on exhibit

my piece, “an invitation”, hanging at the white river craft center in randolph vermont.

When smoke from the fires out west blew in to our valley here at “a bit of earth” and obscured our view across the valley I felt heartsick. That same week, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released its “code red” report and my despair grew.

For a few years I had an idea percolating and when the Clara Martin Center for Community Mental Health Services put out a call to artists and writers I knew I had to get busy.

This is the artists’ statement I submitted with my photos…

Name of piece, “An invitation”

A tattered Earth flag, a Paul Hawken quote sent to me by my youngest daughter and my despair around events of the summer of 2021 have converged in my sewing studio. “An invitation” has allowed me to process much of the anxiety and grief I have held in my heart lately.

Our 24/7 news cycle will eat us alive if we give it our full attention. It takes discipline to keep things in perspective, and to find antidotes to the constant stream of gloom and doom. So, I have gone in search of hope and strength to guide me through my days.

I am finding hope and strength in a diverse menu of resources…spending time outdoors, in my studio, in conversation with friends and family (both far and near), listening to podcasts, reading, meditation, movement…each of us will have our own list.

Maria Popova has written, “Cynicism is a hardening, a calcification of the soul. Hope is a stretching of its ligaments, a limber reach for something greater.”

Maria’s quote, along with Paul Hawken’s, have buoyed me through this most challenging summer.

The tattered flag has been prodding my imagination for over a year. In February 2020, I wrote to activist Paul Hawken to ask for permission to use his quote in an art piece. He graciously allowed me to quote him. Prompted by Clara Martin’s Call to Artists/Writers, I pulled out a collection of plastic packaging I had stashed away and began clipping flowers to “plant” in the “dirt” of the torn flag. I used safety pins to help “mend” the flag. My husband Peter helped me to manipulate the handwritten quote sent along by my daughter Gretta Reed (a Middle School science teacher and badass environmentalist). The quilted flag hangs on a section of birch branch, scavenged from our yard up on Braintree Hill.

My hope is that viewers of my piece will be drawn in to Paul Hawken’s “invitation to build, innovate, and effect change, a pathway that awakens creativity, compassion, and genius”.

detail of embroidered plastic flowers

more detail

if only we could hold our broken world together with safety pins…

the quote that brings me back to hope, over and over again. with gratitude to paul hawken

On Monday I wandered around the White River Craft Center where the exhibit is hanging through November 14, 2021. I was captivated by all the different pieces that I saw. Poems, watercolors, sculpture, drawings…there are so many ways that we process our feelings! I remain grateful to the good work that the Clara Martin Center does in our community.

a wedding quilt for hannah and loren

Beginnings…planned and drafted on the three season porch here in Vermont…July 5th.

Our Hannah and her Loren had downsized and postponed their wedding. Life in a pandemic, right? Lindsey and I decided something very special needed to be stitched up to help celebrate their love…

So, when we were out in Detroit in June, helping Gretta, Ben and Maggie move out of Brooklyn, Lindsey and I snuck off for an afternoon of fabric shopping. We have collaborated on quilts before, so we were excited to undertake what we dubbed “TOP SECRET September Project”. It took us a little bit of time to get our mojo going and I’m sure we entertained the staff at the shop with our attempt at consensus building, going to and fro with bolts of fabric tucked under our arms. Once we decided on a color scheme, we got very excited about the project.

Lindsey took the fabric home and over a week or so she cut out all the squares while Flora was napping. We had some fun working out the arrangement of things…

Here we are, via FaceTime, with Lindsey in her sewing room in Detroit, auditioning an arrangement of squares on her design wall while I scowl in Vermont, not sure I am happy with things. (It takes a lot of fiddling to get things just right).

We’re getting closer in this picture…

Once we decided that things were just right, Lindsey sent the squares to me via the USPS. I set them out on my design wall in Vermont and began the fun of creating the lattice work that held the squares together (the cobalt blue).

This is how things began to come together…

In the meantime, Lindsey also cut a bunch of squares of a light colored, solid fabric and mailed them to immediate family only, along with some fabric pens. We asked folks to write a blessing, or wish or some other lovely message for Hannah and Loren on the blank square and return them to Lindsey via snail mail.

The squares came back filled with the sweetest wishes!

Lindsey sewed them all together into the backing.

