Sunset on Monday afternoon.
More sunset on Monday.
Well, dearest readers, it has taken me a while to collect myself, relax my shoulders and pop back in here at sewandsowlife. It’s been an exasperating week and a half, hasn’t it? We all have our own version of what it’s been like to make our way through the chaos…
Meanwhile, it’s been a gorgeous January up here on the hill. Cold, sometimes bitter, and snowy! Ted Kooser and his poetry have matched things quite nicely. Nearly each day we have light flurries to replenish the soft landscape. The clouds come and go, sometimes allowing a bluebird sky to distract us from whatever we are working on. Stop. Look. Smile.
Things are blooming on the windowsills, produce is still coming up from the root cellar…carrots, onions, beets. And tomato sauce (made from tomatoes grown in the hoop house) from the freezer has been used on pizza and in soups. Ordering seeds is on our “to do” list. And this is the time when you might find a jigsaw puzzle spread out on the dining room table.
Here are the next three pages of my 100 days of stitching book. I am ahead of schedule, I just won’t stop, and I think I am working out some feelings with this work.
The tiny rosey cheeks of these suns prompted me to pull in the pink primrose, and the neutral fabric had a selvedge that I loved.
Liberty of London, and a bit of reverse appliqué with a scrap of hankie seemed a perfect match for these very unique vintage buttons.
I drove up and over the ridge to my friend Ellen’s house last week for tea. She had all of her pages cut out for her 100 days of stitching project. This will be her first year of participating and I can’t wait to see her progress. She does stunning handwork. :-)
Batman left his beloved barn jacket out in the woodshed and either some mice or red squirrels had quite a time with it! They chewed the canvas jacket and the woolen lining. This jacket has undergone a bit of mending several times before, and now it’s ready to carry on, once again.
You may recall that we had a wonderful adventure in Scotland a few years ago.
Batman made these Danish and we served them to my brother and sister-in-law when they came up to visit a few weeks ago. They were a big hit! As we often do, we sat around that evening chatting. We were making up ideas for our next chapter. We decided it might be fun to put our stuff in storage and rent two narrowboats, one for us and one for them, and spend an extended time living on the canals of Britain. Doug thought it would be a good idea for our boat to have a modest commercial oven so that Batman could bake goodies and we could sell them along the canals. I would sew bits and bobs to sell. Doug would be a bird walk professional and Ra would ride horses whenever we moored near a working stable.
Friends, these are the sorts of evenings that will save us. Dinners with friends and candle light and laughter. Along with restricted news consumption, social media fasts and local organizing. Volunteer work and supporting causes we cherish. Resting along with resisting. Fresh air and creativity. Mugs of hot tea and snail mail. The list goes on and on. We will keep showing up.
Know that I am with you, dearest readers, in spirit. (And welcome to new subscribers Tina and Charlene and here’s a shout out to our college buddy Tracy, who just found sewandsowlife.)
Want what you have.
Do what you can.
Be who you are.
-Forrest Church
xo -me