red + white

The red with the white for the peppermint stick anything and everything we love to sweeten these December days. The white snow star for the high hopes we have for enough snow to play and sled in.

restful spot

I have slowly been working on my sewing room/studio, removing all unnecessary clutter. Trying to be very honest about what I use and what I don't use/need. It is becoming a place I want to be rather than the catch-all it had become.

Before Maple even came to be with us I placed this old sectional piece in the dormer window in hopes she would be my company in this room. This morning, after a lovely and apparently exhausting walk in the woods she has settled into her spot.

Have a restful weekend.

color journal :: November

The golden rod leaves and fuzzy white seeds. Dark brown damp leaves with the white lines of frost. Missing our sweet old golden girl this time of year because she loved a chilly sunny day. The afternoon light in November is golden.

this and that

I hope to have lots to share soon, but I am taking a break from making and stitching to do a bit of sorting out and reorganizing. I am hoping clearing out of this and that will help to clear my head.

I have been spending much time looking through things inside, but outside each morning - the frost has been so very inspiring.

 

 More soon. Thanks for checking in.

Warmth

The room that holds our fireplace also has the largest and oldest window in our house. I am making a window panel to help hold in the warmth on the days we need it. When it is cold outside and the fire is lit we will move homework, dog bed, toys, work, play and whatever into this room. Today was very sunny and so I thought great to test fabrics in the light. This is a thrifted heavy canvas drop cloth and I love the texture and weight yet transparency of it. The center indigo panel was made in the wonderful springtime indigo workshop with Glennis Dolce. I like the way the sun shines through the four white squares even when overlaid on the canvas. Today this was held with rubber bands and straight pins. There is a lot of the construction to figure out.

I want to be able to roll up and secure like this on warmest sunny winter days.

The panel must include these beautiful sugar maple leaves that closely surround our house. I want to remember all of this yellow in this time of year we begin to move into this room.

be together

Thought a bit about how things might begin to fit together.

color journal :: october 2012

as leaves

It has been a pleasantly busy week. Not a lot of it involving needle and thread - but I dreamed up and laid out a few things in my head. It feels like a good start.

and this morning I saw Us - as leaves.

artifacts

I am one of many parents who have volunteered to teach local and state history to my son's 3rd grade class. The program is designed by our local museum and cultural center and the first lesson touches on artifacts. We will ask the kids questions like, "How do you know your own history and your family's history?" During the training session we talked about possible answers to this, like photographs and other family treasures - quilts, clothing and textiles were mentioned.

I would love for the things I make to be artifacts of our own family history. I have a small "to make" list that I hope to start working on soon. I want these handmade things to be silent but memorable parts of our moments within these rooms.  I want to construct them in a way that will last a long time. Some will have a seasonal purpose and may be put away and pulled out again when needed. I am thinking about all of this.

I found the needle, thread through the scrap of calendar in a box of sewing things that belonged to my grandma.

winged sumac and red

The weekend was beautiful and the leaves are starting to really show their color. Winged sumac - red!

You can see why they are so named. This one will enlarge with a click.

I had my red runner (last mentioned here) close by - to inspire some leaves in the stitching.

These are the last of the reds from the garden. Soon I will try making hot pepper jelly. It's time to bring everything in, there was honest to goodness frost this morning.

leaf love

We are walking with our eyes to the ground these days. The leaves are beautiful. I decided to just post this one - found by my youngest. A leaf within a leaf.

Have a beautiful weekend.

color journal :: September 2012

My September flowers in a quilt block. I am going to call this project "color journal" for now. I hope to make at least one block per month, but I can imagine there may be times I will be inspired by just one day.

Flower power inspiration. I can already see green wasn't represented very well in the block, but maybe I can make up for it in October - before the greens fade away. I was thinking wet soil with the dark brown. All of our rain has come in the fall and made the late season perennials very happy and green.

purple

The purple asters are beautiful this year.

I took a little bloom with me to match the colors for thread.

I think there will be more blooms.

little brown pants

Mending the torn knee on a little pair of size 4 pants will not make them fit my long-legged, full day of kindergarten, going on 6-year-old boy. They were in the mending pile too long.

The excitement of having the time to focus on planning and building on some things I have been slowly working towards for years is mingled with moments of heavy heart that my boys are growing up. This is in and of all that I have done this past month and a half. Into almost October I am seeing both boys thriving and enjoying school and friends and I am feeling it all lighten a bit.

I have been thinking of purple, yellow and brown for some simple quilt blocks. I used the pants - cut them up for the quilt block rather than mend and pass on. They will become a part of something we will hold on to. I love the line made by the faded brown against the unfaded brown. This may be the start of something about remembering color. A simple idea I can build on as I go.

quietly there

The shell shapes I am stitching these days are based on what I see in my favorite and frequently visited creek beds. They are typically small in size except for the rarely seen larger ones.

Noticeably greater in size, but just as quietly there in the water as the others.

This cloth is growing into something - everything all together.

this past weekend

this past weekend - peace and perfect weather for stitching outside

but we are back from this place and right in the middle of a busy in many good ways kind of week.

Be back soon...

far from everything

The pup and I are finding ourselves with our feet in the cool creek water as often as we can. Maple sometimes goes far enough out to swim a little - she makes a tight little circle of doggie paddling.

We walk through our busy little town to this place that feels so far from everything. During the week I start to crave a few moments here to refuel and breathe it all in. The sycamore leaves are falling and becoming part of the water and rocks.

This one half summer - half fall. The yellow then brown sneaking in through the veins.

I want the things I make to have a sense of all of this.

what I imagine

I have this drawn out in my head as I want it to look. I can see it. The stitches are slowly becoming what I imagine them to be and I am happy. The act of taking it from my head and bringing it out through my hands brings a calm focus to everything. I feel more myself.

a corner

a bit of green

I have started stitching around some goatsbeard leaves. They are many-toothed so there are many stitches. I am thinking about more contrast and plotting out areas full of stitches alongside areas of none.  I had moved towards browns and golds - thinking of fall. 

I went out to look at the goatsbeard plants yesterday and have a closer look at the veins of the leaves. The very hot and unusually dry summer has left nearly all of our perennial plants looking burned and brown. On the goatsbeard I noticed brand new bright green growth at the base of several of the plants, because we have finally had some rain these last few weeks.

and so I was inspired to add a bit of green.

But... the pale stitches reminds me more of a light frost, which I admit I have spent a bit of time daydreaming about because of the chiggers. I am done with the wicked late summer chiggers.

more than ever

I had thought when I started this I would try to leave more areas with less stitching - this would be a test of that. But the stitches just became more and more. More than ever maybe.

and I love it this way. This is what I do.

knots and dew drops

Green coneflower leaves this morning...

and a new way of working out the fringe on things. The stitching thread goes on as a part of it all to the ends. Still in progress...