special edition

Good morning friends. I don’t often show my face here, but I felt called to come to this spot today, to be fully present, to check in.

Sometimes I wonder who I actually write for here at sewandsowlife…you or me! Since today feels so very unsettled, I think I am writing for all of us.

After breakfast, I decided to take a wander around our place here. I spent a bit of time just noticing. Paying attention. Appreciating. Wander with me?

When I feel this unsettled, I remind myself to do what I can in my own life, to make positive change in my own sphere of influence. And so, I rededicate myself to my volunteer work.

But the older I get, I also have respect for self-care. So, I’m not waiting til July to share my list of things I hope to do in the coming weeks and months. I’m not sure it’s a bucket list, maybe it’s more of a listing of what I want to be devoted to. Trying new things, making progress on current projects, and appreciating spaciousness in my days. So here goes…

• work on the book for my Mumsie

• visit the Middlebury College Museum of Art to see this exhibit and this is a wonderful short film you may want to watch.

• pop in to Sparrow Art Supply while in Middlebury.

• I was gifted a bit of raw flax, grown by a neighbor. I’m curious about making a wee basket with it. Inspiration found here.

• I’ve got a packet of “Chinese knotting cord” and would like to try making a friendship bracelet, using this tutorial.

• maybe try making a fabric scrap paper mâché bowl. I’m not a fan of balloons and modge podge, because they are not great for the planet…

• we made a very special visit to an automata museum in Scotland. I’d like to try making a gizmo or two and then share the story with you.

• we’ve got a lot of sage in the garden, and I have three ways I want to play with it.

• keep on hand quilting Nelson’s quilt.

• create an outdoor loom, where found objects can be woven into a summer tapestry.

• make something fun for Freya’s second birthday.

• reading on the three season porch

• riding my new e-bike!

In the kitchen

• try a recipe for garlic scape soup

• stew up some rhubarb

• try making some mocktails

• roast some strawberries (!)

At my desk

• write more snail mail (maybe one a day?)

• organize some files (not fun, but I’ll feel better when it’s done)

gorgeous new USPS Shaker stamps and a sweet card from Lori at Little Truths Studio.

With family

• revel in multiple visits with grandkids

• play games

• splash in the wading pool

• go adventuring

• etc etc etc

I invite each of you, dearest ones, to spend some time thinking about ways you and your very own special talents are changing your little part of the world. And then think about how you might find shelter and sanctuary from that very same world.

It’s a balancing act. I know that, for sure.

But none of us is alone. And each of us has a shining light.

Shine, friends.

Share your light with the world. And hold that light up to find your own way, too.

xo

time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin'...

A group of friends gathered down the road for a solstice celebration. This gorgeous cheese was made from goat’s milk gathered and cellared on property.

We made “living wreaths”, using metal frames provided by our hosts. Each of us brought our own plants. I found mine on sale at a local greenhouse. What fun it was to chat and plant and snack and chat some more with the sweetest of people! And who can believe that summer is here and July is just around the corner?

Summer is my least favorite season (I know, odd, isn’t it?) but I am determined to make the best of it. I’m working on a July “bucket list” which I’ll share next week. Maybe you’d like to create your own bucket list?

Each person’s wreath was unique as its maker. I did not crowd my plants, hoping they will fill in as the summer unfolds.

Most folks made their wreaths to hang. I like using mine as a centerpiece out on the deck for now.

The “heat dome” did not spare Vermont, and last week was scorching here. In the mid nineties for temperatures and full-on humidity, the weather finally broke with wild winds and pounding rain on Thursday night. The relief was wonderful, with plummeting temperatures and better sleeping weather.

I took advantage of the cooling and fired up my oven one morning to bake rhubarb muffins, with rhubarb cut from our gardens. You can find the healthy-ish recipe here. They have cardamom in them and lemon, too, so they are lip smacking good.

We celebrated Wilma’s “gotcha day” last week, and remembered when we first brought her home eight years ago. We love her so.

Ben and Maggie and Gretta are living in Vermont this summer, about an hour south of us, so we will get to see them more often. This past weekend, Gretta, Maggie and I went to visit family in MA. We stayed overnight with the ever-generous Doug and Ra and Maggie got to put her toes in the ocean. The next day we went to visit my Mumsie in her assisted living community and took a four-generation selfie. It cracks me up whenever Maggie talks of visiting with her “ancestors”.

