another acceptance!

Off-white linen blend fabric, homegrown indigo/hand dyed on linen, commercial fabric scraps, Sashiko thread, cotton quilt batting, unbleached muslin on back.

CLARA MARTIN CENTER ART AND POETRY SHOW 2022… “Stronger Together”

CALL TO ARTISTS/WRITERS

Karen Lowry Reed’s Artist’s Statement for “We Drew a Circle”

I first came upon Edwin Markham’s piece “Outwitted” as a young person. It has stayed with me all these years because Markham’s message is timeless.

He drew a circle that shut me out-

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.

But love and I had the wit to win:

We drew a circle and took him in.”

As we are all navigating a more and more divided America, I have thought a lot about how we shut one another out and how we may find ways to pull back together. It seems an impossible task on some days, and an opportunity for creative thinking on other days.

Whenever I sit with fabric and a spark of inspiration I am filled with hope. Sewing this piece reminded me that we are indeed stronger together, if only we are willing to keep drawing wider and wider circles that pull more and more of us into love and compassion and generosity. 

Two recent submissions…two acceptances…risk taking going well so far. But I still get so nervous while I wait to hear!

I know these are two small town venues, where generosity of spirit is extended to applicants. And I think that’s charming and probably why I gave then a try. But still, I’m kinda chuffed. :-)

Have you tried anything outside of your comfort zone lately? If so, how did it feel? Or maybe you don’t have capacity for risk taking right now…sending hugs wherever you are in the grand scheme of life!

xo

two recent projects

“September Meadow”

details: birch bits, French knots, machine “matchstick” quilting.

I just submitted this piece (using my NEWLY dyed fabrics) for a call to artists here. I should be hearing back in a day or two about its fate. I am determined to keep sending my work out into the world to see what will happen. Part of my plan for my 66th year on this planet is risk taking, so here we are. :-)

September 10, 2021

The day after Hannah and Loren’s wedding I gathered up a bunch of flowers from bouquets and table arrangements. I brought them home to Vermont in jars of water tucked carefully into the cab of the pickup. Wilma and I trimmed them and put them in my flower press. I remembered to give the screws a twist now and then.

A few weeks ago, I took the press apart and made this arrangement and sent it to Loren and Hannah for their first anniversary.

I remember making pressed flower projects with my beloved Great Aunt Margretta when I was a kid. I’m still at it. Call me sentimental. :-)

As the sugar maples along the road begin to flash bits of red and orange, I can feel my creative energy rising and I see inspiration everywhere I go.

We can hardly keep up with the San Marzano tomatoes ripening in the hoop house. Batman is making the most fragrant pasta sauce with the tomatoes and garlic, onions and basil from the raised beds. The sun gold cherry tomatoes have found their way into this recipe , it’s simple and fabulous! (It has beans in it, Noel!!!)

We had special house guests this weekend and we crafted a dinner made nearly exclusively with Vermont ingredients. It was such fun to showcase our garden’s and our state’s bounty.

And did you see the harvest moon?!?! It was the most gorgeous orange as it rose over the ridge. I woke up in the middle of the night when the coyotes began to sing. I got up to look out the window and saw that a lovely fog had settled in the valley, looking like a lake between the ridges. The moon was reflected in our neighbor’s pond and I was a bit overcome by the beauty. These are the moments to hold on to, to come back to when we need a dose of calm. Exhale….

Sending love to each of you, dearest readers. Know that I am here, ready to share the next bit of inspiration with you soon. xo

Black Hopi Dye Sunflowers

Black Hopi Dye Sunflowers growing at our bit of earth in Central VT. September 2021.

Harvesting the flower heads, late October 2021.

Flower heads drying on the three season porch, November 2021.

Top: Vintage raw silk, dyed with indigo.

Middle: Cotton dyed with Hopi Black Dye Sunflowers.

Bottom: Cotton dyed with dried marigolds.

September 2022.

The rainbow of hand dyed fabrics grows…with colors from the plants here on the hill. Except…the marigolds grown in New Mexico by my cousin and friend Kristen. She and her partner grew and dried the blossoms and sent a bag full for me to play with. The flowers produced a darker, deeper gold than the marigolds I used from our place here in Vermont last year. These gorgeous variations are all part of the magic of different locations, soil conditions, water quality and other variables. We do what can as dyers and then we have to step aside and let Mother Nature stir the pot.

I’m scheming different ways to use these fabrics…let me know if you have ideas or suggestions in the comments below!

xo

vintage raw silk and fresh indigo...

persicaria tinctoria or Japanese Indigo, growing at our “bit of earth” in Central Vermont

A bundle of indigo, waiting to have the leaves stripped from the stems. Early this morning. It was 45 degrees! I wore woolen socks with my gardening clogs!

Here you can see the blue pigment where one of the leaves was bruised.

I could not resist stripping the leaves outdoors on the picnic table in the September sunshine. Piping hot Darjeeling in my thermos.

