gift making for maggie's second birthday

 smock stitched with a wiksten pattern,

using rifle paper company fabric i bought at gather here.

(the pattern has so many sizes...i'll be able to use it for years to come)
matching baby doll outfit stitched with mccall's pattern #M4338.

the fabric has gretta's favorite red clovers (vermont's state flower),

maggie's favorite daisies

and lovely forget-me-nots and ferns and golden rod.

...a little vermont meadow to wear in brooklyn.

xo

a birchy treasure bag, to take to the park for acorns, twigs and pebbles.

a snapfish book,

telling the story of cora and wilma.

gosh, i struggled mightily when i first sat down at the computer,

the format was not terribly intuitive...

but when i got things figured out, i had a blast
putting it together.

we went to brooklyn this past weekend to spend time with our
now two year old magpie.
she is full of spunk and sentences and independence.
we ate thai food, and bagels (of course),
played at the park (i even slid down the slide),
read so many books and played with blocks.

marmie, maggie and pizza pizza,

walking through a posh neighborhood to get to the farmers market

where we found brussels sprouts on the stem!

here are gretta and maggie,

curled up and close.

you may recognize one of those quilts...

here.

making homemade gifts for this dear wee one helps me feel

better connected to our city baby.

she may be far away, but now she has a few more things that connect our hearts,

crafted with love and care.

november blues

• A friend recently turned 75 and she did not want gifts at her lunch party. So I made her a gifty card. I used homegrown, hand dyed indigo, some quilt batting and some bits of salvaged birch to create a wintery scene. I had stitched up something similar years ago (10, in fact!) and revisited it earlier this week. She is an artist and has some curiosity about embroidery and I look forward to sitting with her in her studio in the next few weeks, introducing her to some basic stitches. I must confess, I have been meaning to play around with a hoop and floss, so this is just perfect timing.
• We brought the first pot of narcissus up from the root cellar, a bit on the early side of the holiday season. Hope in a bulb. Waiting to bloom. Fending off the chill.
• Winter came on cold and determined this week. On Wednesday it was 4 degrees F when we woke up, and the last bit of the beaver moon was high in the sky. I caught this photo out our bedroom window so it's a bit grainy...but the blue is true.

I can't wait to show you the fun little projects I put together for Maggie. It is such a joy to stitch tiny things. The cats and I spend many afternoons down in my sewing studio, listening to either the news or podcasts or music. Or sometimes we just soak in the sound of the wind outside. After they have savaged the tissue pattern pieces, made off with my leather thimble or managed to mess up the thread on my Bernina, they find their favorite spots to settle down and nap. I watch the garden beds fill with drifting snow and remember that for every time there is a season. The sun sets over the Greens and then we know it's time to think about supper. 

What are you cooking for supper, friends?

quiet days

Quiet, muted days have shared time with wild winds and a power outage. Plenty of time to hunker in and remember loved ones who have passed along through the veil of time. How did they navigate the world? How did they inspire others? What legacies have they left behind? 

I do so love to set time aside to consider these queries.

There's candlelight at supper now, and the time change has confused the cats about mealtimes.  According to Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department it's safe to put up bird feeders, as November 1st is when most bears have headed to their dens. 

A friend sent along a link to a Youtube treat. It's a 5 minute gem. Click here to watch it.

And, there's been some secret sewing going on. Maggie will be 2 tomorrow!

Oh, and "significant snow" is in the forecast...