Doug and Ra’s house abuts a salt marsh, and osprey keep an eye on the neighborhood. This guy spent a good bit of time flying overhead and screeching at us until we stepped away.

In the reading department, our book group gave an unusual “thumbs down” to Mercury Pictures Presents, by Anthony Marra. Our group will continue to meet over the summer, but we’ll be cooking together, using Vermont cookbooks as our inspiration. For my own summer reading, I picked up a book at our library that looks promising, Palaces for the People: How Social Infrastructure Can Help Fight Inequality, Polarization, and the Decline of Civic Life, by Eric Kinenberg. I’ve also got my nose in Johnny Tremain, a Newbery Award winner by Esther Forbes. I’ve read and listened to this book multiple times with my kids when they were little, and since I do love a coming-of-age story, it’s got a bookmark in it once again.

I’ve run out of energy here, dear friends. Sending fresh Vermont breezes your way, and best wishes to you as June winds down and we get ourselves ready for whatever July has to throw at us. Whatever that might be, you can find me taking deep, relaxing breaths, looking for the light in everything. Each and every one of you is part of that light. I remain grateful for your presence here. xo

revelling

I decided to let June be all about revelling. When the fields are filled with yellow buttercups, there does not seem to be any other option. In the past, I’ve written about buttercups here, and here.

The days have been spectacular. Sunny, temperate, breezy. The lightning bugs have returned at dusk, blinking their magic as the evening falls. (I’m remembering you especially, Liz. xo)

The hoop house is exploding with greens. The tomatoes and peppers are gearing up for their celebrations later this summer. Pinch me. Is this real?

The peony crescent is nearing full bloom, and when I walk by this bouquet on the porch, their scent just makes me swoon. The California poppies are going gangbusters and they make me dizzy with their color and dancing in the breeze.

This morning I did my usual Saturday loop in Montpelier. How much do you love the pride flag and the flower basket hanging from the same pole? The farmers market was bursting at the seams with bounty. I popped into Bohemian Bakery for a decaf mocha and a cherry danish. Then on to Hunger Mountain Co-op, where I filled in the gaps. When I got home, I washed and chopped and prepped for the week ahead. It is going to get HOT and I want to be ready!

And I continue to stitch on the porch, listening to North Woods as the day unwinds in the late afternoon.

Let me share with you some beautiful things I have stumbled upon in the last few weeks…

• twig and moth

• wool and nature

• Hannah Nunn’s blog post (gasp!)

• USPS Shaker stamps I am itching to get my hands on.

Sometimes it just feels right to write about beauty and not get caught up in all the sticky things in the world. Sending you big gulps of hope and love and light, dearest readers. Get out there and revel!

xo

June days

Once again, my sweet friend Anne gave me a generous nod in her newsletter, and a few new readers have found their way over here to sewandsowlife. Welcome friends! I hope you’ll find some sanctuary here amidst the noise of the world.

Jacob’s ladder, lupine, iris, violets and lobelia are blooming in a riot of blues and purples in the garden beds and window box. Tiger Swallowtails are gulping down the last of the lilac nectar. The bluebird babies are fledging and the barred owl starts its hooting just as the sun peeks over the ridge in the morning. The peony crescent garden is just about ready to explode. The lettuce is coming on strong in the hoop house and the chives are blooming. We are eating most of our meals out on the three season porch, where we can keep an eye on the deer grazing in the meadow. I think we need to thread the fishing line through the hook eyes at the top of the fence posts around the veggie garden beds.

I bought asparagus and sugar snap peas at the farmers market on Saturday and made a pot of spring minestrone last night. I love Heidi Swanson’s book, Super Natural Cooking… she also writes the blog 101 Cookbooks. I remember years ago, bringing local ingredients home from VT in a cooler to our place in CT and making this same recipe. Batman and I sat out on the front door stoop, bowls in hand and longed for the days when we could be in VT full time. :-)

When I last went to visit my Mumsie in MA, I took my 100 days of stitching book to show her. She sat with it for a long time, turning the pages and running her fingers gently over the stitches. She asked to see it again the next day when I stopped by on my way back to VT. I asked her if she would like a little book of her own and her eyes lit up. Driving home, my brain was in full imagination mode. I was flooded with ideas. Sometimes when I’m working on composing pages, I like to create collections of things to inspire me. I thought I’d share one of these “groupings” with you, above.

