handstories

On the brink with pink

    Recently, I wrote a friend about feeling on the brink, and that I didn’t know why, but making a boat always seems to help. And it did.

Actually, I made two boats.

    Another “I don’t know why…“ is the reason that there is so much pink in recent pieces?  This one was actually started a month or so ago and put aside when I got stuck. There was a lot of heavy stitching in it. I finally got out of my own way, took out the stitches, and replaced them with so many tiny ones- to hold it together and echo the beautiful dyeing by Jude (moon) and Deb (pink fabrics). 

    Another of Jude‘s moons and Deb’s threads- a kind of remembering of how much small spaces can hold.

    July 1st, a third boat... without words. 


    Today’s.  I wanted a pink house from the get-go, and one thing led to another. There were a lot of thoughts about process.  Wondering if it was a kind of doodling- adding something here, there… But I think it’s more connected to writing for me. Starting with a “Once upon a time…” followed by the “and's…”

    Whatever it is, it feels good today.

Rainbows of feelings

    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.

Elegance in Pink

    I just can’t settle down into a routine or direction.

    Digging through a box of scraps until one catches my eye and then another.  On Lucky days, scraps that belong together are near each other.

   The Studio was quiet this week.  The same taxi driver came.  This time parking in front of the door, and avoiding eye contact with me, even though I was waving a "Hi!" at him. 

    At first, Monica’s collage above seems to be just a gathering of pretty pictures that she liked. Looking closer, I noticed all of the pinks and soft greens in the photos, and how they were brought together by the surrounding paint colors she chose. 

    Monica alternates between collage and drawing. Often covering a big piece of paper with rows and rows of small circles.  She is a sweet soul of few words.  Yesterday, she was waiting for her ride, just sitting there smiling. When I asked her what she was thinking about, she responded by slowly, turning her neck and raising her chin, stretching it to look up to the left.  “Swan princess,” she said.
  “You’re thinking about a swan princess?”

    Nodding, yes, she repeated the gesture, gently tipping her chin skyward as before.  “Swan princess.”
    I realized that she was imitating the graceful swooping neck gestures of a swan.  “Are you thinking about “Swan Lake"?”

    Another nod and swoop of her neck. She was a swan princess.

    (A group of swans can be called a flock, bevy, wedge, lamentation, and a ballet.)

In the pink all around

    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.

Pink Stories

    Continuing with this idea slowly... Calling them "Her Stories" in my mind.  None of the three are finished, and the ideas keep coming...  I think I might keep these, at least for a while.

    Last week was A Week.  Someone said, "Look at it as an opportunity... A door has opened for things to change."

    I said, "It feels like the door has been kicked in with me standing on the other side of it, and now I'm smashed under it."

 

 

    Cathy Cullis invited folks to fill a sketchbook over the last weekend.  A good opportunity to play.

 

 

    Drawing with my eyes open was a challenge, I had to work at not caring too much.

 

 

    Out from under the door now, moving awkwardly through.

    Pink is playing a part in everything it seems.

 

    This one was rooted in pink thoughts... both rosy imaginings and the scratch marks of memory. There are so many shades in each story.  Pink has held ALL of the feelings for me- sweet and sour, mostly the latter. It’s taken a long time for our relationship to evolve into a balance of pretty and poignant, with a dash of passion. It's good to be friends at last.

Pink Season

    Things really are in the pink right now.

    Still walking every day.

    Blooms everywhere.

    "May"

    Quiet happy days.

 

    There's a hint of pink in these stars.  A photo taken by a friend of Blue's when they visited Valle Del Elqui in Chile for a stargazing weekend recently.  Blue says that it's been tweaked, and that it was only 70% as wonderful as this photo.  I say that 70% of this would still be plenty enough amazing to behold.

    I dream of seeing stars like this.  I did see the northern lights in Alaska when I was eighteen, and there were gorgeous stars over Shi Shi Beach at the very northwest tip of Washington in our camping days long ago, but a sky full of wonder like Blue's photo would be truly something.

More turquoise, & tea

    First fresh indigo experiment using the salt method.  Two leaves, some salt, and a scrap of cotton (it already had some iron or walnut smudges on it) and of silk.  Enjoyed the process and results very much, thanks again, Deb!

    Played with one in my dream that night.  Something I always wanted as a kid (along with Colorforms), but never got.

    While working on the turquoise patchwork from the last post, I thought about hot pink and orange.  The next day a friend handed me this beautiful silk scarf that had accidently been chewed up by her washing machine.

    It was just the right thing.

    The green side of turquoise with shimmering velvet.  Her name is "Opal".

    Someone shared the story of when their husband first said, "I love you."  A very romantic mountain top moonlit moment.  Which triggered my own memories... I said it first to K.  Sixteen, New Year's Eve, got up my gumption and blurted out, "I realize that I love you!" 

    His reply, "That's great!"  (Heart swelled with hope.)  "I realized that I love L.!"  (Deflation of heart.)  "Isn't this great, all of this love going on!"

    No.  No, it was not great, but I put on a cheery face, bided my time (knowing that L. was not interested in him), and got my declaration four months later.  Boys.

 

    Speaking of boys.  Moon has been home a week.  He is so in love with math.  There are pieces of paper like the above scattered throughout the house, representing his attempts at sharing this passion with us.  It may as well be written in ancient Greek.  He doesn't understand that we don't understand, so we nod and smile with awe.

