Small Miracles

Earlier this week I had to finally do something about the front lawn. With all the heat and rain and sunshine the grass is growing pretty quickly. I'm grateful to have a large shade tree in the front and one day this past week, I think it was Monday the humidity dropped just a tad and the breeze was blowing and it was cooler to be outside then inside. I didnt have the energy to mow with the mower so I ended up weed eating the whole front yard. Haha.. And I am so glad that I did. When I first got started I was going along and at some point had to stop and when I looked down to where I had just cut the grass I have to laugh but I thought it was .. uhhh .. well dog waste is a nice way to put it. haha  I was in the area that they generally go when I haven't taken them on a walk. I looked again and thought maybe it was a stone but then I recognized those three little protrusions on it's back.. yep it was a baby box turtle. And I am so amazed yet again that I have a turtle come to me .. why? I find that I must discover this answer.. but in the mean time .. I quickly go to get my blue gloves and pick up the turtle and make sure all is ok ..

Here he is .. about the size of a silver dollar. I put my hand in the photo to show it's size. I was so delighted to see that the turtles are apparently flourishing in my neck of the woods.!! Isn't he just the cutest thing? So tiny. So alive .. thankfully unharmed!! I'm so grateful! And I have gone back now and reread a passage on Turtle Medicine from a book that a friend has shared with me. One thing that really popped out is this; " If you have chosen the Turtle symbol you are being asked the honor the creative source within you, to be grounded to the Earth, and to observe your situation with motherly compassion. Use the water and earth energies, which represent Turtle's two homes, to flow harmoniously with your situation and to place your feet firmly on the ground in a power stance. Turtle is a fine teacher of the art of grounding." and futher on it states, " The corn that is harvested before its time is not yet full. However if it is given the chance to develop at it's own rate, in its own season, its sweetness will be shared by all." There is so much more .. perhaps I will spend more of today rereading this and thinking about it. Either way I am honored to have these little beings showing up a lot in my day.

 His underbelly seems to have this semi peace symbol on it .. I'ts so small that the connections of the spaces are so big and as they grow those spaces which look to me like a road map, get smaller and smaller. I love this little guy. I took him to my back yard where I never use the weed eater or mower. I put him into the tall grass where he'd be sort of hidden. I hope he finds a safe place to be .. where he will thrive and live a long life. It will be interesting to see if I run into it later if I will be able to tell by the design on its belly. Might be kind of interesting. and it would mean i would have to be here a lot longer.

Now there is one more creature that showed up and one that I have also posted about before. I guess I have to say I never expected this to happen. But it was definitely a delight to experience!! I have photographed and even posted about life at a snails pace and oddly enough both the turtle and the snail move through the world slowly, plodding along and both have shells for protections. This one was inside of a coffee cup that I'd left outside and was taking in. I thought it was a grain of sand or a rock and thankfully I am learning to look closer and to actually see .. even the small things. As I looked I saw that it was a teeny tiny snail. So small probably less then 1/4 inch. more like 3/16ths haha. it was bigger than a 1/8th. Anyway .. I decided to take some photos while I had it sitting in my hand because I had the camera in my pocket. While I was photographing the tiny shell the little guy inside decided to come out and then .. i was ultra fascinated!!! so tiny and yet so perfect in every way .. you can even see the hairs and the texture of my skin that it crawled over .. so amazing!!! I also realize that there are alot of photos here but I just had to share all of them because they are so amazing to me. I know that somehow their influence will show up in the stitching. They already have. And it serves as a serious reminder that plodding along .. going slow .. is a very very good thing! You can click on the photos to see them larger. I realize that I had to share them because I simply love the beauty of its tiny delicate body and the way that the light glistens on it's body. It truely seems like a soulful creature to me. Thanks for stopping over!!

The Magic Begins!!!