Lindsey also cut strips for the binding for the quilt. Here they are, carefully organized on a drying rack in her sewing room.

Then she sewed them together and pressed them in half…

…and rolled the binding up, in preparation for the amazing quilter we hired for the job…it’s nearly a queen sized quilt and there’s no way Lindsey and I were interested in wrangling that!

Meanwhile in Vermont, Wilma was “helping” with the project by snoozing on the quilt top even while it was under the needle on the sewing machine…

An up close shot of the quilting!

Once I finished piecing the quilt top, it went back to Lindsey in Detroit, via the USPS. She dropped the finished backing, the top and the binding off at the quilter’s. Amy’s turnaround time was amazing.

When Lindsey, Scott and Flora came to stay with us in Vermont in August, Lindsey had the unfinished quilt tucked into her Subaru.

Working on hand sewing the binding to the quilt…

Lindsey and I took over the three season porch and spent spare moments during their visit, chatting over the quilt and stitching love and hope into the binding as we went. (Amy had sewn the binding to the front of the quilt by machine, Lindsey and I turned it around to the back and stitched it by hand.) Those were such sweet moments with my oldest daughter, as we held thoughts of Hannah and her Loren close to our hearts. It was really an honor to do that inter-generational stitching together.

The quilt!

The quilt back, with the bride and groom. xo

I come from a long line of sewists, and now two of my girls are carrying on the tradition. Somehow in these days of turmoil, I find comfort and sanctuary in holding a needle and thread in my hand. And I feel connected to the women who came before me and those who are now bringing that tradition into the future.

And what a gift it was to share all this far flung love and connection and hope with the bride and groom!!!

And I have so much respect for Lindsey, who worked all this magic with a wee one under her care much of the time!

xoxoxox

equinox intentions

wild rose hips, gathered from the yard and bundled at the front door.

Well friends, it’s been awhile, eh?

The equinox reminds me of balance…the settling of day and night into equal parts. And so I check to see if I’m in balance, too. Remembering intentions, accomplishments, gaps, falters…it’s a lovely time of year to do an accounting of things.

batman made crabapple jelly again this year, and i think this was his best batch yet.

There has been a lot going on around here, as we get things ready for winter, before the snow flies. Batman brush hogged the meadow, he pulled 120 pounds of potatoes from the garden (some will go to the food shelf down in town), other crops are curing and drying, I’ve done some dyeing and the houseplants out on the porch need to come in to the house.

flora and maggie, being cousins. xo

flora and I, holding hands in the backseat of lindsey’s car.

And of course, there is much to catch you up on with family gatherings…

batman made this flower box and we took it in the back of the pickup to detroit, where it added a vermont touch to hannah and loren’s tiny wedding.

It is my INTENTION to post more often here. There will be…

• the story of a wedding quilt

• another quilt hung in an exhibition

• some dye adventures

• my grandmother’s apple crisp recipe

corazón and wilma, keeping an eye on the road, waiting for the ups guy

I’m looking forward to getting back into a rhythm of showing up here, and to hearing about how you, dearest readers, are faring these days. I will try to respond to your comments in a timely fashion, right where you posted yours.

Sending strength, hope and best wishes your way. xo

fullness

Hello friends, and here we are into the month of August already. My sense of hours, days and months feel so warped in these weird times.

But there is such fullness in these days. And I’ve got so much on my mind and in my heart that I can’t even figure out how to articulate it.

So here is a photo of our family highchair, scrubbed and drying in the Vermont sunshine. The crib is waiting in the breezeway (to be assembled) and the canvas tent is going up on the tent platform as I type. A grocery list is growing on the kitchen counter, extra beds are being made, towels hung on racks.

We will not have everyone here this summer, but there will be four generations under one roof for a bit. Wee Flora will meet my Mumsie and if that doesn’t distract us from the perils of our world, I really don’t know what will.

Here’s to watching the Milky Way spangle overhead, to campfires with coyote song in the background. Here’s to visiting goat friends down the road. Here’s to hand sewing under the shade of the birches. To maple creemees and playing with my dad’s wooden blocks. To dance parties in the kitchen, to bedtime stories, to hugs. So many hugs.

It may be quiet here for a bit here at sewandsowlife, but I’ll drop some photos later.

