Tag Archives: Stitchery

Loose theads

Hello! I’ve been missing this space. It seems that my technology skill are quite rusty. or perhaps just strange things can happen in the World of Web. At least for Elaine. But here I am again.

I’ve needed some slow time. It seems that summer was full of heat and rain and branch cleanup and shrubbery growing out of control. Sometimes in the overwhelm, this girl just has to sit with a good book* or needle and thread. For therapy, I replaced all the ugly buttons on this robe with some vintage mother-of-pearl. Simple and refreshing and only about 4 years waiting. sigh

May is always delightful. The fresh greens and small flowers are such a gift for the heart.

Then June. the Calla Lily experiment continued and there were half a dozen blooms this year. I was late getting the corms into the ground. I will be more selective next year and pick only the largest. I hoped for lots of swing time this summer. I didn’t get much of a vegetable garden planted and with the weather, that was just as well. Over the summer months, our gauge registered about 20″. Historic downpours. Not much swing time.

The day lilies of our garden did not fail us – except for one variety which has disappeared. Which brings up the fact that we are dealing with moles and voles and it seems a rather futile battle. Moles tunnel and voles eat roots. If you have a solution, PLEASE, let me know!

These have been here before in various stages, but most are now finished and two pieces are waiting the final stitches. There are always bits of fabric to create with and a few projects to come. They are all taking a back seat just now as I work on the hard thing …

Mom’s doll needs clothes. I have no idea if she had a name, but for now, I will call her Daisy. Daisy is 21 inches tall, is made of wood and has spring joints and a label on her back which says Schoenhut. I don’t remember her original hair-do. This one was chosen by my sister Margie, her second mom. Margie collected dolls and had plans to make clothes for this one. I have no idea of the original garments. I never asked, never really saw Daisy who lived in the depths of Mom’s cedar chest. She did not interest me. And I forgot about her.

Until last year. Margie had dealt with many eye issues stemming from an infection quite a few years ago. The doll clothes remained a dream as she learned to live with low vision. And then there were five years of cancer treatments. The summer of 2017, she made the brave decision to start hospice care at home. In September the lingering effects of shingles and another infection made her so uncomfortable and debilitated and she knew she needed more expert care. My last visit with her in her home, she asked me to do three sewing projects – whether for me or for her, I can’t know. Margie spent her final weeks in the loveliest hospice facility near her home with the kindest care.

Two of the projects are long done. Daisy’s clothes are another matter. I’ve searched through storage boxes for patterns but they are all too modern for this old girl or they won’t fit or are beyond my skill level. I’ve spent hours on-line looking for ideas. Tomorrow I will decide. And somehow, I will make garments for Daisy. And they will be tear stained.

*I’ve been reading Louise Penny’s series with Chief Inspector Armand Gamache

Healing things

I find it is the small things, the often overlooked or sometimes neglected things that can bring calm and restoration to my life. During these past months, I’ve had to force myself to find the things that comfort my soul. I’m sharing them to remind myself of the Whispers of Rest that God provides, if I will only notice. Perhaps they might be a reminder for you as we move closer to the winter holiday season and beyond into what we have as the long, cold of winter.

Notice. Make something with your hands. Enjoy the space that surrounds you – and all those you are blessed to have in it. The seasons change always brings some new beauty to bless us.

Advent begins. A quiet soul time. The link is a story with some resource links from the past. An online friend, Diana Trautwein, is starting her Advent Journey: Reflections for Weary Travelers and Bonnie Gray is Celebrating Advent, listening for God’s Whispers of Christmas. Maybe you need a bit of rest yourself?

Double click on any photo to see the enlargement.

Where the Wind Blows

The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. John 3:8 HCSB

Months of wind. Cleaning the trees, knocking things over, waking me in the dark hours of night and morning and offering me opportunities to see rare beauty. The Spirit of God is like that.

The photos above are from this morning. A few recorded beauties follow.

These. of course, are from our anticipated visits from Amaryllis. [click on any photo to enlarge]

One welcome visitor, one not… One must look closely where the blossom starts to see the Brown marmorated stink bug. While nowhere near as invasive a nuisance as a few years ago, some still find their way through cracks, open doors and down the chimneys to overwinter. Any warm day finds them zinging about the house looking for a landing place – or a meal. I know it was probably cozy on the blossom, but, he was removed and perished. These are an invasive, non-native bug with no known predators. They do not bite, but suck. They have been particularly destructive to fruit crops here in the Mid-Atlantic region and, according to the linked article, have continued to spread throughout the country.

