snow

To You...

Thank you to all who take the time to visit me here.

I have some (grand!?) plans for January (aren't there always!) and the year ahead. Right now I am wrapped up in enjoying this time of year with my boys. Health and happiness to you all and warm wishes for 2012!

Last Weekend...

between visiting with family and friends, walks in the woods and helping Brett with the wood pile...

I had many little moments to stitch. I have left these threads top and bottom. I plan to use the loose ends on top to hang it - thoughts on just how still in progress.

Brett does most of the work with the wood - the boys like to help for awhile. I think the way he has stacked it is beautiful.

New blue details.

These always amaze me.

The tangle.

A tiny forest in bloom.

Radiant

My first quilt block with curves - started here. I think it has a nice glow. I am also seeing it as a compass.

Golden

Our sweet Beandog passed away 5 days ago. She was 14 years old - lived a long and happy life. That first day without her was hard for us. So difficult to keep my mind from wandering towards the saddest departing details, so I searched out fabric in her colors - traced, cut and started stitching. Keeping hands and brain busy and bringing back the good memories - which are so good and so many. She was the sweetest girl.


Loving and caring for her was our way of life for over 14 years. Her fur is woven into our carpets and our clothes. We patted her sweet head when we walked into the room and again when we walked out. We walked outside with her many times every day. We anticipate the sound of her toenails on the wood floors and her rustling shuffle in the fall leaves. There was much worrying in the last weeks - thoughts of her were hovering in front of all else - and near impossible to concentrate fully on anything. It has been hard to let go of that quiet urgency of wanting her to feel better and also knowing it was just time.


This was her season of camouflage, sitting in the dry grass and golden leaves and and looking lovely - this taken just 2 weeks ago.


It is becoming a little bit easier to just be sad - smile through the tears and not fall apart. There really are so many wonderful memories of her - we are so fortunate to have known and loved her.



So I will be stitching on this little golden sunburst for awhile...

Strings and Lines

One thing leads to another.

Particles of Prehistory

I released this one out into the world today, leaving me daydreaming of mark-making on fabric. Drawings. Something different growing from what was always there.

Foundation

A week ago I took the boys to my parents' place. We spent some time in the creek there, the same creek I played in when I was little. My parents, my boys, my sister and her girls - all of us looking at the rocks. The creek bed was completely dry.

My sister found this fossil coral radiating out from its' base - still hidden in the limestone.

This one a gathering of broken bits of shells. I like the texture - and the mystery - trying to tell what each bit may have been.

This coral - the texture on this one preserved so well...

and this type of shell I have never found before, that day I saw 4 of them all in the same area. I believe it is a Loxoplocus gastropod.

All of these we believe are from the Ordovician Period. This period spanned approximately 505-438 million years ago.