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?