Fog, Frogs and Feathers

I seem to have less time these days and I find I miss the quiet of staying home for days at a time. We've had a lot of rain and with rain comes fog and frogs. I don't know why but it seems that I find some creatures in my yard just as they are about to have their last breath. I am always somehow overwhelmed and honored to have to be aware of this. My Molly dog who is a cute little Miniature Dachshund of a brindle coloring is born to hunt and seek out all living creatures ... can't imagine why she is this way but it's just her nature. I'd rescued a toad from her before but a week or so ago I was a bit too late. She suffered for it with a mouth full of foam, I wiped her mouth clear and put her inside and went to check on the toad. I can't tell you how sorry I felt that this toad seemed to have been fatally injured. There were no puncture wounds however he just seemed to have a look to him. I took him back to my back yard and explained to him that he might have better stayed back there where there were no dogs to find him or dig him out of his hiding spot. Molly will relentlessly dig to find something. I sprinkled rain water over his fat body and he would move but with great difficulty. I sang him a lullaby. Silly, a grown woman singing to a toad. And finally I had to walk away and hope that I was somehow just being too worried and hoping as I passed around the corner of my house that he would have miraculously recovered and hopped away .... but alas it was not so and he had passed.

It seems appropriate that some of the days were gloomy, I miss the toad.


And now to what I enjoy doing. Lately, it's stitching and following Magic Diaries and the Spirit Cloth blog of Jude Hill. Besides all the wonderful workshops that she teaches she is also doing a project called The Magic Feather project. She hopes to collect 1000 feathers. She is thinking of giving a creation with these to Wendy Golden-Levitt . Here is my feather that I have put many hours into. I guess I always think I have to be different. Everyone was stitching the actual feather so I thought I would stitch everything around the feather. I wanted the intent to give to somehow be evident. The cloth that is here is a baby bassinet sheet. One I used on a bassinet that was mine, and I'm certain that each one of my three babies lay on it at one time or another. My daughter had it and decided she wouldn't be using it because it just doesn't fit the new kinds of bassinets. So for some reason I couldn't discard it and instead I rust dyed it and ripped it into many cloths. I love the way that Jude will sometimes draw outlines or images to stitch and so I had intended to draw the feather first and see what I would do. I stitched the center of the feather and liked the drawing and thought maybe my stitching would take away the lightness of the way that feather appeared in the drawing. The pen is a black ink pen made for drawing on fabric that I have used and it won't wash out but even if it fades what will be left is all the shape of the feather. Either way I am sure it will imply feather. It was at this point that I had decided that the stitching would be outside the feather. I intended loving thoughts into each stitch. I carried this little piece of cloth in my purse with a needle and a thread and every time I had a moment to be still and quiet I would take this out and stitch. There are many hours in this and last night I was with friends, some that were hurting and some that were comforting the ones that hurt and I stitched and listened and made the last stitch. Later I was about to stitch my name somewhere on it and the needle fell to the floor. I was in a restaurant sitting in a booth. I felt around for the needle but couldnt find it. I guess I'll have to find another one... but i'd grown attached to it. Silly. I wonder if I did too much when she wanted something simple. I guess I wanted to give my best love into a feather stitching which is time and energy. mostly just to give.

So if you would like to add a feather to her collection please follow the link above on her name and click on the Magic Feather Project and find some wonderful words and magical inspiration and make a feather, any kind at all, so she can reach that goal. And be a part of something magical. :) Oh dear .. I almost forgot the back .. I love the way the back turned out too!!!  aaaaccckkkk. here it is: