Light and Dark

The light has been beautiful the last two evenings…

Now it fades, as the longest day of the year draws to a close.  Boys are abroad.  School ended today.

This is week two of a new full-time job, and my head is still spinning with all the changes, so this post is brief — Jack needs a walk, and the Stieg Larsson book calls, too.

Happy Solstice!

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Connections

One of the happy surprises of Facebook, for me, has been getting in touch with my father’s side of the family.  My Uncle Dick had five kids, whom we rarely saw growing up and therefore barely knew.  They grew up in Queens, packed into a tiny stand-alone.  We grew up in various four-bedroom houses in suburban neighborhoods.  We moved every two or three years and thus came from nowhere, while they were rooted to a single block of their borough.  I got ballet lessons, piano lessons, skiing lessons, new clothes.  They got a lot less.

But how much there is in common!  Given what a biological determinist being a parent has made me, I’m not sure why this amazes me.  I have been corresponding, in particular, with my cousin Ginny.

In the process of emailing and talking on the phone, I have discovered a couple of things worth sharing — 1) that no matter what one’s means, life’s lessons are dealt and inner resources can be garnered; and 2) that family legends can be pure bunk.

One of my mother’s less generous habits was to vilify my father and his family.   A classic statement of hers, which both sums up years of name calling and gives you a pretty good indication of my mother’s capacity for cutting commentary, was:  “My family may have been nuts, but his was cruel.”  Along similarly insulting lines, it was considered that all the creative talent in my family came from my mother and her side of the family.  My father, an engineer, was deemed methodical and persistent, at best, and at worst, a drone.

The creative gene WAS passed to me and my siblings by my mother, there is no doubt, but when I discovered what a talented painter, beautiful photographer and prodigious blogger my cousin Ginny is, I realized I had been sold a bill of goods about my father’s side of the family (although meanness, there, did reside).

This is by way of a long introduction to the photos of the Boro House, above.  After I ‘planted’ the house out front near my sedum, I decided to send it to Ginny on Long Island, where she lives and blogs (although I believe most of her writing is done on the train commuting to NYC.  It’s worth a look –  Life in Crab Meadow).  In the meantime, she has sent me a whole package of vintage aprons (!!!) and a set of antique embellished collars and cuffs stitched in Japan.

I love the idea of being connected, now, by cloth and stitches.  This house was made in my house and is now planted in HER garden.  And, I now make dinners wearing one of the aprons that Ginny gave to me.  Cloth and stitches, making connections, even though we haven’t seen each other since our grandmother died decades ago (was I 14?  16?)

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Things sprouting

Here are my basil seedlings.  This soil has been a little too wet, so they aren’t as far along as they might be, which is to say, we could use a couple of HOT days right about now.

The Treasure Island quilt has progressed quite a bit since the last post about it, and quite a bit since this photograph.

I have included many creatures in it, including turtles, fish (such HAPPY fish), a zebra, long-legged birds — OH, and snakes.

In my first post about this commission, I talk about how I was asked not to make this quilt scary.  So, I went back and forth about the snakes, but ultimately included them, since it is my experience that young boys adore snakes.  Not only do they represent power, both male and female (being sacred to the Goddess in many cultures), their “S”-shaped bodies are one of several visual motifs that act as a path to the house-shape where sanctuary and healing are to be found.

The SoulCollage card features a photograph of Vidal Sassoon and his son, I believe.  I added the moon background.  To me, the images are about the healthy maturation of a young boy made possible by a healthy relationship with a well-integrated father.  Look at that son!  His elegant youthfulness, his easeful and natural pose bring such gladness to this viewer!  Not only is he comfortable in his own skin, he seems to be comfortable sporting a very LARGE snake — which any way you look at it, HAS to bode well for his future.

(And let’s not forget the mother — who, here, is represented not just by the full moon, but by the night, itself).

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teeny-scenery

This fragment surfaced during the flood clean up. I had set it aside to reincorporate into a larger piece, but when I saw it again, it looked complete. Added the background grid, some of the up and down stitching over the black and zig-zagged the edges. The wonderful house in black outline and tree came from a pair of Capris.

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Pieces assembling, then flying off

Time feels like it is flying by!  I spent a good week and a half on the big Global Warming quilt before I got busy with several gardens.  At last report, I was sticking to the idea of one big quilt.  For most of the winter, the temptation to fragment and ‘finish up’ in smaller sections seemed like one to resist.  But finally, the time came when it just got ridiculous to try and make it work.

So!  This first image is a newly freed fragment.  It needs an edge along the bottom and quilting.

I also have two other sections near completion — they are still deciding whether they too, will be solos, or unite as a single quilt.   Here they are (below), one stacked on top of the other.

My guess is that beyond these two (or three) quilts, I have patchworked sections enough for at least three, and possibly four, more quilts.

In the meantime, here’s a pretty sight from a boat ride this past weekend.

And here’s where the guys and I had dinner tonight:

This is the view just over the deck rail — my neglected backyard!

K. and I finished the current season of Mad Men — just in time.  I’d just about had it with Betty Draper — although she’s a more interesting and tolerable character when she is suffering, I’ve decided.  Off to bed now.  Just about finished with “The Good Doctor” by Damon Galgut, one of the many (MANY!!) good books that I scored recently at the high school’s used book sale (I was so grateful for my booty, I volunteered to help organize it next year… is it that, or do I want to have first picks?!!!)

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