I also turn to children’s books for inspiration. Trina Schart Hyman’s Little Red Riding Hood is one of my all time faves, above. My Mumsie adores foxes, and so the first page I stitched for her book includes a scrap from this project which I sewed for our granddaughter Maggie during the pandemic.

The background for this page was dyed with avocado skins and pits. The turquoise silk was dyed with home grown indigo. The sweet hibernating mouse is from a fabric collection called Tilda’s World. I think this page needs a little bit of “something”, so I am waiting for something to surface.

My Mumsie is a miniaturist and she loves children’s books, too. She loves the natural world and animals of many kinds. She taught me to sew at a young age and so I am really having fun with this project.

On my cutting table…a gnome, some mushrooms, a badger…

A quick word about audiobooks. Thank you all, for the recommendations! I have tried a few options and have settled on both Libby and Libro.fm. I finished listening to The Lioness of Boston, about the life and times of Isabella Stuart Gardener, and I loved The Frozen River by Ariel Lawhon. Both works of historical fiction, they document the lives of two very different women! Now I am reading Amor Towles’ newest book Table For Two. What do you have a bookmark in, dearest readers?

I do so wish we could all gather on the deck, shaded a bit now by the growing crabapple tree. We could have iced tea, or maybe lemonade and watch as the afternoon shadows slice across the meadow. The breeze would keep the bugs away, and our conversation would drift from books, to hand projects, to recipes, to hopeful things and to our dreams. I am there with you in spirit, friends. Pull up a chair and join the circle. xo

a quick note

I made time today to go out into the meadow, where I tilted my head back, raised my arms and gave thanks to the twelve jurors who took their roles as ordinary citizens seriously and upheld the Constitution of these United States. How grateful I am to them for their service to justice.

the fleeting abundance of may

There was a day last week when I was standing in the upstairs hallway and I felt that familiar tap on my shoulder. The tap that says, “Stop. Take a deep breath and relax your shoulders. Exhale. Notice.

I looked into our bedroom and through the window and noticed that the line of “greening up” had finally crept all the way up the hills across the valley. The browns and grays of the late winter landscape have exploded into the quintessential Crayola spring green. Farmers have already done their first cutting of hay. The blossoming sequence of serviceberries/crabapples/lilacs is underway in our neighborhood. The woods are full of lovely old heirloom apple trees, long abandoned, but adding a splash of pink and white anyhow.

A huge wind blew up a few days ago and the apple blossoms flew off the trees. Petal confetti scattered on the lawn. I ran out with clippers to gather a bunch of lilacs to bring into the house.

Their scent has filled the house for days. I often stop intentionally, bend over and stick my nose into the bouquet to inhale their magic. They bloom for such a very short time and that makes them all the more precious.

Feeling the inevitable rush of May beauty, I pulled out my small collection of books by Gunilla Norris, and spent a bit of time reading them as I sipped a cup of tea. Gunilla’s words are gentle and reassuring. She calls her work household spirituality. :-)

On Saturday, the Montpelier farmer’s market was filled with abundance. Fresh lettuces and spinach, bunches of tatsoi that were pretty enough to use for a bridal bouquet, hand crafted cheeses brought up from cellars, loaves of bread made with local grains, milled in Vermont. Each week we go to the market, we are reminded of the progression of seasonal foods and of how the summer growing cycle pulls us through to the fall. We try to savor.

This sweet flower, above, was one I bought at the market last summer and it came back quite nicely, holding its own in the wind here on the ridge.

Crows do, indeed. like shiny objects…

I’m resurrecting an old project, and the freshly cleaned three season porch accommodates afternoon stitching and audiobooks.

A bowl for thread trimmings, two leather thimbles, basting pins, pearl cotton, Hera marker, scissors and my crow friend.

