stepping across the threshold

burning a bayberry candle to mark the transition into the new year..

Thank you science. Double vaccinated, boosted and tested, we had a gathering here on the hill, with most of our crew hunkered in. Having missed so much in 2020 and 2021, we were grateful for this bubble in time.

A sleigh ride with Bob and Leif… (photo by Lindsey)

And now we are “pulling up the drawbridge” again, as Lindsey wrote a few days ago, for the foreseeable future. It’s a strange and challenging time we are navigating, friends.

Know that I am with you in spirit as we take a deep collective breath and step into 2022.

xo

KLR

greetings!

dearest friends,

sometimes life takes us on unexpected twists and turns and we do the best we can to stay afloat. sorry i’ve been away so long. sharing this magical photo to let you know i’m still here and missing you.

may the light of this season bring you hope and delight. be gentle with yourselves and your people as we continue to navigate these challenging times.

so much love,

me

sew and sow life in action...hand dyed fabric from the gardens

july 4,2021 at our bit of earth, madder in the garden

october 15, 2021 madder root harvest (3 years in the ground)

october 20, 2021 madder root rinsed, chopped and on the scale

october 23, 2021 (left, madder root dye on cotton) (right, madder root on raw silk) out of the dye pot and into the rinse pail.

top two fabrics, cotton fabric manipulated with shibori techniques, middle two fabrics, cotton, bottom two fabrics, raw silk.

madder root dye on vintage linens. (mordanted with soy milk).

swatches in my dye journal.

my portable meditation/healing project. hand dyed solids. along with my trusty needle case and thread cutters.

nine patch square #1 of nine. (madder root dye and yellow onion skin dye).

my growing collection of hand dyes.

indigo, tansy, marigold, birch catkins, yellow onion skins, (non native avocado pits and skins), madder…

When I first started my blog over on the blogspot platform years and years ago, I thought long and hard about what to name it. My daughter-in-law Dawn came up with “sew and sow life” and I remain forever grateful to her. She really caught the essence of what we’d be up to before we even manifested our dreams.

Batman is my partner in all of this, gardening with enthusiasm, and encouraging my journey with fabric and needle.

To plant, nurture, harvest and dye.. in this spot in Vermont that we lovingly call our “bit of earth”* is deeply, deeply satisfying. This work connects my heart, my hands and my spirit. In these bizarre times, what more can a person ask for? To be rooted in a sense of place that nurtures how we walk in the world…just, amen to that!

If there is curiosity about the “how to’s” of natural dyeing maybe I’ll put together a page of resources…It’s a long process, requiring patience and a curtain letting go of control as each dyer works in partnership with Mother Nature. But that’s part of the magic.

ALSO, THANK YOU FOR YOUR VERY THOUGHTFUL COMMENTS ON MY LAST POST, FRIENDS. THEY WARM MY HEART. xo

* “a bit of earth”, taken from Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden. This version has especially lovely illustrations.

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