Connections

I had been stitching the placket cloth with what were stream-like bands of color ...

But today it struck me that they wanted to be connected, hence the faint traces of future channels.

It puts me in mind of the connections I've made through the blog community, particularly during the Peace Pin Project. 

This past week I received a gift of hand-dyed cloth and a beautiful wrapped stone from Lisa at Kaizen Journey ...

The stone especially intrigued me ...

so I ventured onto Lisa's blog 

http://kaizenjourney.blogspot.com/

and found my way here ...

and then went beyond, to her beginning. It was a wonder-full going.

I also went to see Peggy at Woman with Wings

http://womanwithwingsblog.blogspot.com/2017/05/may-days.html

where yet another pin had landed ...

Likewise, Little P is on her own journey, here lifting her head to better see her world ...

then resting in Pop Pop's arms ...

And the antelope horn milkweeds are spreading their wings ...

bursting open ...

sending their seeds out into the world ...

giving to the future ...

It's all of a piece, if we just take the time to see.

Peace sightings

Three more peace pins are heading west to Dana in Washington, Catherine in New Zealand, and Bronwyn in Australia ...

There have also been sightings of other pins out in the world from Vicky ...
https://catinthebatt.blogspot.com/2017/04/patches-paint-peace.html

and Fiona ...
http://paperponderings.blogspot.com/2017/05/thursday-thoughts_18.html

Also sighted, these antelope horn milkweed seed pods about to open on the floodplain ...

On the family front, our St Louis daughter came to meet her new niece last Thursday ...

and took us (Meg, Don, and me) out to tea on Friday ...

She did put Parker down occasionally, including this slime-making session with G on Saturday (witnessed by G's class pet, named Bubblegum) ...

Then one more snuggle session on Sunday ...

before heading home ...

where she said the boys definitely looked bigger!

Project-ing

I've been re-working the flowers from the baby quilt debacle, adding thrifted ballet pink linen and trimmings from my mom's 40th anniversary linen dress ...

with the aim of collaborating on a project Don has underway ...

The end product, requested by Meg, is destined to be hung over Parker's crib ...

We'll keep you posted on progress. Not that I expect to get much done over the next few days as our younger daughter Meliss (seen here with our St Louis grands), is heading our way tomorrow ...

to meet her new niece ...

and go swimming with her nephew ...

Just in case there's a bit of free time, I'm bringing along the placket cloth which has progressed ...

And while I was hoping to follow directions in Jody Alexander's book The Boro Aesthetic to create a bag ...

I'm chronically incapable of following "recipes," so I started folding ...

and folding ...

and folding ...

Hmmmm, interesting ...

Or not. I'm never quite sure how things will turn out until I get there.

Continuing

Eight more peace pins are going into the mail today ...

Two are cochineal-dyed linen backed with cochineal-dyed silk for Anne in California and Coco in Washington (state) ...

The silk was slippery, to say the least, so I backed it with a fine, stiff linen, which reminded me of a novel entitled The Pink Suit. While I'm not usually a fiction fan, this book held me with its fictionalized description of the lining of Jackie Kennedy's iconic Chanel knock-off ...

Jude Hill's invisible basting stitch, aka glue stitch ...

Two more for Laura in New Hampshire and Peggy in Colorado, were dyed with cochineal on linen pre-mordanted with alum and tannin, then backed with windfall lichen dyed linen ...

The next two were a green/madder peach pairing for Sue in Illinois and an earthy lichen/croton pair of linens for Apronista Winona in New Mexico ...

Last, but not least lavender linens for Shelly in Washington (state) and bold reds for Sandy in Hawaii ...

Life lessons

This isn't what I expected to post for Mothers Day (so there will undoubtedly be more later), but this article in today's paper called out to be shared ...

http://www.mystatesman.com/entertainment/music/jimmy-lafave-transcends-cancer-teaching-through-the-magic-music/kohOXtjmk9xrVrFYBgpSDJ/

It's about local singer-songwriter Jimmy LaFave, a native of Oklahoma, but long-time Austin dweller. We heard him play, memorably, with Gretchen Peters and Kevin Welch, at a coffeehouse in Wimberley.

More recently, when we traveled through Oklahoma, we stopped at the Woody Guthrie Center ...

where we saw not only the iconic original lyrics to This Land is Your Land, but also these peace-full lyrics for a song unfamiliar to me that even so caused me to click the shutter ...

There was also art ...

and musical instruments ...

not just Woody's, but also iconic artists associated with him ...

And so, right after watching a piece about Woody Guthrie's life and music in the small theatre, I spotted this on the chair right in front of us ...

which led us to talk to the young guy at the front desk about the unexpected (to us) connection to Austin. Oh yes, Jimmy LaFave was well-known to him, would be playing a concert at the Center in late April, we should come. 

Not likely, we demurred. A new grandchild would be keeping us in Austin. Little did any of us know what was to come, detailed in the article above. The lesson writ large in words that left me in tears ...

Life is short. Make something of it ...

You've got (real) mail

How long has it been since I went to the mailbox with any sense of positive expectation? Rather, I've dutifully picked up bills, catalogs, and unwanted solicitations ... sometimes waiting days between mailbox visits unless deliveries of medications or other heat-sensitive materials were expected.

But now ...

I find hand-written notes and cards, some with added treasures tucked inside. There have been thanks for peace pins, congratulations for our new grandchild from Marti, and a love letter from our daughter Meg.

My hands opened to let go of tiny bits of cloth and I received in turn a hank of cotton floss to add to my next dye pot (thank you Beth) and parachute silk (!) from England to add as well (thank you Louise ... and thanks too for the wee collaged box that accompanied it). All of it unexpected.

But it was the words, handwritten and heart-felt, that I most appreciated. As Judy wrote, "I loved getting real mail!"

It's a lesson I won't soon forget.