The bird and I flew the coop. Stitching continued on the East Coast in Providence and on Cape Cod, spending time with my sister.
Trees...
Waves...
And clouds filled the days. (Along with a lot of pastries, mushrooms, wine, and walking to balance it all out!)
And now it's November...
I’m working on a new book of blue. There are piles of blue scraps all over the table. It’s kind of like working in an ocean.
We celebrated 41 years yesterday. Who would’ve ever thought?!
I found this picture in my phone yesterday. No idea when or where? We spent time last night trying to figure it out… his glasses, the mustache, and I’m still wearing a retainer… 1987-89?
K went to New York with his sister last week. Jokingly, I told him to visit a fabric store. He took me seriously and off they went to the garment district. Walking into the first door and completely overwhelmed, he noticed the swatches hanging off of the bolts. He asked the man if he could buy a few of them? No.
Three stores later, they were handed scissors!
What a fun surprise! (Acorn from Central Park.)
Painting has been in swatches too. Choosing a red, blue, and yellow and seeing how many different colors I can make from them. This time it was pinkest pink, golden, and indigo (first three top left).
There are so many things started…
Happily, time and things keep on going... (On our anniversary road trip last year, at the spot where two teenagers had their first kiss in the spring of 1980.)
Moon’s graduation weekend was very swell- time with Moon and girlfriend, an unplanned visit with Deb, and a day in Vancouver, BC.
This one made a while, looking at a fancy box of matches.
When does the group of something become a collection? I tried finding the collective noun for matchboxes. Nothing. Matches are a book or a box. Boxes are a stack. So maybe a stack of books? A book of stacks? A stack of boxes?
Tried flowers.
Went back to boats.
And this was interesting to do. Using Jude's stacked stitches I filled in a mosaic printed cloth from Maiwa’s with shades of green, Deb’s threads, and a few tiny scraps. Tension is an issue for me. It was good to practice, practice, practice.
“Magic Mountain”
And then to relax, a small simple peace wish made with of more of Jude’s techniques- Seemingly Seams and Glue stitch. Both feel like magic tricks.
It was left in a neighborhood Free Little Art Gallery while out for a walk this morning. I wonder where it will go next?
A long while away to the Oregon Coast. With Mom and my two sisters.
For Mom, who turned eighty.
I thought of Deb and her clouds on this eve.
There was only a little stitching. Lots of walking on the beach.
Even more wave watching.
Great views and weather. Better each day and the sunsets more beautiful each night.
"When She Dreamed"
I started this piece there but got stuck. Thought about taking it apart. Fortunately, decided to deal with it when I got home. A personal piece to add to the few other faces made a year ago, after last year's ocean trip for Mom. (The others can be found by clicking on the "Her Stories" category below.)
There was so much to think about on this trip. Some things were said that surprised and silenced. It's fascinating how the same and different we all are. How we hold, hide, or hide from our truths.
This one is about making our own skies.
I’ve decided that I can paint whatever I want, whenever I want. So simple, yet so hard for some of us.
"On Her Way..."
So, I’m drawing, stitching, and looking at photos, figurines, paintings of boats… boats, and more boats.
And I’m even allowing myself to keep my eyes open. Doing the blind paintings was a way of just being in the moment and also of not judging myself. If my eyes are closed, of course it’s not going to be perfect. For the last few drawings, I've kept my eyes on the reference mostly, but peeked at the paper now and then. Trying to work quickly and loosely, to remember the childhood joy of drawing.
I gave dyeing with black beans a whirl. Easy peasy- dried beans and cold water. Left the cloth in overnight. Depending on the fabric, it came out shades of purple to gray (that bright purple piece started out pink).
“Going… Without knowing or caring”
I used some of it for the lower sky here (below Deb's dazzling dyeing).
While doing this one a memory came… Growing up I drew all of the time, but then the teenage years made way for other things – theater, writing, basketball… (a few boys, too, including K.!). One birthday, 16th I think, my brother gave me a gift. We weren’t close anymore, avoided each other or spoke in snarls. As I opened up a small sketchbook and set of colored pencils, he said, “You don’t draw anymore.” I was so touched that he had noticed and cared. I still have that little book somewhere.
Rhode Island sister is coming to town tomorrow. Looking forward to our time together, and some sea. And probably another boat...
Leftover thoughts from the birthday cloth, I think. Celebrating sky. The swirling line is that metallic silver thread, it's not showing up very well here, but it's wonderful in the sunlight.
Terrariums thoughts.
Which may have inspired a long overdue dusting of the jar and bird shelf. Starting with the top shelf, washing the bowls, and trying to dust the elaborate gilded-like frame of the painting.
That painting... It’s is family. Painted by a woman who lived up the road from my dad's foster home where he grew up. It hung above the fireplace of my childhood home. Writing this, I am suddenly overwhelmed with all it stirs up- sentiment, sorrow, anger, love...
A pink moon made from more of Deb’s fabric.
It feels like a long while since I last made a boat. It may be time.
I was happy just looking at these cloths together for a while. Jude's moon and Deb's pinks. I have often wondered about curator or artist in my making. Thinking about it more, there is an artistry in gathering, and I love putting cloths together, combining their stories into one.
