handstories

One stitch at a time...

    Well, here we are, another week plus gone by, and a month's worth of things going on.

    Post-Thanksgiving was spent in the basement.  A clog, overflow, old old plumbing to deal with.  After 115 years, it appears that the old clay mainline is preparing to give up the ghost, along with various other issues where it connects with the house.  Two days and several thousand dollars later we were able to wash, flush, etc. again.  It definitely dampened (ha, ha) Moon's first visit home since he left for college.   There is a next, more involved step to take- getting the mainline lined.  Which will mean many many more dollars.  A number so big that I may have swooned a bit when the guy showed it to me.

    We reacted for a couple of days, but we are moving forward now.  Actually, we're putting it all on pause until January.  Trusting that it will all work out.  Somehow.  The last few days have been spent cleaning up the aftermath, a carload to donations, washing and mopping up.  And a lot of stitching- for centering, and for income... to help to pay the piper (pipe-r, get it?!).

    Getting ready for bed last night, K. said something crazy.  I watched him realize how ridiculous his words were midway through his sentence.  It was so silly that I started laughing before he was done.  (He did, too.)  I laughed and laughed, unable to stop.  Gosh, that felt great.

    There are other happenings, too, but there are stories to stitch.

    Onward!

    (P.S. There will be a shop update on Friday, December 3rd, 9am Seattle time.)

New chapters

    I really like looking at all of these together like this... touching and a part of each other's stories.

    (They have all been added to the shop.)

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). 

Time & space

    "In the Wonder" holds some special cloths and thoughts.  The speckled square and the moon from Jude, the watery edge of a napkin and threads by Deb, combined with a galaxy of stitching made for a good exploration and expression of how things are right now. 

    It has been wonderful having Blue here.  My heart is full just seeing him across the room.  He's such an easy going guy.  "I don't care," is his usual response (I actually worry about this some).  So I was thrilled when he really liked a new-to-him recipe that I made the other night.  "You can make this again on my last night."  You bet I will!

    The edge of summer is in the air this morning.

    In the process of finishing up "In the Space of Joy" it was flipped the other way, and made so much more sense to me.  I need to keep remembering to look at things from different perspectives.

    An old memory of Mom and my siblings was the first thought on Mother's Day.  A memory that holds happiness and wistfulness.

    Many thanks to Tina for her cloth gifts, her scrap strips are often the perfect frames for the tree tokens. 

        On Mother's Day, there was a last minute decision to drive up to Bellingham for my favorite lunch of African peanut soup and a walk around campus at the college Moon will attend next fall.  (Deb, I waved and called "Hello!")  There are many reasons to be happy that he chose this school- proximity to us, the soup and Deb are a few of mine.  It was fun to watch Moon's excitement as he pointed out different buildings and what will be "My favorite climbing tree."

    Deb's threads create connection in "Moon in Bloom." 

    There are many many things going on in my head and work right now, and I'm not sure how to share about it all.  Mostly, I'm just trusting- in cloth, time and myself.

    P.S.  There will be a shop update with these pieces and others tomorrow morning- Friday, May 14th, 9am PST.

Waves...smooth & not

    Yesterday was such a quiet focused day.  This piece was made from beginning to end, flowing out like a gentle wave.  I especially loved working with cloths from so many wonderful folks- a ThreadCrumb moon, the sea by Deb, cloth gifts from Jude and Tina, the wave with it's faded rose print and the silk sail came from the remnants of an antique ball gown purchased from an Ann Wood studio sale years ago.  It fills my spirit to bring so many stories together.  It was a really good day of work and thought.

    And then... today happened.  There was a shop update.  That was fine, I was organized, had ticked off all of the items of the to-do list, opened the shop at 9am sharp, and began getting ready to leave for my first vaccine appointment.

    9:08- A message from a customer- a shop glitch.  While writing to her and trying to figure it out quickly because I needed to leave, Moon walked into the room.  "I think I need to go to the hospital!"

    "What?!  Why?!"  His tonsil was swollen and hurt.  Ok, probably not a hospital needing crisis.  I figured out a stop-gap plan for the customer while shining the phone light down his throat.  One tonsil was huge.  "Call the nurse line and tell them what's going on, make an appointment for after twelve, because I need the car to go to my vaccine.  The number is...." (This is one of those phone numbers that I will probably know until my dying day.)

