Bits and Bobs

Goodness, it's long past due for another post. As usual, I plead busy-ness. Too many meetings and projects and the call of the garden in spring. Here's a few random things that have caught my eye.

Front and back of an Oregon Grape (mahonia) leaf that I found on my driveway. I don't know what has got into it, whether disease or critter, but it is beautiful in it's decay.

I met my friend Elizabeth at the library to sit and stitch. All my stitching projects were scattered in various piles around the house, and I was running late, so I just grabbed a man's wool suit from the thrift shop that I meant to take apart.

Photo by Elizabeth Shefrin

The suit was a reject from the thrift shop where I volunteer. It stank of mothballs and tobacco smoke - we could never sell it, in spite of it being a high quality custom suit. It was fascinating to take apart, to see all the hand stitches and extra attention to detail, like the strip of cloth sewn into the inside of the the back of the hems on the trousers to protect against excessive wear.

Photo by Elizabeth Shefrin

I will put the pieces of cloth through the washer and dryer, and then they can be used for rug hooking.
Elizabeth, by the way, has a wonderful book coming out called the Embroidered Cancer Comic. She has stitched intimate and humourous comic strips about her and her husband's shared journey through his diagnosis with prostate cancer and the successful treatment. Find out more here: https://www.facebook.com/Embroidered-Cancer-Comic-944658088957550/?fref=ts

Here's a vast, inspiring project led by Rosalind Wyatt: The Stitch Lives of London. Please take the time to read through her site - I love both the concept and the realization, the epic yet human scale, the inclusiveness, the connection to geography and history and human lives.

Image from Rosalind Wyatt's Stitch Lives of London website.

 Now it's back to the garden for me, where I am attempting to construct a screen for the big water cistern at the front of the house, using driftwood branches, wire and the twin powers of balance and gravity. Wish me luck.