One pound of indigo leaves and fresh water blended together. Ready for one pound of fabric!

The pre-soaked raw silk, after three alternating dips in the dye pot and rests in the air…time for a soapy rinse. That color just blows my mind.

After rinsing and hanging to dry in the woodshed, the color has subdued, but is still delicious!

Due to supply chain issues, I was unable to get a fresh package of Spectralite, something I use when I dye with indigo in a heated bath. Today’s new-to-me method was a cinch and I love the results.

There is much to know about dyeing fabric. There are so many beautiful books on store shelves these days, and the internet has plenty of information too. But the more I learn, the more I realize I don’t know!

Protein fibers (wool, silk, etc.) and cellulose fibers (cotton, linen, hemp, etc.) require different preparations before dyeing…different scours, mordants, baths and rinses. There is so much to keep track of that most dyers keep notebooks filled with their choices. (You can see a peek at mine, here) I’ve been a bit reticent this summer to do a lot of dyeing, because sadly, it does require a good bit of rinsing with fresh water and I worry about the drought conditions we are in. Recently we have had a bit of rain (tho not really enough), so I went ahead with a few projects.

One of the joys of my life is watching the magic as dye stuffs we have grown in the ground here at our “bit of earth” turns plain white fabric into colorful testaments to Mother Nature.

May each of you find joy and hope amidst this long weekend as summer slips into autumn. Drop a note in the comments below…will you picnic? Will you hike? Will you read, bake, visit, volunteer…? Let us know! xo

meteorological autumn

Scavenging a fallen nest.

The view from here in the haze of summer.

Cosmos at the edge of the meadow.

GOODBYE SUMMER!

I survived you, but I have scars on my spirit from your intensity.

Hello September!

You are the harbinger of the loveliest season of the year!

This morning I woke up under a quilt (!)

I meditated with this.

I ate oats with blueberries.

And I spent the day over dye pots. Marigolds, Hopi black sunflower seeds, Indigo too.

I sharpened a pencil and sniffed the new point. It smelled like the first day of first grade. :-)

Joyous days are ahead… I am determined to craft them with my hope and renewed energy. Maybe you’ll come along?

We went to the joyous wedding of two remarkable young people this weekend. One of the cars in the parking lot had a bumper sticker that read “Hope is HIP”. That may be my new inspiration…

(Thanks to tqoe, Martha, Kim and Paula for your chatty comments on my last post. They made me smile. I’m sorry I did not give them the attention they deserved. I have been fried. I’ll send each of you some snail mail…Kim, email me your snail mail address? I think I have the others)

sneak peek Thursday

creating circles with a string and pencil…

#sewandsowlife (sewing supplies and garden beds)

wilma. my muse.

sashiko thread crosses and homegrown, hand dyed indigo on linen.

Meh. It’s my annual mid-August slump. Just get to autumn already, will ya Mother Nature?

In the meantime…I’ve been in the zone in my sewing studio. The submission date for this piece is tomorrow. I’m a girl who likes to skid right into a deadline. Here’s the call to artists. I had an inspiration as soon as I read the theme of the show, “stronger together”. I can’t wait to tell you about it!

What have you been up to this August, dearest readers? Drop a note in the comments so we can all feel like we’re sipping iced tea and chatting together…

finish it up friday

After blogging for 12 years, Amanda Jean signed off in January 2019. Amanda has left her blog, crazy mom quilts online as a resource for all of us who miss her creativity. Her posts were/are filled with ideas, tips and encouragement. Amanda hosted quilt-alongs, inspiring me to make this quilt (altho it took me a decade to finally get it onto our bed!) One of my favorite features on Amanda’s blog was Finish it up Friday, where she invited her readers to leave a link in the comments, showing something they had finished. (Many quilters have what we affectionately call “UFO’s” or “unfinished objects” and are happy to celebrate when they are completed!)

So, today I share with you my latest finish, an improv quilt stitched almost entirely from my scrap stash. I even used a spool of variegated thread that was languishing on the spool rack. The only things I bought new for the project were the terra cotta solid colored Kona cotton and the batting, which I found on sale. It’s a crib size quilt, which most likely will be tucked into the trunk of a DCFS worker, ready to comfort a child in a time of great need. Or it may be draped over a crib in a women’s shelter somewhere in Vermont. Sometimes it is good to remember that there are such wonderful people out in the world, doing tough work…people like the social workers, the teachers, the peacemakers… Marge Piercy’s poem To Be of Use often reminds me of the heavy lifters who put their heads down and push forward, again and again.

The heat and humidity here has finally broken and we’ve had a bit of rain. This was the view when I woke up, and the thermometer read 56 degrees. I got tears of gratitude in my eyes. I know a few of my readers are waiting for some relief too. I hope it comes soon. xo

Several of our nights have been disturbed by cat and mouse games, a sure sign that cooler days are ahead. Country homes, no matter how tightly sealed, have uninvited house guests now and then, finding their way into a cozy spot to spend the winter. Our trusty Corazón makes sure to keep things in check.