As Batman and I step away from the troubles in the world and into the magical circle of friends and family headed our way, I’ll keep thoughts of you, dearest readers, close to my heart. May each of you find some magic in the August days ahead.

xo

preciousness

Dearest ones,

I just returned from a quick trip to Mount Desert Island in Maine to spend some time with the dearest of friends. I nearly lost her more than once in the past year and a half. Thanks to excellent medical care I plan to get into good trouble with her for years to come.

And today I did lose a dear one. A dear one I’ve known all my life. A dear one who sheltered people in the wide, wide reach of his love. He had faith in people, even when they did not have faith in themselves. He gave people the benefit of the doubt over and over again. He made a difference in this world. I will miss him forever.

If you have friends and family who are precious to you, this is a gentle reminder to tell them that they are precious to you. Shower them with love. Hold thoughts of them close to your heart.

Where we are in this world of ours is no time to be shy about love.

Tell them they are precious to you.

xo

invited, submitted, accepted and hanging

The Chandler Center for the Arts and the White River Craft Center are two sweet venues in Randolph, Vermont, just down the road from our place. For the first time ever, they are hosting a collaborative show, Hidden Messages: Old and New, a Fiber Arts Exhibition. You can read more about the show here.

A while back, I was delighted to be invited to submit work for the show. After I got over my nerves (again???) I did a bit of brainstorming of ideas, with a list that included cross outs, arrows and doodles. The quilts made with cues for the Underground Railroad came to mind, along with the symbols used by hobos to mark gate posts. The code breakers and mound builders and standing stones were all under consideration.

In the end, the beauty of this place here on the ridge came through with the strongest voice.

Are you surprised?

I’m calling my piece “Whispers from Nature”.

I began with the quilted foundation…

I stitched a very traditional nine patch, one of the most basic quilt squares I know of. I sewed it with a natural colored linen blend, and linen dyed with my homegrown indigo. I used a favorite gingham check from my stash, two soft browns woven together, for the binding.

Next came the embellishments, filled with the “hidden meanings”. The birchbark reminded me of layers of meaning. I invite you to consider the two pebbles…what do they conjure for you?

How could I resist a cross cut of wood…and the passage of time that it invokes? Secured with a bit of leather from the factory floor at Vermont Glove, it feels pretty darn local. The acorn caps (see first photo) remind me that even Mother Nature knows when it’s time to let go.

I was so pleased when I heard this piece had been accepted, and even more chuffed when I learned that an image would be included on the post card announcing the show.

So there you have it.

A surprise invitation, a gathering of courage, the planning, the doing and the surprise outcome!

I’m really looking forward to seeing all the other pieces in both shows!

PS I’m very excited about this new opportunity for exercising my muscle of hope. If you are an On Being and /or Krista Tippett fan, check it out!

PPS Check out this amazing new project put together by the Craftivist Collective. The images alone will make you smile.

july days

Years ago, while visiting dear friends in California, I fell in love with the wild poppies that were strewn across the hills. We’ve grown them now and again over the years. I guess as we were coming out of the COVID fog we yearned for bright and cheerful signs of life. These beauties fit the bill. They are especially lovely when they dance in the wind up here on the ridge.

Like much of the world, we are having some weird weather this summer. Hot, hot, hot and dry…and now days- on-end of clouds and some much needed rain. The Black-eyed Susans are having a bumper year, and the Queen Anne’s Lace is coming on strong out in the meadow. Our potato patch is thriving, but the root veggies are slow to get going. I wonder what’s growing where you are?

This is the third year our madder (above) has been growing in the dye garden, its roots maturing for a fall harvest. Which reminds me…time to dig into exactly how to use them for color! I’m pretty excited to have a new dye adventure.

My usual source for indigo seedlings had a rough spring, and so this will be my first year in a while without indigo growing in my garden. I am giving woad a try instead. I ordered seeds from Tierney Barden over in New York State. Another learning opportunity!

One of my favorite things about summer is being able to go out into the gardens and pick fresh herbs. This mint needed a quick swish in a bowl of water to dislodge the dirt spattered up from the recent rains. I sometimes keep a glass jar filled with a bouquet of fresh mint on the kitchen counter to add to salads, grain dishes and beverages. How about you? How do you use fresh herbs?

I used some of the mint to make a batch of Amy Chaplin’s rhubarb rose infusion. The color reminds me of the peonies blooming just a few weeks ago.

here’s a little teaser for my next post, a fun opportunity that tickled my imagination.