This was a block of the month sampler quilt I worked on in 2019 via the Vermont Modern Quilt Guild using “Summer Sampler 2018”. I finished the quilt top and then “put it away somewhere”. I now have a giftee in mind. It is a throw size, and so I am hand quilting it, using the “big stitch” quilting method. I’m using instructions I found here, and I am loving the process of slow stitching. The pearl cotton gives the stitches a nice sheen. I like to use a Hera marker to guide my thread.

Dearest readers, I do hope you are able to find similar spots of calm and peace these days. There is much to savor and notice and celebrate if we only stop to see it. And in that seeing, we can refresh ourselves. We can persevere. We can shine our lights for others who may need it.

What are you noticing this May?

xoxoxox

May whimsy

Our sweet granddaughter Flora turned FOUR this past week and I thought she might enjoy something fun stitched up by her “Gramma Karen” in Vermont. I have peeked at Twig and Tale, a delightful pattern company more than once and decided it was time to try some wings.

Gosh, the first time through a pattern can sometimes be challenging, but Twig and Tale has wonderful video tutorials to help you along. Flora remains a girl who loves her purple, and the wing fabrics are 100% from my stash. I did have to purchase some (dreaded) interfacing to stiffen the wings. I really must do more research to find an alternative!

Along the way, my machine started skipping some stitches, and I should have stopped to change the needle. I’m not wild about the raw edges/zigzag appliqué. I’ve made some notes on the pattern so that I may try a different sequence, using hand appliqué next time. (Because, I don’t know, maybe all five grandkids need wings?) Also, next time, the poor moth will get some eyeballs. :-)

I do love the way the straps are made, with a series of snaps, so that the wings can be adjusted as the child grows, or they can be shared with a different sized sibling or friend.

The wing pattern comes in three sizes…small, medium and adult. Imagine a whole family of gorgeous winged creatures!

Have you heard the story of Max the cat who has graduated from Vermont State University? I heard the story on VPR this week, then on NPR later in the day. You can read about this fabulous tabby here.

A bit of foraged moss and lichen.

When I was a kid, my dad used to help us make terrariums for our bedrooms. I’ve been meaning to make one for the past year. I finally pulled out a glass canister and put one together this afternoon.

I could not resist adding a stack from my pebble collection.

Batman even found me a balsam sprout that self-seeded!

I purchased the tiny fern from a local nursery, but otherwise all the plants came from our woods. We’ll have to wait and see if everything “takes” in the terrarium.

I found guidelines for planting at Homestead Brooklyn. Look here!

The crabapples and lilacs are just about to pop. The coltsfoot that lined the road have gone to seed and they float in white murmurations as cars drive past and disturb them. A few days ago I pulled over just to watch the magic. We’ve been eating spinach and kale from the hoop house and the fig and Meyer lemon trees have been moved out onto the porch.

Paying attention to beauty and whimsy and magic and joy…this is what saves us, friends. Holding thoughts of each of you close to my heart. xo

gratitude and remembering

I’ve appreciated (and responded to) each of your lovely comments about my fabric book. I’m planning to make another one next year and hope some more of you will be tempted to join me. Next time around, it might be fun to create a way to share some of your images (with your permission, of course.) Let’s think about that…

This morning, I want to share a sweet story with you, dearest readers. A story of connections and love and devotion.

My friend Cathleen from our days in Connecticut (or the queen of everything, as she likes to say), lost her beloved son a while back. He was a young man and so the loss was especially tragic and heart wrenching.

Cathleen shared this with me, when I asked if I could write about our collaboration here, on sewandsowlife…

“Christopher Owen was a lovely man, a wonderful son, and a great uncle. The two words I’d use to describe him are kind and brave.”

When thinking of a way to honor his memory, she asked if we might be willing to plant some balsams down by the playhouse. Christopher loved Christmas, Cathleen wrote, and he loved to play with his niece and nephews.

So, of course, we did. Peter had some seedlings he had started in his balsam nursery, and we took three down the hill to plant on an early spring morning. As these trees grow taller and wider, they will provide shade and shelter for any children who come to make potions or look out for pirates. Christopher’s ethereal presence will grow deeper roots here at out bit of earth.

I could not resist hanging a birch bark heart on one of them. xo

Christopher Owen, we are honored to have a tiny part of you here with us.