Its been a while since I have posted but it just seems that I have had so much going on and yet not that much. Time is always strange to me. And given that the heat is just so intense I have to make sure my four legged friends have all their needs met and then I just have to leave to get a break from the heat. It's stiflingly hot!!!! I haven't seemed to be able to do too much stitching. But I have done some. My mood of gratefulness has transitioned into the rote actions of day to day life and yet every day something wonderful seems to show itself to me to keep me always thinking how wonderful life is .. inspite of some things that aren't so pleasant. One of the really wonderful experiences that I am having right now is participation in the Magic Diaries Workshop of Jude Hill. If you are interested in taking an online workshop that allows you to go at your own pace and you like slow stitching, try it!!! She's fantastically talented and you won't be disappointed!! If you already follow her then you know all this. I have been thinking about the stitching and what cloth I want to create over the time of the Workshop which will be six months and the first month is almost over. Where does the time go? I have several things going at the same time. Most of what I will post about here are things I will probably give away.

Above is something that will be a gift. I can't really talk about it now but I will tell you that it's on a green blanket which you can sort of tell. I purchased this at a thrift store because I loved the color and the satin trim just seemed to call to me. I have stitched tear drops on the edge in triangles I call it the edge of tears. And the center on this is a discharged tshirt that my son did. I found it somehow poignant that he found the tshirt on the road and decided to discharge it.( I taught him how and it's something we like to do together). I love the fact that it looks like an explosion. I had a sort of explosion in my life many years ago. I have started to stitch it from the center outward and will add more and more to this .. the edge of tears may be the only green that will remain when it's finished.  I love how easy it is to stitch on and I love the way that the stitches sink into the fabric and its so soft and comforting.

I have thought about the fact that I am making this with a tshirt that was discharged because I was thinking that this could and may fade over time. But one of the things that I hear Jude talking about in the workshop is what she calls Design Mending. If anything goes wrong or needs fixing she just incorporates it into the design however she decides to mend it. So I love this idea.. that maybe in the future someone or myself will repair or design mend this. I like that.  I have this feeling this post will be so long because I have so much to say .. I may just write another post. The next thing that I want to share about is the turtle memorial that I am working on. I still continue to have the turtles showing up atleast once a week or more. I see them in the road or in my yard. When I found the dead turtle while walking the dogs I was pretty upset and decided to do a stitched cloth for it's memory. The same day Jude found a dead bird and did a cloth for it.. it was gorgeous. It has taken me several weeks to get this far.. Here is what I have so far.

The top piece is an eco dyed piece of silk that reminds me of the shapes on the under belly of the turtle that died. and I wanted it to be at the top of this rectangle to signify its ascent to another world where ever that is. I added the leaves which are also eco-dyed, India Flint style, and I have stitched around all the leaves and will continue to stitch more. The leaves are here to remind me of the beauty of nature that the turtle lived in a short time. And the bottom reminds me of the grass or the ground where the turtle lives. I mentioned above the stitching on silk is so wonderful and I have stitched onto the same green blanket material and it leaves all the stitches with texture, which I love! Below are more details. I have to say that the darker green color was caused by the ribbon that I used to tie up the bundle. It was a minty green and some of the color transferred to the silk. I never thought about this possibility when I tied it up but I was pleased with the result. I am pleased to finally post something that is about my stitching. I think I'm going to go do more tonight while  lying on my bed in front of the fan .. it's the most comfortable space for me to be in. Thanks for stopping over .. !

 Oh and one last image is a quilt that I am making for a friends new grandson that was born about six weeks early so I thought I'd have more time to work on this but I don't. So... i may work on this more, I have just laid out a few things on this black blanket that will become an oversized baby quilt/wall decoration. The center image is a leopard that I did with bleach, it was an idea I had a while back and finally executed. I love the idea of it. The two side pieces are just animal print fabric. The baby room is a jungle theme and this may be too extreme for a baby room but .. its what I had planned. So hopefully they will like it. I think thats it for now! haha!