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.