The lightning bugs come out each night to play and Cora and Wilma sit on the windowsill to watch as the breezes move the curtains. The porch is lined with pots of blooms and the houseplants are enjoying their annual outdoor time. We repotted the Meyer lemon and the fig is growing taller each week.

Sometimes we hear the whizzing of bikes along the road, their riders changing gears as they navigate the changes in elevation up here. Tractors are busy with cutting, tedding and baling hay.

The bluebirds and swallows continue to delight. As I did my morning walking meditation, tea in hand, a murder of crows were out in the balsams. I don’t know what disturbed them, but they were up in arms about something!

Here are a few links you may enjoy

• I love it when our kids share music finds with me. Hannah introduced me to Angelique Kidjo. I can’t believe I am so late to the party. Angelique has been making gorgeous award-winning music for years.

• My friend Anne Butera has a lovely blog post today over at My Giant Strawberry (especially if you enjoy embroidery).

• I found another kindred spirit via the internet! Check out the exquisite work at sarita.arte. Birch goodness.

I’ll be back here sooner rather than later. Sending you a bit of calm and peace and comfort from our bit of earth here in Vermont.

xo

there and back again

I went on lots of walks with wee Flora and her piggy. xo

It was a typical Reed family adventure, with lots of jigsaw-like planning and a sophisticated action plan. A U-Haul and a car left Brooklyn in the early hours of the morning. We met up with the caravan at a rest area somewhere on the Pennsylvania Turnpike. Our pick up truck was loaded with a few things that had been stored in our shed for a few years.

Much hugging, jumping up and down and squealing (and maybe some tears too) ensued. I can only imagine that some would say we caused a scene. Oh well. We drove west, trading drivers and having snacks along the way. Whenever we stopped, we ran around with our Magpie to give her antsy kid body a chance to unwind. She’s more of a bus and subway kind of kid, but she was a champ strapped into her car seat.

We rolled into Lindsey’s driveway just in time for supper, family style, so grateful for a safe journey and for our reunion. The next day the truck was unloaded into her basement, awaiting the next move into Ben, Gretta and Maggie’s very own apartment later in the summer.

The week ahead was filled with fun. I often had breakfast with Flora via FaceTime during the pandemic and it was SO MUCH FUN to have breakfast together in real life! There were morning walks to the park, swinging at the playground and reading books with Flora’s curly little head tucked under my chin. We had playtime when the two cousins learned about how to be together (the isolation of the pandemic robbed some kids of more than a year of interaction with other kids). Maggie was just soaking up every new thing up, dazzled by new places and new people and new routines.

Batman had to go north for a few days, one more time, and despite a few snafus, closed the chapter on the summer house. It marked the end of an era. I’m so aware of the generations shifting before my eyes. Old weaves into new and yet there is still the connection of family, threaded through the changes.

I had a chance to meet up in the real world with my friend Noel, a member of the Detroit Modern Quilt Guild. We met via Instagram and when we sat down together for the first time, she felt like an old and dear friend.

We toured Fisheye Farms, with veggie gardens planted in vacant lots in Detroit. We ate delicious African, Mexican and Thai food. We stopped by Sister Pie to catch up with the fabulous Lisa and had a legendary mocha at Avalon Bakery on their 24th birthday. (They make their mochas with chocolate milk, such a treat!) We wandered the beautiful grounds of the Cranbrook School and enjoyed supper gathered around Hannah and Loren’s table. I even did a bit of babysitting!!!

As fun and full as those days were, there was also an element of reticence in some situations. We had ventured out of our very safe state of Vermont and into the wilds of the rest of the world. Masking protocols were just being lifted in some states and vaccination rates varied. Add to that, the fact that we went from just the two of us, sheltered in our home on a dirt road…then launched into a busy urban area, bustling with lots of interactions. I was weary as my head hit the pillow at night! But most of all, THANK YOU SCIENCE, for making it all possible.

We’re already plotting our return for Hannah and Loren’s wedding at the end of the summer. Hannah just ordered flower girl dresses for Maggie and Flora, the tent has been reserved and the food truck selected.

