Raven and Sparrow

Four seasons

I am almost ready to go with Becky's seasonal tables, based on her Arabia stoneware. Actually, I have five tables planned because the dishes are dark, with heavy banding and a grayish base, and I was worried that summery and springy fabrics that would go with them would be hard to find or make. As it turned out, I happened upon a lively kantha stitched cotton scarf with bright colors on a gray background right away and thought "Score!!", and about a week later found some printed cotton upholstery canvas that looked good too. Since neither choice required much work on my part I decided to use them both, so Becky gets two summer tables.

 The autumn cloth is also a purchased piece....a wool scarf I got from our local wholesale scarf purveyors. The motifs are summery... butterflies and flowers.... but the colors and material look like fall to me. 

For spring and winter I have the two cloths that I made and have shown here before. (I'd link to the blog posts that reference them, but that never works for me.) Winter is a linen square that approximates our Northwest weather and spring is the woven runner that has taken so long to stitch. 

I still have a couple of centerpieces to work out but the end is in sight. As soon as we can agree on a good day I will take all of my stuff to Becky's house, set her table with her dishes and take photographs. Then she gets the tablecloths and I get the pictures.

Finally, Becky's spring

Becky's springtime runner is finally finished. It took months of stitching and underwent a few changes in the process. It got shorter for one thing. It was meant to be ninety inches long, but that would have meant adding fabric to the ends. As I worked it became clear that it was more coherent at seventy inches and so I dropped my plans for additional length. I also thought at one time that this woven piece would be a background for further applique, but as the months wore on I lost interest. It just took too long to do this.

Looking at it here, I am both pleased and frustrated. I'm glad now that I didn't do applique. The lack of explicit spring imagery allows more abstract associations to form, which I think is more nuanced and makes room for personal interpretation. Weaving strips of cloth together allowed me to link the black and brown of the dishes with lighter, sweeter colors that evoke a feeling of spring. I really like the colors I used and the way the weaving makes them into random floating rectangles. The texture created by the stitching is interesting and tactile....there is an echo of rag rugs and quilts and hand made things that feels domestic and comforting. Weaving also speaks of bird nests and Easter baskets which underline the springy theme in a subtle way. I think these elements make the runner successful without needing additional decoration. The frustration comes from the difficulty (which I always have in some form) of keeping things straight. I worked really hard to ensure that the width would be uniform, that the inner strips would be straight and that the edges would be clean, but after months clutched in my hands everything got out of whack. I basted quite thoroughly and still the lengthwise strips wobbled out of alignment and disappeared and reappeared along the edges. The border strips veered from the strict fifteen and three quarter inch parallel I planned...the variation in width is slight, but totally apparent when you step back from the piece. Fortunately on the table it will be seen from a much closer vantage and the variations won't be too noticeable. As with everything I make, I had to give up control and allow it just to be what it became. There was no way I was going to start over.

The napkins and undercloths have been finished for a while, so the final details....napkin rings and centerpieces....are all that I need. Pretty soon it will be done.

No more treats

The last months (winter, spring, and now most of summer) have been a time of hibernation for me. My autoimmune tendencies have found a new way to hit me; I thought at first my symptoms stemmed from my thyroid problems (Graves disease) but it turned out that my thyroid is fine.....now my immune system is attacking my blood vessels instead. Its called ANCA vasculitis and is pretty serious, but fortunately treatable. I underwent a short course of chemotherapy that helped a lot and now I am feeling more like myself. I'm grateful that drugs were available since diet alone was not cutting it, but I can feel the presence of my malady lurking so I still watch what I eat very carefully. The diet recommended for autoimmune issues prohibits grains of any kind, dairy products, legumes, sugar and nightshades (potatoes, tomatoes, peppers and eggplant). That eliminates baked goods, candy and alcohol...all the things I think of as treats.

Now that I can't have them I realize how much I want treats and how firmly they are woven into my life. Going to the grocery store for example, triggers the urge for something sweet. From childhood, being good at the store could (not a given, but always ardently hoped for) result in candy, cookies or maybe Coca-Cola. Sunday drives might end in a ice cream cone if my brothers and sisters didn't irritate my father too seriously. Sweet things were our enticement and reward. When I grew up the only thing that changed was the arbiter of treats.....now I could decide when to have one and not wait for my parents to notice and bestow. I always treated myself at the grocery store and at other times too. Treats were like punctuation in my day and I looked forward to them in a very habitual way. Not having them leaves a palpable absence that often catches me by surprise. This weekend at our local arts festival everyone with me was free to buy kettle corn, lattes, elephant ears or soda pop but I could not. I am shocked at how unfair this feels, how I miss the taste of the food and what a prime focal point it has been in a life that is not otherwise lacking in sources of satisfaction. My life feels flatter and less interesting without the tasty things I have always loved to eat and drink.

Going forward I expect that my health will dictate what I can and cannot consume. It may be that I will be able to ease back into some the foods I now must avoid, or maybe this is it. No more treats.