inhale...exhale...relax your shoulders...repeat as often as needed

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

triptych 39




june will be all about...

something old,
something new,
something borrowed,
something blue.

i invite you to follow along here
at sow and sew life
as i find shelter during a very busy month.

-blue and whites found at the annual vintage linen sale
at the gifford medical center auxiliary thrift shop.
(some are destined for the next indigo dye pot.)
-blueberry blossoms
it just might be happening...

xo

Sunday, May 28, 2017

heaven scent



my grandmother's ewer
and some vermont lilacs.

Friday, May 26, 2017

still learning...


On Monday I attended the Vermont Ethics Network's spring gathering in Fairlee, VT. Perspectives at End-of-Life:Suffering, Consciousness and the Power of a Patient's Narrative included plenary sessions, an interfaith panel discussion and breakout sessions. 

Two of the speakers were outstanding.

Pulitzer Prizer Winner and Director of Narrative Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, Michael Vitez , had us spellbound with his passion for storytelling.

Koshin Paley Ellison, co-founder of the New York Zen Center for Contemplative Care, the first Zen-based organization to offer fully accredited ACPE clinical chaplaincy training in America literally had me at hello. He transformed a room full of health care professionals (and at least one volunteer chaplain) into a quiet, pensive group of listeners. I have ordered his book, Awake at the Bedside, because I know I have much more to learn from this kind man.

One of Koshin Paley Ellison's questions to the gathering on Monday was, "Do you have 5 people in your life that you know would drop everything to be with you if you needed them?" 

And, "How do we practice kindness as a way of life?"

I'm still thinking about all that I heard and experienced on Monday...

How about you, dear readers...what are you "still learning" about?


Thursday, May 25, 2017

still catching up...




Early on Sunday my Mumsie and brother Doug arrived from Massachusetts for a quick, 24 hour visit. After thick slabs of coffee cake, Batman and Doug started work on the deck railings and my Mumsie and I headed out to buy some Japanese Indigo seedlings here. I made a little balsam sachet for Jennifer (I do love to make tokens of appreciation!) made from cloth I dyed with indigo plants I bought there last year. The new seedlings are planted here at our "bit of earth" and are being drenched (which they love) by a steady rain this afternoon. Safely railed, the deck feels ready for boisterous conversation, small supper gatherings, afternoon tea parties and quiet reflection. A few pots of flowers and we'll be good to go. Hauling old cedar siding out from under the crawl space, Doug whipped up an impromptu lattice screen to hide said crawl space. Later in the afternoon, we painted more coats on the walls in the three season porch and put up trim around the ceiling. Doug has just one speed and it's full steam ahead. I so appreciate that he has showered us with his skill and loving attention here at our "bit of earth".  And having my Mumsie on site, supervising the many projects was an added bonus. 

In the meantime, everything has popped into flower...the crab apples, the lilacs, the pear trees, the forget-me-nots, the grape hyacinths and the daffodils. The dandelions are having a banner year, with fields swathed in their cheerful yellow carpets.

Life is brimming and full...and there's so much more ahead...

Wednesday, May 24, 2017

a folkwear baby jacket



On Friday I hit the road early in the morning. I drove west, up and over both the Warren Mountain Road and the Lincoln Gap. Everything was sparkling with the raindrops that had fallen overnight, caught by the early morning sunlight. From both summits, the beautiful Green Mountains of Vermont spread out in front of me, dappled with shadows caused by the light clouds floating in the bluest of skies. I pulled over more than once to sigh. Contented sighs are the best, aren't they?

When I arrived at Basin Harbor Resort, an eight foot long table and chair was waiting for me. Our Vermont Modern Quilt Guild was in the midst of our four day spring retreat! (Batman and I try to reserve weekends for the wedding prep "to do" list, and so I was delighted that I was able to be a "day retreater"). 

How much fun is it to hang out with kindred spirits, sharing quilting and sewing tips, doing "show and tell" with projects and enjoying food we did not have to prepare or clean up??? Super fun!

I was able to get this little jacket nearly finished. Started almost a month ago, it has had soooo much love stitched into it, both by hand and by machine. 

I used up lots of scraps of both fabric and batting while sewing this project. I did purchase new fabric for the lining and the binding. The jacket is quite sturdy and thick...good for the chilly winters in Sweden. Sewn up in a size two, it will be something the new babe (due in June) will grow in to.

Patchwork, sewing and quilting.

After listening to the news, sometimes I feel like I am trying to stitch the whole world back together again. 

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

place holder


will post more tomorrow.
i promise.
xo

Saturday, May 20, 2017

still here


the wedding countdown/"to do" list is getting a bit crazy!
priming some trim for the three season porch today.
a chore, yes, but that view...not too shabby.

up to my eyeballs in so many things. 
will update on tuesday.

how about you, dear readers?
what have you been up to in may?
xo

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

beauty


"Beauty will save the world"
-Feodor Dostoevski

#persist

Saturday, May 13, 2017

my annual mother's day post



Mother's Day Proclamation

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by
irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be
taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From
the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance
of justice."

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons
of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a
great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,
to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the
means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each
bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a
general congress of women without limit of nationality may be
appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at
the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the
alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement
of international questions, the great and general interests of
peace.

Julia Ward Howe
Boston
1870

(Written in response to the carnage of the Civil War. The original intention of Mother's Day, a call for peace)

Thursday, May 11, 2017

measuring

this week i've been measuring my time
by bobbins used and
steps taken. 

:-)

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

light from afar


from my beloved earlham college.
a baccalaureate address that brought me to tears.
brew some tea and look here.
The Labor of the Lost Cause.

the Light. 

always, the Light.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

flurries




flurries in these "higher elevations" for two days in a row.
i was chatting with a friend and told her this must be the rent we pay for our view!
and ugh. the sliminess in d.c. just gets slimier by the day.
what's a girl to do?
pull out a bag of last summer's pumpkin puree from the freezer,
bake a nice loaf of pumpkin bread and then close myself into my sewing studio with my best friend.
the wee jacket is coming along, bit by bit (the back, above).

escapism in the kitchen and the sewing studio.
who's with me?

Monday, May 8, 2017

tiny treasures

i just came in from a little ramble around the yard.
it looked like rain, so i hurried along.
i was wrong.
it's a snow squall that chased me in.
it swept across the valley and is swirling 
around the corners of the house.

scilla and hyacinth,
a bit of birch...
tucked gently into my pocket.

a fossil,
some small rocks...
from my treasure trove
of tiny things.

maybe i'm channeling the collectors of long ago,
like beatrix potter (did you know she was a botanist?)
and charles darwin
and some funky and quaint museums, too.

do you have treasures from the natural world
tucked into your home?


Saturday, May 6, 2017

three years

 our very own ramps.
a vermont delicacy.
read about foraging etiquette here.
 ferns down by the vernal stream...
bubbling over the stone wall.
 unfurling in the misty, wet, soggy conditions.
 trout lilies, budded but not yet blooming.
 tiny leaves and lichen.
 daffodils from opening day at the 
and the rainy, misty, foggy days on end.

celebrating three years as full time vermonters this week.

xo

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

light and dark





all at the same time.

truth.

Monday, May 1, 2017

a month of stitching::day 30

so friends,
my month of stitching for at least an hour every
day and posting about it has come to an end.

and i'm just too tuckered out
(from more work on the to do list)! 
to reflect on it right now.

but i wanted to be sure to show you something
that has caught my eye.

the social justice sewing academy.

seriously. 

check them out 
here.
(the link is working properly now).