Deep in the heart of Texas

Sheila sang her way from Massachusetts to the Hill Country ...

Then she landed on our breezeway and promptly led a sing-along 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=XlXW3o9jB6s

as I stitched on Mo's dream ...

Really Dee, she's amazing!

https://deemallon.wordpress.com/2017/10/15/sheila-makes-her-own-season/

Like Braille

Rod's words feel amazing on Mo's satin, front ...

and back ...

Although I need to clarify that the back shown here will actually be the front upon which the cloth shreds will hang ...

while Rod's lyrics to I dream of a world will be entirely readable from the back ...

A double A-side, if you will.

I did stitch a few more shreds, too. A bit of Ulrike (Nemo Ignorat) cloth ...

more Deb Lacativa cloth ...

And this pair, stitched on indigo-dyed cloth gifted by Hazel at Handstories ...

Dream state

When I first thought about how it might go with Mo's pennon, I envisioned it stitched in words from John Lennon's Mind games including the lyric "love is the answer." I even went so far as to track down the copyright holder in order to request permission to use the lyrics in their entirety.

Of course, it didn't quite go in that direction. Instead, the cloth shreds emerged and began populating the space.

But as the shreds reached a critical mass, my mind returned to the original thought ... with a twist. What if I used Old Man Crow's lyrics? 

So I asked for and received permission to use the words from Rod Morgan's I dream of a world and set to work. 

As posted yesterday, first the pennon was dyed with windfall lichen, which gave it a beautiful golden glow ...

Then I plotted out on paper how the lyrics might fit onto the pennon ...

and finally began to stitch the vision into reality ...

I'm thinking this may take a while.

Lichening

We have windfall lichen in abundance ...

scattered in the leaf litter ...

beneath the live oaks ...

It was easily gathered ...

then laid upon Mo's satin pennon ...

which was folded over ...

rolled and bound ...

Layered above and below with more lichen-clad twigs, which will provide tannin ...

then covered in boiling tap water and left to steep, the heady fragrance of rain-soaked woods drifting from the pot ...

The hardest part will be the waiting.

Addendum:

A sneak peek ...

So far, the cotton tie is picking up more color than the satin.

Continuing

Lyrics from the song "Wild Things" used with permission ...

"The wild things are out there chasing the sun"

 from Mo's magnificent opus The Illustrated Lyrics of Old Man Crow ...

Look carefully in the lower right corner ...

A quote from Wendell Berry ...

"Again I resume the long lesson"

A long-held belief from my days attending Quaker meetings ...

"War is not the answer"

and this ...

namaste

Shred on ...

So it goes (on Deb Lacativa cloth) ...

word by word ...

mending our beautiful ...

shred by shred ...

broken world ...

thought by thought (rust "dyed" muslin) ...

stitch by stitch (shred destined to be replaced)

Hope held in cloth (a Clarissa Pinkola Estes quote on onion dyed muslin) ...

we were made for these times

daring to defy our current reality (indigo shibori) ...

I dream of a world ...

and believe that dreams could come true ...

where love is the answer

an answer to Mo's call (a Terry Tempest Williams quote on thimble flower dyed muslin) ...

Finding beauty in a broken world is creating beauty in the world we find

growing day by day ...

How it happened

Last night, as we celebrated the anniversary of our meeting, the moon was full.  This morning, I woke to Marti's comment, "imagine love."

So I looked through my hand-dyed cloth box for a certain scrap of muslin, made with Logan at the Outer Banks. It is now green, which is Marti's favorite color, but it started out purple, as you can see here

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/search/label/Dyestuff%3A%20Blanket%20flower%20%28Galliarda%29

Having used this pale green cloth for Marti's peace pin, 

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2017/03/kindred-spirit.html

there was a tail left from tearing it ... a perfect cloth shred. 

I began stitching "imagine" in shades of wild Deb Lacativa green, but then it occurred to me that I could use Deb's wild purples for the word "love" to echo the original cloth.

Knowing that pale green doesn't photograph well against my usual black backdrop, I rooted around for something else and came up with a bit of bleach discharged denim. And even though the green still isn't true, it seemed like the best choice.

So that's how today's cloth shred emerged, thought by thought ...

imagine love

Thanks Marti!

Imagine that ...

Senator Cornyn is actually considering the possibility of a ban on bump stocks (insane contraptions that turn semi-automatic weapons into virtual machine guns), which we have all learned about as a result of the Las Vegas mass shooting rampage. It took over sixty tries to get through to his office today ... I have no doubt the NRA was flooding the phone lines. All the more reason to keep trying (by comparison, it took but one call to get through to Senator Cruz's office).

This arrived, the coolest envelope ever, from Fiona ...

another call from Australia and response from Texas ...

although I confess Don claimed one for the hearth ...

where my daily shreds are beginning to accumulate on Mo's satin pennon ...

Certainly you have to love this earthbound orb...

a moon in a mushroom ...

or so it seemed to me, glowing in the early morning light.

Finally, imagine this: Don and I met on a blind date 43 years ago today, first commemorated in this 2009 post:

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2009/10/dancing-bear-love-song-in-two-parts.html

We'll celebrate with hamburgers on the grill followed by leftover cake with our after-dinner decaf.

I'm sure we'll count our blessings ...