Blue's autumn views from his new apartment in Santiago, that he shares with his new roommate from the UK, near the apartment of his new girlfriend from South Africa (Now we really wonder when we'll see him again!).
It's great to hear him sound so happy and much more settled and self-assured as he begins his second year in Chile. We've both grown up so much.
Dearest friend is on an adventure in France and sending fun photos of flowers, cafes, the countryside, and sewing pins in a castle gift shop.
Another spring evening.
We only had cloudy skies for the eclipse. I watched the news instead. They shared beautiful footage as it happened across the continent- Mexico, Texas, Indiana, Cleveland, Niagara Falls, and finally, Maine. Watching the excitement of the people and the beauty of the diamonds, beads, and pink flares had me in tears. What it must have been like to be there! Three of our neighbors went to watch in Texas and Indiana. It will be great to hear their sun and moon stories when they get back.
A few days ago, thinking about the love/hate relationship with my birthday, feeling pleased that it was in a few days and there was only a little of the usual pre-birthday gloom going on, and then realized that it was actually a couple of weeks away, and that there was still plenty of time to go into the dark side.
And then I found this childhood drawing. Five years old? A circus theme- there is a trapeze artist and a clown on a unicycle on the other side. I remember drawing it at Great Aunt Peggy's house. We all loved her and her tiny house, and I'm sure that the blue walls of her living room are where my desire for blue began.
Anyhow...
The drawing triggered and fed a whole lot of old things. And then it became a "pet pebble," an assignment for the Creativity Lab class. The goal was to use tape and paper and get in touch with making in a childlike way. It worked. There was a need to do more with this elephant, some memories, and birthdays...
Channeling my inner five-year-old, I'm going without a plan. No rules, other than not undoing anything. If something doesn't fit, I'm making it work with scissors, more fabric, or stitches. I stitched on it all day Friday with a lot of joy and some tears.
Still going... I don't know where. Maybe more sequins and beads, and, if I can find it, silver thread. It's a celebration. I'm loving it. It's still growing. Me too.
(Deb Lacativa dyed base cloth)
A couple of weeks ago I stood on a chair reaching too far, too high, for too long, but didn't realize it for a few days when the pain slowly grew and evolved from my back to fingers over a few days. Most parts have recovered, still waiting on my back. I just don't bounce like I used to. Inside or out.
Something new in the arboretum.
Sometimes the big picture can't be seen without moving.
Imagining it in sunshine.
A conversation across the world with Blue... As he grows into adulthood, it's requiring shifts for both of us. It's mostly good, hard sometimes, realizing mistakes I made as a parent, and it's comforting to talk about it with him. He says the nicest things, which reminds me that I didn't do everything wrong.
Things that seem so simple can have so many layers.
(Threadcrumb moon)
It depends where you stand.
One morning, I woke up wanting to weave, remembering the fun of being in Jude's Cloth 2 Cloth workshop, everyone weaving together...
One of the reasons that I find myself blogging less, is feeling like I have nothing to say. My life is so quiet now. There are no interesting stories like there were in my teaching days.
Getting lost in the details is a happy place.
“She Wove Her Sky in Starlight”
The sun was still coming up when I went for a walk one morning. Sometimes I stop for the views for a long while and have to remind myself that the goal is to be moving.
The top yellow fabric led to the rest of this golden cloth. With pieces from Deb, Jude, and Blandina. It's still in the works...
Yesterday, a two-hour phone call with Blue. It was so swell. He has grown so much during his adventure in Chile. Gaining self-awareness, confidence, friends from all over the world, and stories galore.
So, I will borrow and share a Blue story... Recently, his old sneakers finally gave out. A Chilean friend took him shopping. When he told the salesman his size, he shook his head with doubt. Blue is tall and has BIG feet, size 13-14, much bigger the average Chilean shopper. They went to the stockroom, and they all searched together, looking for anything close. Just as they were about to give up, they found one pair of sneakers in size 12.5. They were comfortable enough. Blue was so happy to have them, and said it felt like a miracle.
Fast forward to last week: A group of them went south of Santiago to a friend of a friend's family cabin. Surrounded by mountains, forests, and lakes, they had a wonderful week of hiking, kayaking, etc... On their last day, thanks to a friend of a friend, etc... they were taken on a tour bus around the area. One stop was at a fancy hotel/restaurant where they were treated to a delicious meal. "You would have loved it, Mom! It was like a fairy tale... something Snow White would have found in the woods. You felt like you were inside of a magical tree."
The next morning, packing up to leave, he couldn't find his new shoes. He remembered switching them out for his flipflops on the bus the day before. They were still on that bus. One friend said he looked like someone had died.
He flipflopped to the bus stop, mourning his precious shoes. As they boarded the bus for the ten-hour ride back, the driver asked, "Does anyone here have big feet?" Blue called out, "Yes!" The driver pulled out a bag with his shoes! They had been found on the other bus. Folks wondered if a basketball player had left them? Somehow, they had found their way to this driver, Tio Rico (who everyone called "Uncle"). Blue gushed his thanks and shared his shoe search story with him. Tio Rico laughed and laughed, and at each stop along the way, he would call for Blue to tell the story of "The Miracles of the Giant Shoes"!
Blue and Tio Rico, and the Giant Shoes!