I know a few of my readers are in the midst of similar family transitions this summer. Godspeed to anyone navigating their way into changes this summer. We have all hoped for these opportunities for so long. Let us embrace them with renewed appreciation for the simplest blessing of being together in a turbulent world.

xo

Our peonies have been magnificent this year. We lost a lot of the blooms to severe thunderstorms that passed through the other night, but I caught these pics before the wind. June beauty.

eshqua bog

showy lady’s slippers

Oh friends, let these magical blooms be a place holder until I catch you up…soon…on other things.

A friend told me about this enchanted spot, on a dirt road between Woodstock and Hartland Vermont. Batman and I took advantage of this perfect June day to find it. I don’t know how we’ve been here this long without knowing anything about this place, but there you have it, surprises happen. You can read about the Eshqua Bog Natural Area here.

xo

blooming

a panoramic shot of our view

Our slow and chilly spring was interrupted by a few explosively hot days that pushed all the trees into full bloom. Then a huge wind blew all the blossoms off the crabapple, apple and pear trees in one afternoon. And the pollen count went off the charts. And the black flies arrived. Yet still this place enchants me.

I caught one of the crabapples and the ferns in a moment of glory.

If this photo had a soundtrack it would be the buzzing of hundreds of bees. How lovely to hear them again.

And what would May in Vermont be without the lilacs? Some came with the property when we bought it, others we have planted over the years. Once the windows are open and a soft breeze picks up, the house is filled with their scent. Sometimes I sit outdoors, under their shelter, close my eyes and just breathe. What a delicious meditation…

A bouquet on the three season porch…

…and another on the kitchen counter.

The neighbors have done their first mowing of the hay season, and the scented rows of cut hay drying in the sun never fails to fill me with joy. The bluebirds and swallows flit over the meadow and the lupin is sending up stalks of blossoms. I am back to my favorite breakfast…homemade granola, homemade yogurt and homemade stewed rhubarb, all layered in a bowl of delight. We’ve been eating spinach from the hoop house, but it has begun to bolt. The tomato and pepper plants are thriving down there and the upper raised beds are filling up with all sorts of goodies. Growing season is underway! The last few things won’t be planted until after Memorial Day, once the risk of frost has passed.

I did get away for a quick visit to Massachusetts to see my Mumsie, brother Doug, sister-in-law Ra and we HUGGED! I fell asleep listening to the waves and in the morning I took a walk on the beach with Doug and Ra. Catching up with them after so many months and having such a lovely change of scenery was a treat. I caught up with my favorite aunt and uncle too. Maybe you are finally having a chance to meet up in person with some of your loved ones? I sure do hope so. If not, maybe you have plans in place…

sneak peek: an old piece is inspiring a new piece, getting ready for a juried submission. :-)

I had promised you a few fun internet links.

In the better late than never category, we discovered British chef Jamie Oliver’s pandemic cooking show, Keep Cooking and Carry On . Some of the episodes are filmed with a phone, some of his kids are featured as sous chefs and many of the recipes are wonderful. Emphasizing that cooking at home, with limited ingredients is a great way to take care of one’s family and neighbors in the midst of the pandemic. Jamie’s good cheer and kitchen coaching are fun to watch.

Some lovely things to look at:

Rosanna Morris Printmaker

Kristina at vivawaldorf

Clover Robin

Jess Polanshek, Vermont artist

Recently, a friend from college reconnected with me and brought along (virtually) a bunch of folks I have not seen in decades. What fun it’s been to hear from them and know that our hearts are still connected after all this time. I met many of them when we were first year students enrolled in a Living/Learning course exploring the dynamics of Black/White life in America. It’s where I was first introduced to the term “institutional racism” and I struggled mightily in that class. The struggle has followed me through life, giving me opportunities to engage in anti-racism work time and time again.

Anyone who has followed along here knows that I am a huge fan of On Being, a podcast hosted by Krista Tippet. Last year I may have posted a link to this interview she did with Resmaa Menakem, a brilliant thinker based in Minneapolis. The episode first aired on June 4, 2020 and it blew me away. I have listened to it several times, while stitching in my studio. Resmaa’s book My Grandmother’s Hands, Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies was on backorder when I tried to order it back then. I now own a copy. I’m working my way through it bit by bit. It’s not for the faint of heart, but wow, is it worth our time! Maybe you will be called to find a copy and join me on this continuing journey of mending the world.

As always, with hope and love…