That’s the way, too, of life sucking troubles: they can hide away, just waiting for the right day to get out and about reproducing their destructive kind and sucking out the joy of life. It takes vigilance to catch and dispatch them.

When we first bought this property, we found a country trash pile in a back corner. We spent years hauling it away, bit by bit. It was covered in leaves and brush and every layer we removed gave opportunity for the wind and rain to remove more of the covering, revealing old metal parts of who-knows-what, foil baking pans from TV dinners and lots of glass – mostly broken. I did find two lovely pieces of blue glass, one a Noxzema jar (my Mom’s favorite) and the other, this 4 inch tall Bromo-Seltzer bottle (always in Dad’s cupboard). The Jonquils were picked before the snow came. I love them in this blue, don’t you? These minis grow near the kitchen door where the sun warms the protected area and spring comes early.

The last snow of the season? Beautiful day with lots of bird visitors and and this brazen thief. Totally unimpressed with me. Her kind have totally stripped the hydrangeas of buds and the warm days that inspired growth of the daylilies provided unintended salad for them too.

What do you do on cold snowy or rainy days? I find them good soul nourishing days. Sometimes I make soups and bake bread and treats and get in a bit of stitching. And, there are always stacks of reading materials at hand. The top three are in my own library, the rest borrowed from the county. Patsy Clairmont’s book of short stories – Stardust On My Pillow – is a sweet favorite to re-read from time to time.

This time, I wanted to re-read “Chattanooga Choo Choo” Miss Pearl teaches Jamie about way-markers as she tells him to remember the signs his daddy left him when he died… “the signs your daddy left you will guide you into manhood”, for “A way-marker is like a signpost telling you which way to go.” Way-markers. “Never let a good dead go unattended.” was one that inspired Jamie to take action. We might know it under different expressions: Saying thank you, writing a thank you note, taking a hostess gift, sending a teacher’s gift… So many things can be way-markers. Things remembered by the winds of the Spirit that remind us of the best way, not only to deal with the affairs of life, but to find the perfect way to our eternal home.

Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, for in You I do trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk. for I lift up my soul to You.

from Psalm 143

This last photo was taken yesterday when the whispering breeze through the tree tops could barely be heard over the honking geese, screaming gulls , occasional car traffic. Each day is different in life. I must learn to listen.

Happy Spring!

An old school question

There comes a time when autumn* asks,

What have you been doing all summer? Anon.

Perhaps you too had teachers who asked that same question and required a paragraph or two of fun and exciting adventures. Oh my.

I think it was the shoes I bought in spring, though it would be a while before I remembered the brown buckle shoes of many childhood summers. But once remembered they stirred other memories of those long ago summers — countless hands of Canasta and hours of board games with my sisters, afternoons of stitching, evenings of reading and porch sitting while thunder and lightening rolled across the sky. There were late, dark nights spent twirling the dials of a vintage radio dad brought home, listening for already old-time comedy or suspense broadcasts still playing in other places.

And I realized that while they might not have gotten me a good grade in school, those simple pleasures set me for life. I’m always up for a great adventure to distant parts, but the everyday life here is one I am grateful to be able to enjoy even on the days when everything seems all wrong in the world.

Simple embroidery,

learning a new quilt pattern from Craftsy,

finishing a small quilt started last year, .

or recalling seashore trips of other years with small vignettes are parts of my summer days now.

Reading continues to be a blessed pastime and storms are part of every summer here. I’ve added other pleasures to these simple rhythms of life – letter writing, daily cooking, gardening, and the joy of meeting a friend for coffee. And old time radio has been bypassed by streaming videos, sometimes much too late into the night!

Our new friend Tim has just left a bag of tomatoes on the front railing – another splendid gift of summer! Rosy smiles in the face of heat and humidity.

*I recently learned that September 1 is the meteorological first day of autumn.

Making Connections

For me, one of the wonderful things about this time of internet communication is meeting people around the world. I want to mention two lovely Australian ladies whose blogs share creativity and kindness so generously.