    I left for the appointment expecting the efficiency and comfortable waiting areas everyone has described.  It turned out that I didn't sign up for one of those appointments.  Approaching the hospital campus, there were multiple buildings and multiple parking garages.  I chose one, parked, took a photo of the space, and what level.  Entering the lobby, the guard informed me that it was the wrong building and wrong parking lot.  She began telling me how to get to the right garage.  "Can't I just leave my car and walk?"  She thought it was strange, but gave directions through the building to the security guards on the other side.  "Ask them where to go next."  Ok.

    As I wander through the maze of hospital halls, I thought of Dee's vaccine journey, and wondered how hard it was going to be to find my car again from the outside, because I wouldn't be allowed back in this building?  I walked on and found a guard.  "Excuse me, can you please tell me where to go for vaccines?"  He informed me that this wasn't the right building for vaccines.  Having confirmed my ignorance, he directed me out the door, across the street, down the block, through an alley to the middle of the next block.  Ok.  I set out, hoping that it would be quick, or that there would be a bathroom in the waiting area.

    The waiting area was a line on the sidewalk, in the wind and sprinkling rain.  Did I mention that I didn't wear a coat?  Half an hour later I was inside and being asked for ID.  Fortunately, because of the missing wallet, I had thought to bring my passport.  Ten minutes later, vaccinated and sitting in the recovery area for the required fifteen minutes, and still needing a restroom, I see that there is one.  Just one, and it's for and being used by everyone.  I decide that I can wait.  Ten minutes later, I decide that I can't.  I decide to leave, and that if I have a reaction, I'm next to a hospital.  After retracing my steps for four blocks, I find the garage, head down two flights of stairs to the right level, and then notice the sign telling me to go back to the lobby to pay for parking at the kiosk. Ok.

    The kiosk rejected my credit card (the one that wasn't in my wallet because it's one that I never use, and apparently never will).  A line was forming behind me as I dug into my crazy bag of life supplies (book, notebook, knitting, etc...), a ten dollar bill was found, used, and I was out of there (REALLY needing a restroom at this point.)  I bee-lined it for the car, maneuvered out of the garage, around a giant vehicle that was stuck between cars and posts like a beetle on its back trying to get out, and headed home... After turning the wrong direction and putting five more minutes between me and my bathroom.

    "Everything is manageable," I told myself, as I wondered what it would take to make a car seat feel really clean if I didn't make it home in time.

    And it was all manageable, even ok.  I made it home, and to the bathroom.  Moon made it to his appointment that he scheduled for before noon (We await the strep test results.  How does one get strep while masked and distancing?), and a workable solution was figured out for the very patient customer.

    And now it's after five o'clock and I'm going to open a bottle of something!

    Happy, peaceful weekend everyone!

Listening to myself

    I played with them this morning, thinking about Deb's comment, "There is a sense of seasons".  It happened rather quickly.  Each of them seemed to fall into place with a feel of a certain time of year.  A visual calendar, at least to me.  Thanks for the idea, Deb!

    Something else that I've learned about myself lately... After finishing a project I seem to just run out of stitching steam.  I wander around, sometimes carrying cloth and thread (in case the urge to make happens), but usually it's a nothing day.  Often it feels wasted, which leads to guilt, which leads to glum.

    This time I saw it coming.  When the trees were finished I made a list of doable-things-to-do and none of them were stitching.  Yesterday was spent ticking them off.  Pencils were sharpened, the piles of cloth all over my table were sorted, threads gathered and put back into their places, emails were returned (emails that had been written and thought sent, were actually sent), the missing eye glasses were found (under the cloth), a book was read, etc.  Nothing terribly exciting or productive, but everything that was expected to happen did.  I'm calling it a win!

    New to me bird sounds woke me up this morning- two birds in a call and response conversation, high and low songs, and then there was an old familiar calling from the sea...

    (PS.  The tree tokens will be in the shop this Friday, April 16th, 9 am Pacific Standard Time.)

floating dots of thoughts

"The Quiet Filled Her"

    I soothed myself with this piece.  That's another bit of Deb's indigo dyed silk in that left corner.  It was a gift when we met in real life for the first time, last autumn, a lifetime ago.