    It's been good to spending time with Moon, having long conversations, hearing what he's thinking about (besides math), and it's been really useful too. 

    K. has been struggling with arthritis in his hip, and the fall last January pushed it all downhill.  Replacement surgery is scheduled (The first available appointment was in November!).  The steep long staircase to the bedroom is too much for now, especially since the only bathroom is on the main floor.  I did offer to move out of my studio room, but thankfully his reply was, "There is so much wrong with that idea."  So, there's been a mattress and box spring in the living room for the last month or so.  Moon helped to move the heavy furniture into a better arrangement.  At least now the bed isn't the first thing you see when you walk in the door.

"Here in the Turquoise Sea"

    Yesterday's turquoises.  The silk waves on top of the boat were the same as the brighter back wave until they were dropped into the morning tea. 

    Stitched while singing an old family favorite from when the boys were young.  Have a listen here, I'll bet you'll be humming too...

    "...They play on the beaches the colour of peaches, there by the turquoise sea, oh, my...under a blue, blue sky..."

Week in Review ***

(*** Friends of ours eat all of their leftovers on the weekends, they call it "Week in Review".)

"Circles Held Her"

    Unexpectedly, the houses are still coming.  I want to learn some photo collage skills, to create a village of these stories of home for myself.

    The evening birds seem much more contented than the morning ones.  More songlike, rather than desperate "Let's get going!" tweets.  Remembering the mornings of hungry little ones and the rush to get everyone everything and out the door on time.

    LOTS of Jude's thread beads happening.

    Sometimes I end up feeling dotty from them.  Deb's thread and cloth must have had the same dye recipe, and Tina's yellow framing cloth is the icing on the cake.

    I've been listening to books from the library while I stitch these days.  Finished a lovely middle reader Caribbean fairy-sea-tale yesterday, A Comb of Wishes, and am now partway into Cloud Cuckoo Land.  What a change in required concentration level!

    A boat stitched while thinking of dearest friend who is out at sea for the next couple of weeks.  She leads a life of adventure with new experiences and people at every turn- a glittering existence.  In my quiet lamp lit corner, I sometimes wonder how we found and held onto each other over the last twenty plus years?

    Walking through Seattle in springtime, it's hard to remember to watch where you're going.  I'm often tripping over the sidewalk cracks or getting dizzy from craning my neck to the sky and tree tops.

    On Earth Day, someone on Instagram posted their visit to Walden's Pond.  I was there 24 years ago last January with K., visiting my sister, and six months pregnant with Blue.  The pond was frozen over.  I stepped out onto the ice so that I could say that I was on Walden's Pond.  K and my sister's guy stood on shore shouting at me to, "Bring the baby back on land!"

"Itzel" Mayan for "rainbow".

    Wishing you all a colorful week of glittery things.

Full days

    "Ruby" for the gem-like feel to it.

    Someday I'm going to find the perfect clear pink glass bowl that lives in my imagination.  Some days it will be empty except for the rosy light glowing inside of it, other times rose petals might float in it, or a few special marbles will roll at the bottom, and once in a while it will be filled with sea water.  Someday.

    What happens when you have five minutes in the bathroom and a pair of scissors...

    It went much better than the last time.  K didn't have to repair any oddly cut angles, and I can roll over in my sleep without getting tangled again.

    Autumn is going full blast this week- wind, rain and dark dark mornings.  I love it, except for the fact that my studio room is cold.  It has the best light, and the worst temperatures- an added on room that holds summer's heat and winter's chills. 

    I've been wrapping myself up in this length of knitting.  A few of you might remember it... Knitted eight to ten years ago from some of my first handspun, over six feet long, and called "Breathing" because of this moment.

    (I do own a shawl pin thingy, but have no idea where it is.)

    And there's been more moon play.  The story changed over and over as I worked on it.  Actually, I guess that the cloth just grew somehow, because all of the stories are still here.  No name yet... still thinking on what words will hold all of the layers.

Friends & playing

"Cara"

        A few trees have sprung up this week, brought to life with Deb's rainbowed scraps and threads.  I do love the surprise of each of them, the not knowing who they are until they're finished.  Once done, I hold them and see what feeling or word comes to mind.  In Cara's case, it was the connection between the tree and star.  There seems to be a conversation, an understanding, a connection... which led to thoughts of friendship.  "Cara" means friend in many languages- Irish, Spanish, Latin...

"Yawen" and "Linnea"

    "Yawen" is a Chinese name meaning cloud patterns.  Do you see the faint cloud line that I followed in blue stitches?  "Linnea" is where I landed after a search for pink names.  It's Scandinavian for a small pink mountain flower.

    I wonder who will show up here?

    A blue moon playground by Tina.   I wasn't sure about my ability to stick with and pull off a tidy stretch of Jude's stacked stitches, but ended up enjoying the process, and could see that I improved as I went along.  Practice, practice, practice really does work.

    Twinkle is so glad that I'm home, but not happy that I'm spending time at my table, rather than on the couch with her.  She tried to balance and make do on my lap, but not for long.

    There was a beautiful glittering silvery dream last night- a boat ride near waterfalls and a new version of Portugal.

    

    And more waves for Barbara....