And as spring brings renewal to Vermont, we will forget-you-not, dearest Christopher.

xo

the 100 day stitch book

Beginning on January 19th, and ending on April 27th, I stitched for 15 minutes nearly every day on this super fun project. Once in a while I missed a day, but just stitched double time the next. Inspired by Ann Wood and her handmade website, I followed her directions and ended up with a sweet fabric book!

I stitched the book 100% by hand, including constructing the book itself. Some of the pages are wonky, and slightly different sized, even though they all started out 5 1/2x7 inches, raw edged. I used a lot of my home-grown, hand-dyed fabrics. I used bits of my paternal grandmother’s napkins. I used a feather, I used a few bits of birch bark, I used some William Morris fabric and batiks, too. I used some selvedges. I used cotton thread and embroidery floss and metallic thread. I didn’t buy anything for this project. Everything came out of my stash.

At the outset, I did not have any specific ideas about what I wanted to sew. Instead, I followed Ann’s advice to do “improvisational stitching, a “yes, and” approach”.

So I let my mind and hands wander, with thread and needle. Sometimes I dropped into that lovely state of flow where I’d get lost in my thoughts for a bit. As I sewed my way through 100 days, I processed a few things, I had revelations, I discerned some new paths forward.

And so, I titled my fabric book, Sometimes when we wander we end up being led.

Front cover: hand-dyed moon and tools of the trade. Brown title patch dyed with birchbark.

Left: Scraps of Ikat from an old skirt, another hand dyed moon, and a feather found on the ground. Right: light blue sky and shibori below made from indigo grown here at out bit of earth. Appliqué batik bird from blouse circa 1975.

Left: Appliquéd napkins. Right: home-grown, hand-dyed indigo, appliquéd with a bit of napkin. Pocket made of shweshwe fabric, printed in South Africa. The bits of paper are a collection of words that launched my original blog way back in 2009.

Left: Log cabin pieced with cottons dyed with birch catkins, yellow onion skins, tansy, marigold and Black Hopi sunflowers and some William Morris scraps and some indigo-dyed raw silk. Right: appliquéd and reverse appliquéd circles stitched with commercial fabrics and hand dyed indigo on raw silk. Background fabric, dyed with marigolds from my cousin’s garden in NM, mordanted with alum.

Left: background hand-dyed with madder root, appliquéd with bits of birch and fern fabrics. Embroidered with cotton floss. Right: background fabric hand-dyed with birch bark. Square “buttons” made with birch bark scraps. Embroidered with floss.

Left: I’ve loved arches as sewing motifs for ages. The sunshine is stitched with Shibori style, tansy dyed cotton, the arch surrounding it was dyed with marigolds. Appliquéd bird, “singing” with beads. Right: Cotton background dyed with yellow onion skins, pebbles appliquéd with some commercially dyed and some hand dyed fabrics.

Left: selvedge and sprouts print from Bookhou, purchased years ago. French knotted tiny circles of an assortment of hand-dyed fabric and a commercially produced fern fabric. Right: Commercial batik appliquéd onto linen hand-dyed with avocado pits and skins, using the clothespin technique of resist. Embroidered with French knots, cotton floss.

Left: reverse appliquéd constellations, embroidered pines on a swatch of raw silk, hand-dyed with indigo, with a strip of selvedge on top. Right: cotton background hand-dyed with Black Hopi sunflowers. Fresh indigo leaves, pounded onto cotton, with indigo-dyed raw silk appliquéd below..

Left: the perennial fave, a mini nine patch, stitched with a variety of scraps. Ceramic button, too. Right: Two commercial cottons and hand-dyed indigo, again, using the clothespin Shibori style.

Spread: commercial fabrics, appliquéd and pieced and wonky! xo

Back cover: commercial fabrics and cotton hand-dyed with birch bark. Wooden buttons, stamped date.

I’ve used this project to meld the sewing and the sowing in my life…sewing with fabrics dyed with plants we gathered and grew (sowed) here at our bit of earth in Central Vermont! What a treat to have such wonderful instructions, shared by Ann Wood. How could I not be tempted to try another book sometime this fall?

My friend Cathleen (tqoe…”The Queen of Everything”) has been sending me pictures of her stitching now and then.