    Something I've really been looking forward to was cancelled yesterday.  These days it feels hard to hope for anything.

"Lui," "Fatima" and "Fern."

    The first two are names of students at my last school.  There were two girls named Fatima- both were challenging and full of spirit.  K. had a great Aunt Fern.  She lived on the family homestead property and was near a hundred when I met her.  She lived to be 102.   These tree tokens are fun to make.  Ten are finished for tomorrow's shop update.  They've spent the week on the table, becoming friends.  Naming them makes it a little harder to let them go.

    To cheer myself up last night, I ordered two new paints.  "Smalt Blue" and "Rain Cloud".  A blue and a gray.  Surprise, surprise.  They should be here next week...something to look forward to!

"In A World of Their Own"

    I have been thinking a lot about friends.

    This morning Moon stumbled down the stairs half an hour after online school began, after ignoring his alarm clock three times.  "This is Monday, isn't it?  Shoot."  Then headed back up the stairs to turn the computer on.  Later, we got the call from the attendance office.  For years we've heard the message..."This is to inform you that your student was marked absent..."  Now it says, "This is to let you know that we are not sure if your student participated in class today..."  It's hard to be sure of anything.

"She Wondered About it All" 

    The debate about whether or not Blue should come home for the holidays continues.  

    Needing to go to the grocery store, and desperate to see something different, K. and I drove to a different co-op in another town this afternoon.  It was good to wander through someplace new.

   

"She Knew Her Own Magic".

    I'm realizing that it's really important to figure out new ways to surprise myself.

    I hope you are all faring well enough and finding some magic in your own worlds.

    OXO, Hazel

More trees & seas

“It Was a Map of Possibilities”

    Trees and boats, back and forth.  Grounding and going.  Holding on and trusting.  Knowing and wondering.  Strength and bravery.

    I'm really liking the grays lately, and how they add to and deepen other colors.

    This painting makes me think of an inukshuk.

"Anika"

    The tree tokens are being named now.  Names from heroes, storybook characters, former students, and ones that I just like.  Sometimes it's clear who they are while stitching,  others take a while to get to know.  I'm hoping a Ramona will show up.

   How many trees does it take to make a forest?  This small stand will be in the shop in the morning (Saturday, 11/14, 9am PST), along with a handful of story cloths.  Thanks for taking a peek.

Time in cloth & thoughts

    Beginning with one of Jude's moons, this cloth exploded into being... "Cosmic Crossroads".

    The morning paintings are looking more and more like cloth to me.  There are a few ideas about following this thread.  So many ideas, and even with all of the time in today's world, it still doesn't seem enough.

    Moon and I are home alone for a few days.  Still, with most of his day spent at school in his room, other than meals, I hardly see him.  I'm grateful for the moments of connection when he pops downstairs to share something of interest now and then.

    School is going so much better for him (and us!) than last spring.  There is no blame in that statement.  No one was prepared for what happened and everyone did the best they could, but really, for the most part it was a wash.  This year there are expectations and accountability- class, small group and one on one meetings with teachers and other students. 

    Moon even loves most of his classes- especially theater (we're looking forward to the upcoming online productions they're creating), physics and math.  I've listened to his recently written one-act (death, chess and existentialism), tried to understand the existence of ten dimensions (I got lost in the sixth), and the other night, when he came down distressed, feeling that he and his peers are losing this last year of childhood because of the virus, listened, and tried to offer hope, as he hoped that his passion for math and physics lasts, and that "someday, if I'm lucky, I'll figure out a way for kids not to be afraid of time like I am."  His deep thinking has always amazed me.    (P.S.  My time has been spent with thread (with no idea of which dimension I'm in).  These tokens, "Cosmic Crossroads" and other story cloths will be in the shop tomorrow (Friday, October 14th, 9am PST).  Thank you for taking a look!)

Trees & daydreams

    Tina's beautiful dyeing makes a great stormy twilight sky.

    This gave me an idea last night.

    Sometimes every day seems exactly the same, not in a bad way necessarily, but you never know what might change.  Even the smallest thing can matter.

    There are new story cloths in the shop today- lots of trees and daydreams.