a layer of muslin was a simple solution.  After stitching around three of the outside edges, I couldn't bring myself to tack it to the center.  

    I kept thinking of the backside and how much I like it.  I turned it inside out and (feeling silly) took photos, thinking that would let me hold onto it after it was sandwiched out of sight.   Some border stitching happened, but basting down the middle was avoided.   After a lot of fiddling, I still couldn't stitch through it, so it was put aside.

    That evening there was an email from Dru.  She wrote about how cool the back of one of her pieces was.  That was all the encouragement I needed.  Scissors were grabbed, muslin was snipped and ripped . . .

  and the back is back . . .

     

 

 . . .and we are very happy to be together again.

lots of nothing

    Spring Break week.  Lots of clouds, board games, cookies, lazying about, library books, and some stitching, of course.

    Today a road trip in search of sun and sand, or at least a cinnamon roll.

    Working on "49".  Enjoying it so much.  It may go on until "50"!

snapping

    Happily stitching along on "49", thinking how pleased I was that this piece might actually get finished during my 49th year, when "snap!".  The needle broke.  I've broken machine needles many times (including last year's through my finger incident), but never while hand sewing.  

    Though not a big deal, it threw me for a minute.  Without realizing it, I have developed routines, rituals, alright, maybe superstitions, in my stitching.  One of them is using the same needle for an entire piece.  Not only am I developing a relationship with the cloth, but the needle is too.  

    With all the time I've spent with my daily squares, the ceremony has become a little more involved.  Not only have I used the same needle, but as the day's square is finished, the needle is put into the next day's square- right to left, across the top, and then the blue pin (which has also been with it from the beginning) is put through the bottom of the next space- right to left. 

    In that "snap" of a moment I worried, "how will I finish without this needle?!  Is there a way to use the broken half....?"  Then I came to my senses, and found a new one.  So far, the cloth and newcomer seem to be getting along.  

    But if the daily squares' needle breaks, I may cry.

    Now who's snapping?

making visible

    Working on "49".  Appreciating these tiny squares to focus on, one at a time - knowing that they happened, and what went into the traveling through each of those pieces of time.  Trying to honor the space each represents.  Wondering if there is enough room for all the stitches that should go into this?

49

    Today there are forty-nine, for the cloth and for me, too.  

    And because "it's my party and I'll do what I want to" . . . an indigo square for today's daily square.

    It's been a good day.  Breakfast out, a quilt show, and a bunch of time for cloth and wool, and a little bit of quiet, and, hopefully, german chocolate cake later.  All my wishes come true.