Have YOU stitched a book? Let us know!

xo

end of April digest..with book talk

We recently went to visit my Mumsie at her assisted living community and as I was standing in the lobby, waiting for the elevator to take me up to her apartment, I spotted this sweet paper cut out on the bulletin board. Despite having 91 year old hands gnarled by arthritis, she still loves to produce a monthly display for the residents. She is quite amazing.

And in other generational musings, I became a mama 42 years ago today, delivering my sweet Baboo in a hospital in Puerto Rico. Stewart led me on the best adventure of my lifetime, and now his dear Theo has added new dimensions to my journey. Happy birthday to Stewart!

Gosh. Sometimes life just takes our breath away, doesn’t it?

The bluebirds are back, the spring peepers are singing at dusk, the lawn gets greener day by day and chives and rhubarb are coming up in the garden. The garlic survived the winter and are all lined up in their bed. We’re washing the screens today and Batman is back at the golf course whenever he can squeeze it in. I can feel my whole body exhaling a bit in the sun’s warmth.

I was dumbstruck the other day when I looked out the window and saw the colors across the way. Less than a week earlier I had stitched the image (on the left) for my 100 days of stitching project. It just amazes me how strongly a sense of place can influence us, sometimes in the most subtle ways.

Wilma, my studio companion.

All twenty of my pages have been stitched for my 100 days project. It took a bit of time to pair them up in a pleasing way. Some I had planned as pairs, other’s I had not. I then numbered them and have begun the task of sewing them together.

Here the page spreads have all been pinned into place, after I checked the instructions many times. You can follow along here, to see how “inside out” the thinking will be for this finish! And I can’t wait to put the book together, instructions shown here.

In my last post, I promised some listening/watching ideas.

• A quick film about Nikki McClure, paper cutter extraordinaire. PBS Newshour, via my dear friend, Dolo.

• Another talk from Anne Lamott, Meditations on Life, Love and the Cycle of Aging, also via Dolo.

• A wonderful, hope-filled documentary about a gardening program in Maine’s prisons.

• A Gentleman in Moscow is one of my top ten favorite books of all time. We have been watching the series, starring Ewan McGregor, on Paramount Plus and it’s just wonderful! You may find it in other places, and sometimes streaming services offer limited time, free subscriptions…

And some reading ideas.

• This is Happiness, by Niall Williams. This is a lovely story set in Ireland just as electricity was being brought to a rural village. It’s a coming of age story, too. And the story of lost love. The stories intertwined, inter-generationonally. The writing style delighted me, but sometimes an occasional run on sentence would exasperate me. There were some absolutely heart stopping passages, filled with wisdom and beauty. This is another book I would not have read without participating in my book group, to them I remain grateful.

• I Never Thought of It That Way, How to Have Fearlessly Curious Conversations in Dangerously Divided Times, by Mónica Guzmán. Can you imagine a more fitting book to read at this time in 2024? I have just started it, and it’s a bit dry as the author sets up the scope of the book. I look forward to making my way into the heart of the book.

• WHAT ARE YOU ENJOYING? Drop a note in the comments.

Now I have some questions for you.

• Do you listen to audiobooks? Where do you find them? I have loved the Libby platform, but sometimes there’s a queue for the book that I may want now. Also, sometimes I can’t find the book I’d like. Audible is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon, so I’m not interested in that option. Do you have suggestions? I am particularly looking for The Lioness of Boston, the story of Isabella Stewart Gardner. I’d like to have her story as a companion in my studio.

• Do you keep track of the books you read? If so, how? I have used Goodreads to keep track of my reading and the reading of a few friends. It came to my attention via Sarah’s blog Wool&Home that Goodreads is also connected to the long tentacled Amazon! Sarah is a voracious reader and shares her reviews quite generously. Sarah has recently shifted over to StoryGraph as a way to keep track of her reading. I must confess that I also keep a reading log in a notebook, where I keep track of recommendations and who actually made them. It’s quite fun to peruse the list…it’s so very long, I can’t imagine I’ll ever get them all read (I am such a slow reader!)

So friends, if you’ve made it all…the…way…to…the…bottom of this post, well done, you! I’d love to hear from you about what you’re listening to, watching and reading. Other sewandsowlife readers may be curious, too. So drop a comment or send me an email.

With so much gratitude (and curiosity!)

Karen