So friends, as some of the news in the world seems not quite so grim, I hope you have had a chance to exhale a bit and find some spaciousness in your days.

Hope you have a lovely weekend dearest readers, with some quiet time to read, or sew, or paint, or garden or do whatever brings you joy.

xo

quiet Wednesday

pin basting the donation quilt.

gretta and lindsey helped me pick this lovely terra cotta kona solid at a shop out in ann arbor.

it plays nicely with all six improv blocks.

my treasured 1971 roger tory peterson still gets the job done.

black krim and green zebra tomatoes and bell peppers from the hoop house.

grandma in residence

On the wall behind us…Cai Gua-Qiang: Cuyahoga River Lightning: drawing for the Cleveland Museum of Art. On loan. Read about it here. (A-MA-ZING.)

Hello friends! I have navigated our interstate highway system once again and I remain fascinated by how we are able to get from here to there. (There are flaws, I know, but there are joys to be had along the way.) The drifts of black-eyed-Susans and Queen Anne’s lace in the ditches along the pavement…the undulating rows of the vineyards along the Great Lakes…the barns, fading and groaning under the weight of years…the giant windmills, catching energy as they rotate amidst the farmland…the rising mist at dawn, as I pull down the visor to avoid the glare of the summertime rising sun… the road cuts, spilling all sorts of rock formations for all to see…and reminders of the people of the First Nations, challenging the status quo with billboards along the way. And the quiet. Hours alone in a car with so much time to think and reflect and plan. Ahhhhh…

My days in the Midwest were filled with visits with all four children, their partners and all four (!) grandchildren. There were playgrounds and errands and chores and iced lattes and strolling and laundry and changing diapers and burping and laughing and reading kids’ books and great food and…well, you get the idea…

Oh, and meeting tiny Freya and sniffing the back of her neck (eau de newborn) and snuggling her on my shoulder.

I was so lucky to have time with everyone at once and also, some in single family units.

When Ben, Gretta and Maggie invited me to meet them at the University of Michigan Museum of Art in Ann Arbor, I was delighted! We met up to see the Watershed exhibit and it blew my mind more than once. From their website: Watershed brings recent work from fifteen contemporary artists to UMMA for an exhibition that immerses visitors in the interconnected histories, present lives, and imagined futures of the Great Lakes region.

The museum provided an excellent workbook for families to use as they moved through the exhibit. You can find a copy here (excellent museum work!) In the photo (above), Maggie and I were considering our reactions to some of the things we saw while walking through the gallery. It’s hard to describe how lovely it was to have Maggie tucked up next to me, to share our thoughts and to watch her draw in her booklet.

Two of the artists used cyanotypes to create their works. Meghann Riepenhoff’s work responded to the chemicals dumped into the confluence of the Genessee River and Lake Ontario by Kodak. You can check out her amazing work here.

Along with the workbook for families, the museum offered small cyanotype kits to families. I can’t wait to see what Maggie does with hers! I came home and dug out an old package I had stashed in my studio and tried my hand at making a print this morning (above.) Clearly, the paper is old and it’s not a sunny day here in Vermont, so the results were not great…but I had fun.

Coincidentally (don’t you love coincidences?) my friend Anne recently sent me some snail mail written on a card made by one of her students. You can find Nina’s gorgeous botanical cyanotypes here.

There’s so much more to share, but I will save some for another day.

I hope you have been well, dearest readers, as summer pushes its way through August. We are hoping for more rain here in Vermont, and cooler days, perhaps you are too.

xo

pausing

Can you see it? The harsh sunlight and the swelter edging around the yard? This is my least favorite time of year, and even though it’s perfect for line drying laundry, it’s not so good for my British/Nordic cooling system.

My sweet Wilma is a kindred spirit, she goes belly up on the windowsill, catching a breeze where she can.

Yes, the gardens are going gangbusters, thanks to a recent drenching rain, but I still feel parched. I hydrate like a marathon runner, even tho I’m in slow motion. I toss and turn under just a sheet at night, depending on the ceiling fan to stir the air. I do not bring my best self to the work of the day when I’m slogged down in mid-July and the whole month of August. It has ever been thus.

So I am on to greener pastures. I’m packing up my little blue Subaru and I am heading west, to be grandma in residence for Freya, with a dash of Theo, Flora and Magpie thrown in. Hoping this distraction will get me through a few weeks of summer…

I’ll be taking a pause from blogging for a bit, just sinking down into the lovely days of bearing witness to a new family growing their way into their future. And watching as cousins and aunts and uncles find their place in our expanding family. It feels like a sacred opportunity and I’ll walk into it softly and with gratitude.

I’ll see you back here in Vermont in a bit. In the meantime, be gentle with yourselves, friends. xo

p.s. I’ve been trying to respond to your comments on the post where you left them…

p.p.s. If you have any tips for embracing the “dog days of summer”, let me know in the comments! :-)