handstories

Some recent things

    “Somewhere”

    “Hill & Moon Share Their Love of the Sky”

    Deb's dyeing made for a perfect sky and the patchwork scrap for the earth came from Jude, and it seems so full of story.

    I dropped the thread onto the piece and liked where it landed. It wasn’t until after I had stitched it that I saw the profile, which I also really liked. Especially the bird for an eye.

    “Unearthed”

    Working with the white muslin has been great. There’s a feeling of spaciousness in it that I’m really loving.

    Tomorrow, there is a regular check up with a new doctor. It’s been eight years.  There's sure to be a list of things that I should do more of and some things that should happen less frequently. Perhaps I will begin the meeting with a directive of her only being allowed to tell me two negative things?  The anxiety about the appointment has me leaning heavily into the "less of" side. I should probably talk to her about anxiety too.  Probably I won't need to say a word. Ha.

    Maybe I should get out some more white cloth?

Thinking

    As usual, I’m all over the place. Stitching here…

    Practicing birds…

    A few words…

    Another ship…


    And today, thinking about practice and process…

   It may not look like it, but it's a purposeful experiment. 

   Somewhere inside of connection and story.

A kajillion little things

    "In the Glory of Light"

    I spent this week making so many tiny stitches, hour after hour.  After the previous week of sunshine and open windows, it's turned dark and gray with occasional downpours.

 

    I don't mind.

    "Amidst Joy"

    Quiet uneventful days are a gift.

 

    Still looking at and drawing/painting boats.  This one was from a photo on our friends' boat last summer.

    Blue sent photos from his weekend in the port town of Valparaiso, Chile.

 

    Inspired by song that our community singing group sang. The lyrics are, “I have a million nightingales on the branches of my heart…. Singing, freedom, freedom, freedom.”  An adaptation of a poem written by Mahmoud Darwish-A poet and writer, who was considered the national poet of Palestine.  A beautiful song.  Listen here. 

    If we all had birdsongs in our hearts... can you imagine?

    “Freely”

 

Foolish Galore

    Wondering if anyone noticed my mistake on my last post?  Not me!  When I finally did, I thought about just naming it, “In Need of Weeding," but I couldn’t unsee it or convince myself that it was just a tall piece of grass.

    So, I spent some time thinking about how to fix it without removing the back (probably more time than it actually took to remove it and put it back).  

    Garden tended.  (Tina dyed this beautiful blackberry sky.)

 

    And then, sitting down to knit for a bit, I realized that someone had got carried away with her knitting.  There were an extra 24 rows. Yes, it could’ve just been a taller sock, but the first one was already finished.

    Sigh.

    I’m looking for something new to do with the morning paintings. I don’t know what it is yet.  Doodling for now.

    This is the beginning of yet another effort to post more often. Shorter quicker posts, so as to avoid the overwhelm of it having been so long, which often brings everything to a halt. Hopefully, I’m not just fooling myself!

Happy to Me

    "Happy to Me" on my (just like Great Aunt Peggy's) blue walls (much bluer than it looks here).  The day was spent finishing the birthday cloth (for now).  With one of Jude's moons up top in the middle of new glittering cloth that my sister sent.  The silver thread was found and used here and there, including sparkly stars scattered on the pretty pink framing strips dyed by Deb. 

    It has been the busiest week, with something every day... 

    There was cake,

 and a pomegranate margarita.

    A really glittery, sequined week.

Fortuitous

    K. asked if I get tired of making these little trees.  Nope.  Each one is a surprise with its own tiny story, and I love choosing names for them.  When one is finished, I hold it and wait for a word to come to mind- night, wind, song, light, whisper, etc., and then look up names with that meaning to choose from.  So many wonderful names out there...

    Also, each one reminds me of my wonderful middle school art teacher, Mrs. Trytko, who taught us to draw trees this way.  Tall, wearing caftans and huge framed glasses, she swirled through the room giving praise and constructive critiques.  She offered complicated lessons and projects, treating us with generosity and respect, making us feel like real Artists.  How lucky we were.

    Speaking of lucky... Juliann's name was drawn for the copy of Stitch*illo!  Thanks everyone for sharing your lovely stitching words and thoughts.💙 (Juliann, I've sent you an email.)

Contented in Through

"Through"

    While naming pieces for today's update, "through" kept coming up.  So many things feel like "getting through" right now, not in a bad way, just things going on, and remembering my mother-in-law's idea that "through is a place".  I guess we are always in through.  (This through started with a dreamy piece of Deb's cloth and was framed in Tina's twilight purple.)

    In anticipation of K's surgery on Monday (the biggest through), and of his being home for weeks, I wove and pinned the next section of the quilt.  Did it have a name?  If so, it's gone now.  

    I'm guessing that there will be less time and focus for making pieces for the shop.  Quilting will be a comforting no-thinking required thing to do.

    Not the best photo, but a sense of where it's at now.

    And a blurry hot pink photo of the current socks on the needles in the bright sunlight.  I often knit a few rows after breakfast to wake up my hands and head.  These are eye-openers!  Someone I know has been wearing a lot of hot pink and fuchsia lately.

    Bear close-up for Barbara.

    "Razia" meaning "contented".  Wishing the same for us all.

Dream Days

"Sip of Dreams"

    Many swell happenings over the last few days...  Friday- to Bellingham for Moon's a cappella concert.  It was great to hear him sing, watch him have a great time, be so happy.  And then the treat of meeting up with Deb for dinner.

    After that, a night in Vancouver, B.C. in a room with a city view (across the street from the Coliseum-ish library), strolling Granville Island (Maiwa's!), a delicious Italian dinner...  It's been so long since we've gone somewhere, just the two of us.  It was a very nice time.

    On the way home, there was an extra dose of Deb time!  Tea in her cozy sweet house with two of the friendliest cats you'll ever meet (Widget wasn't interested in socializing).  

    Her GOOD Enough quilt is even more wonderful in person (as is she!).

    Today I potted up her gift of indigo plants, with hopes for their survival under my blue thumb.

    Sunday night I dreamt in cloth.  The memory became the morning painting.  By afternoon, the image was fading, but not the incredible feeling.  A cloth began...
 
    I didn't refer back to the painting at all and was surprised this afternoon to see the differences.  The tree had completely slipped away.  Dream to paper, paper to cloth, maybe I'll complete the circle and keep going, back and forth, forward and back, in and out of the dream.

Hoping

"Holding Hope"

Here

    Deb and Tina's cloths melting together with one of the indigo moons from last summer's vat.  A new thing with the rings, instead of just stitching.  Trying to make them more of the story, their own stories, too.  A bit fiddly, but still enjoyable, especially playing with bias possibilities and limits.

    These rings of color and light make me think of a rainbow. Dismantled and reconstructed at the same time.

    There was rain yesterday, all day, the kind that makes you think "monsoon season".  We didn't mind.  We worked quietly at our own things.  Quiet except for the Stellar Jay that yelled outside the window most of the afternoon.  Complaining about the rain, I think.

    Two of the rings are from new cloths.  It's been a long time since I was in a fabric store.  It was kind of like a visit to a candy shop- beautiful and overwhelming.  I bought a few fat quarters, which may have been chosen partly for their selvedge messages.  I used to be excited by the color dots on the edges, but now there are whole thoughts!

"Here We Are"