March 22, 2021 – Wave on wave (revised 4/20/21)March 22, 2021 – Wave on wave — March 23, 2021 – Procrastination
One of my new year intentions was to try doing my daily stretching in the morning after breakfast and blog reading. So far mornings seem to be working much better than afternoons, when I’m often involved in doing something (or nothing) and talk myself out of it.
My routine is a series of modified Pilates moves that keeps me relatively limber and my back pretty much pain-free. It hardly qualifies as exercise as I take it very easy, but paying attention to my breath, I find it can be meditative.
Inevitably, as I start with long, slow stretches, my breathing recalls the rhythm of ocean waves breaking and retreating. With eyeglasses off and hearing aids out, I close my eyes and imagine being on the beach in Avon.
Progressing to somewhat quicker movements, I’m transported to Shelter Island and the Peconic Bay, with the soft lap-lap-lap of tiny wavelets and the shushing of shifting shells.
But maddeningly, with the tap-tap-breath, tap-tap-breath of the final moves, I find myself “walking” through the imaginary world of Myst, complete with soundtrack.
Seriously? Not what I’d choose, but my mind will go where it will.
Anyway, choosing an indigo linen patch and some variegated Deb thread for a series of watery waves was an easy call. Likewise, the sandy tan for the next patch.
The Procrastination patch was inspired by Dee’s blog post, aptly titled Avoidance and Chores. After reading it, I sent her this poem by Billy Collins …
which in turn inspired me to consider long rows of ants. Like this maybe? Ewwww …
I couldn’t quite bring myself to stitch life-like ants. So I read the poem again, focusing this time on the phrase “cover pages with tiny sentences” to find my way to rows of Jude’s glue stitches …
Much better.
Addendum: Or not … in the end the Procrastination patch was revised to include one silken ant.
March 20, 2021 – Spring greenMarch 21, 2021 – E’s someday quilt (revised 4/20/21)March 21, 2021 – E’s someday quilt
I commented over at Jude’s blog today that there’s nothing like spring green, but this patch was actually made on March 20th when the world tipped us into Spring (while it likewise tipped our Australian friends into Autumn).
Tina’s bright green cloth was a perfect match for the trees leafing up outside my stitching window. And it occurred to me that the same green appears in one my favorite paintings …
purchased many years ago at the antique mall in Williamsburg, Virginia for not more than $50 …
It’s signed Grace Badkins, who I tried to track down on the internet when we first bought the painting …
I tried again recently and this time I found her in the 1940 Census …
which had been released since the last time I looked …
I even found her mother-in-law’s obituary which revealed that she lived at 109 Matoaka Court, a street well-known to us back in the day …
And I couldn’t help thinking, if only we had internet resources like this back when I was a research librarian at Colonial Williamsburg … my job would have been far simpler!
Anyway, to wrap up a very long story, I made patch with a bit of Tina’s dye magic, taking a cue from the railing in the last close-up of Grace’s painting and adding a dark band on top and a bit of satin stitch to top it off …
The story of the second patch is simpler. Sunday, March 21 was a day full of the Grand Ennui (with thanks to Mike Nesmith for naming the feeling in his song of the same name, and to Walt Wilkins for covering it).
Not feeling at all like stitching, I spent the better part of the day deconstructing Ellis’s outgrown baby clothes in preparation for making her a coverlet, along with a patch to mark the day I officially started …
I guess you could say I’ve got my work cut out for me 😉
I'm Going to Texas (version 2.0) 