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 ...

Secondary education

I wanted to play with secondary colors today: orange, green, and purple ...

So I used my rust-dyed muslin along with green-dyed damask (from Ulrike aka Nemo Ignorat) ...

and wild peace threads from Deb Lacativa (my preferred go-to of late) ...

One of these will be flying to Mo's friend Liz in Australia, while others are headed to Julie in England, Pam in Colorado, Sarah in Missouri, and Kendall in Texas.

I also called my members of Congress to leave a comment about the proposed tax reform. Unlike past calls, this time I reframed my explanation of how health care has impacted our budget and how tax reform will add a further burden. I told them that we live on x number of dollars from pension and IRA income, but that it costs us an additional 35-50% to pay for our health insurance and potential out of pocket deductibles ... that 35-50% is counted as taxable income, which is only partly relieved by itemizing our deductions. The new tax reform proposal would wipe out the health care deduction. And the failure of Congress to reform health care will likely increase our premiums and/or deductibles next year.

"Wow," said one staffer on the other end of the line. "Can I get your name and phone number? Someone on our policy team might want to get back to you for more information."

I don't know that our story will make a whit of difference, but if enough of us tell our stories maybe, just maybe, we might begin to change minds ... 

speak your truth

Meanwhile, I'm beginning to see these shreds of cloth thoughts as a new daily practice ... responses to Mo's call to stitch for our beautiful broken world.

Yes we can ...

We must do something. More and more, for me that means calling my members of congress and leaving messages with their phone answering staff. Today my plea was simple: please support legislation banning assault weapons.

Then I stitched a bit of cloth for Mo's project I dream of a world where love is the answer (to which there is now a link in the right sidebar). Words given to me by Marti in a recent comment ...

si se puede

An echo of a more hopeful time. 

We owe at least that much to the next generation. Which leads me to happier thoughts. I made a couple of baby bandannas for P using 12" squares of flannel folded diagonally in half, stitched up the sides, turned right side out, then Velcro-ed back and front ...

using this new (to me), lighter weight Velcro ...

with delightful results ...

And here, as promised, is the final result of the collaborative effort Don and I undertook for the nursery (not including the mobile, which my daughter found on Etsy) ...

If only life could be this simple ...

Tragic

Note: Parts of the original post were deleted in response to the Las Vegas shooting

---------------

 shreds of cloth ...

words stitched with peace thread ...

perhaps destined for Mo's pennon 

https://itscrowtime.wordpress.com/tag/i-dream-of-a-world-where-love-is-the-answer/

love is the answer
so faith, hope, love abide these three
hope springs eternal
despacito

Sometimes you've just gotta ...

... say "wow, thank you" to kindred spirits like Gillan

http://www.artbygillan.com/

(from Hearts for Charleston) ...

... marvel at dye magicians like Deb Lacativa 

http://morewgalo.blogspot.com/

(for Cassini threads and cloth) ...

... and shout ...

"What do we want?

Health care!

When do we want it?

Now!"

loud enough to make it onto the local news 

https://www.ksat.com/news/politics/sa-protestors-demonstrate-against-proposed-senate-health-care-bill

Although, as often happens, they only got the story half right. I was certainly in front of Senator Cruz's office to demonstrate for a "no" vote on Graham-Cassidy (which Cruz might do ... for all the wrong reasons). But keep my health care the way it is? No thank you at $25k per year, plus $12k deductible!

"ACA ... mend it, don't end it!"

And sometimes you've just gotta stitch how trees might be ... 

as in this study for The Land as the Crow Flies ...

made possible by wild peace floss.

Fly away home

A wonderful little boat sailed into my life yesterday ...

a gift from Hazel

http://handstories.typepad.com/blog/2017/09/giving-all-around.html

The colors took me back to this picture at the Outer Banks, where our oldest and youngest granddaughters met for the first time this past June ...

How did she know?

Hazel wrapped her gift in tie-dyed indigo ...

from which I tore a strip to make a birthday gift for my dear friend Barb in Virginia, stitched with what I have begun to think of as Deb Lacativa's wild peace floss ...

It was a little longer than the pins I've been making, which gave me an idea. What if I signed the inside ...

so the pin can also be worn asemically ...

Hmmm, I think I like it.

So I'm headed to the post office to send more peace pins out into the world ...

Ten to Kristin for the refugees she tutors and has mentioned in comments here. One to Tina in Wisconsin who sent an email request for a pin. One to Deb along with a check for more of her wild peace floss (aka Dirty Threads)

http://randomactsofdyeness.blogspot.com/2017/08/the-cassini-group.html

And one to Barb, of course.

Back in July when my once-upon-a-time college roommate came to visit we did lots of the usual tourist-type stuff, visiting a vineyard ...

heading to San Antone (and no, we didn't actually go into the Snake Farm) ...

and listening to music ...

At some point (ha!) along the way, Linda mentioned that her husband John (who didn't make it out to Texas this time) had mentioned wanting a dream catcher for his guitar. 

While she was here, I made her a couple of version 1.0 peace pins ...

But it wasn't until this week that I finally cobbled up a Lone Star version of a dream catcher, complete with Deb's floss and Cascade Trail turkey feathers ...

Now ready to fly away home ...