When we were in the throes of selling the house, then packing and moving, I didn’t have much creative energy … so I made patches.
Now that we’re settling in, I’m starting to stitch them together …
The light is perfect for iPhone-ography, here showing off the b-side …
And as I began the next row of patches, a working title occurred to me …
Ripples of Peace …
Of course, it’s not all fun and games … there are plenty more things to do. Here, for instance, is the tentative layout …
for one of the wall niches …
of which there are two, this being the second …
The niches weren’t my favorite feature of the new house (ditto all the moldings), but they’re growing on me.
Don’s work looks great in the niche! And the patchwork, like Jude’s, makes me swoon.
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Thanks Dee … from both of us
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P.S. I just copy edited the post … got a little full of myself with the new swipe-typing feature on the iPhone … gonna have to be more careful in the future
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What do you mean?
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The new IOS lets you trail your finger over the keyboard instead of hitting individual keys … very cool except it’s like autocorrect on speed
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Ah. Okay.
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love your ripples for peace and Don’s niche!
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thanks Mo … I’ve been humming Rod’s “Dream” as I stitch …
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Oh Liz I am so happy to see the space and the light and the niches are working for you. The ripples of peace are beautiful and I love how when the time is right we can build new things from the little things we can manage when in amongst it all. Don’s work looks brilliant in the niche and the dark background shows them off so well. Making new spaces and places your own is an interesting time, enjoy and discover and make and create!
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thank you for your gentle words … you and Barry are much in my thoughts, hoping the fires are soon quenched
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Don’s pieces are perfect in the niches. Those tiny stitches rolling thru it all. Revealing
sure as the tides.
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I just saw “Avon” in Don’s piece. We love the beach at Avon…going to OBX for Thanksgiving.
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I have wonderful memories of the one Thanksgiving weekend we spent at OBX … gallery hopping on Black Friday … nothing better
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Ah, I do love the pull of tides
I’ll hold this thought as I stitch
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i rest here.
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I smile
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Stitch niches! A place for all the wonder-filled pieces you both have created and collected. Guessing new places need to grow on us as we grow on them. Miss you.
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Love the rhyme … and yes, we are setting roots down … growing
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I’m enjoying you design your new home with your and Don’s pieces. The home is lovely, so many cool nooks/niches, and love the moldings, and the many curves and high ceilings. Can’t wait to see how you and Don design the yard. xoxoox
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Thanks Deb … it’s such a change from our rustic Hill Country home, but I’m struck by how quickly this one is becoming ours
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Ah, those niches would be a big plus for me! I love ’em! Love the way Don’s work looks framed inside. Love that roadrunner and your ‘so you’ stitches. Peace be with us all. xo
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I think my initial response to the niches has to do with what was in them when we first saw the house … Don’s artwork makes all the difference! And the roadrunner is a copper piece made by a local artist … one of several that we have gotten over the years …
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Every corner of your home just embraces the creativity that springs forth from you and Don; to see his works, to see your cloth works, not only “ripples” of peace but ripples of homecoming, is so inviting.
Here in our little rental home, the niche is my favorite detail. My husband found our rental home while I was still in TN so this was the first time that we moved to a place that I had not chosen. When I saw the niche, I was enchanted, it just clicked: it seemed to echo a heartbeat of connection, a place to honor family, foraged gifts, cloth collages and old and new treasures…that’s the thing about creating a home, you bring out old treasures, find new ones and they become part of the heart of home. Your “heart” is coming along so beautifully and you and Don are just getting started.
AND I have to say YAY, that you will have a veggie garden, although I will admit that I loved how you arranged your pots of herbs, etc. on the frame of an old chaise lounge- see, your creativity knows no bounds!
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Thank you for this memory … we too moved into our Texas rental house, sight unseen by either of us as it was found by Meg when we sold our Virginia house … it had the most beautiful stonework fireplace.
And while the niches are definitely becoming “ours” it is the wide windowsills by my stitch chair that have truly captured my heart …
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P.S. We left the herb garden chaise behind at the Hill Country house … it just felt like it belonged there
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those niches are perfect for your displays (your Don is a miracle) and the puzzle patches are a treat, you may have felt less creative during the move but to me even preparing those ‘simple’ patches is an act of creativity, sending love to you 2 in your new home
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Thanks for the love … and I quite agree about Don
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It makes me very happy to gaze at your consistent well made stitching on both sides of your work. We looked at a couple house that had niches and also a surprising number of hand painted walls. Like the niches in your new Place a lot better than anything we saw. You’ve arranged the art and additional treasures so flawlessly. It’s a wonderful, wonderful thing.
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Your sweet words make me smile … thank you
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I would paint the inside edge of that niche with gold metallic paint.
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Hmmm … interesting you should say that. At one point I was imagining an adobe treatment for the New Mexico niche and driftwood for the beach niche … gilding hadn’t occurred to me, but now my mind’s eye is turning the idea this way and that
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Your ripples are wonderful, especially loving the cloth in the outside ring. Happy for you, with your new views, inside and out.
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This piece is a happy combination of Deb Lacativa dyed cloth and threads, rust dyeing from my first trials back in 2015, and Tierney Barden dyed cloth gifted by Sue McQ … all playing together quite nicely
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I love how the patches don’t line up with each other, yet seem perfectly ordered….a hint of rebellion and shape shifting in what at first glance seems to be a “regular” patch. Subversive. Also, I join the chorus in admiring the beauty of Don’s assemblages in their new niche homes. Way to showcase!
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Dana – one of my prouder library career moments was when an FBI memo characterized us as “radical militants” for protecting individual privacy (https://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/11/us/nationalspecial3/at-fbi-frustration-over-limits-on-an-antiterror-law.html)
So I’m loving your take on my subversive stitching … I continue to be amazed at how the patches piece themselves together with very little tweaking …
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