Kerryanne English blogs at Shabby Art Boutique. This month she has started her 6th year of Simply Christmas entries. In the first post she introduced her beautiful 2015 Christmas Planner – free to download, which I was happy to do. In the next post, she wrote her thoughts on planning. I’ve been a planner, but somehow in the last couple of years, I forgot how essential this ingredient is for relaxed celebration. I find that planning – anticipating – can really add so much joy.

I used to keep wonderful records of menus and cookie baking marathons and gifting. I’m starting again to keep this record of joy sharing. Kerryanne is posting ideas for gifts and décor as well as continuing her Friday link-up parties full of inspiration.

Then, I would like to introduce Jennifer Reynolds – Jenny of ELEFANTZ. Jenny is always so generous in sharing her lovely talent in stitchery. She has also been gathering creative ideas for gift giving from other bloggers and kindly sharing the links.

While embroidery is an old and mostly abandoned interest of mine, I was inspired by her holiday table runner last year to create one of my own with fabrics available here.

And, I almost forgot – food – you will find tempting recipes at both sites! Have a look?

More August days outside

One day, it was just so hard to go outside. I only ventured out to tend a pot of marigolds.

Another day, I spent lovely early morning time with some stitching while I enjoyed the rising cicada song. The stitching has been a long project and like my decision to go outside each day, I must be determined to finish – soon, I hope!

Through the years I have sometimes been blessed to visit the ocean. I love to go and wander the beach in search of treasure. I enjoy having jars and boxes and piles of shells out in the summer and this one has been particularly intriguing to me this year. Sometimes I have it on the kitchen table, other times it is on this one outside the door.

The early light playing on the worn beauty of it draws me to look closer – the tiniest of stones are stuck tightly into the spiral – and then I find I’m out the door! Yesterday, that meant going out and while looking about, finding that rain had washed the trees of more unneeded limbs that had to be cleared from the lawn. After that, the weeds called; I was glad when evening came!

More August offerings of beauty:

It was surprising to go to the door and find the magnolia leaves thinking of autumn.

Stitching in time

Somewhere in the deep storage of memories, I remember a quilt – 2 in fact. I guess they were really just coverlets, no batting for warmth. But they brought a comfort, coming out of the depths of the old sofa bed storage whenever one of us was sick and the couch became our daybed.

One was made of squares of shirting fabric embroidered with simple designs that I recognized from Christmas cookie cutters: circles, diamonds, hearts, flowers, Scottie dogs… block letters spelled a child’s name.

The other quilt was made of circles of the same kind of fabric gathered into tight little bunches – “yo-yos” I now know. A few found in an old sewing box many years later stirred the memory and a small piece was born from my scrap box and needle.

Slightly larger circles by the dozens have taken shape in waiting times and places and fill a large basket.

Recently, in this lovely book by Jane Brocket, I saw much larger yo-yos or as she calls them, Suffolk Puffs. I made a template and gathered some fabrics.

I am so pleased by the varied appearance the different sized puffs produce and especially these large ones. I enjoy the repetitive, simple stitching in waiting times and long rides. No expertise with a needle is required for this project. Jane gives directions in her book, but if you just happen to have a circle of fabric and needle and thread handy and want to give it a try, Heather Bailey has a lovely tutorial on her blog.

A few months ago, I sat stitching, keeping busy, keeping calm in a hospital waiting room with incessant TV. From time to time, I would look up and see someone’s eyes fastened on my work. I wondered if it was just something to focus on beside the screen or if somehow memories of quilts known or hands sewing were being stirred and offered some comfort to the anxious waiting there.

A quick search of Pinterest + yo-yos will show you an amazing amount of creativity springing from such a simple craft.

Vintage stitching

I decided to share my vintage crewel work because this bird always makes me laugh. A dodo, I presume, showing off under the Tree of Life design.

Building a quilt

I’ve loved using these reproduction fabrics – for years. And while I have loved them I am also glad to be coming to the end of them now.

It will be interesting to see the end result in its riot of color. I’ve made many things with these fabrics but never the queen size Dresden Plate design quilt of “Every Day Dishes” that I had in mind at the first. For me, quilting can be like that unless I am very determined from the outset to make all the fabric ‘behave’. And that, I must confess, has nothing to do with the fabric and everything to do with a creative mind galloping on imagining other possibilities and making a small quilt or two or five and a few other projects along the way until there is just a pile of scraps. More cutting and lots of sewing till show and tell and then I will be the most surprised!