Simple

 Homespun...

I'd begun this post...a post about two days of stitching. Mending. How that big flannel circle looked like a tortilla at first. We all love tortillas, don't we? How this was from my son's childhood winter flannel sheet set. How J. loves it, well we both do, as a couch cover (protecting our very much overused couch). How my big grandson slept on this sheet when he came for a visit in 2011...the time he sewed a Magic Feather for Jude's Magic Feather Project...the little blue patch now reinforced again with stitch and the 'tortilla' adding texture to our homespun days.

A simple post about mending and simple, homespun ways and how that can be enough...ended up being about how that can be even too much to hold in one's breaking heart. About how that grandson is now 'draft' age...so is my work baby of the continuing post - now in college across the country...how so many others in my world and in THE world (friends, family, classroom) are as well...or could be if this becomes another 'endless war'.

The simple circle mending I'd begun became worlds of concern for the world.

One Love (Bob Marley) feat. Manu Chao | Playing For Change | Song Around The World

LINK 5:07 minutes

What can one do?

 

May you live in peace

May you live in love

May you breathe in goodness

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2025

OH MY GOSH!!!

I started the process of working on Puppy. OH MY LANDS! This is some of what was inside. My naive self thought that I could simply open his tummy, where the seam was clearly coming apart. Snip, snip...what?

There was very little "stuffing" to speak of. What I discovered was a lot of...? Dust, rocks, nut shells...? His nose area had a big piece of stuffing, loosely stitched in and his tail had some...a paw I think. That was about it. The rest was this 'natural'? material of some sort.

Such a fine dust, I was sneezing!

This big piece was his nose. Now he's all squished and his eyes even look different. One eye is no longer stitched well.

Almost all of the "stuffing" is out, except a few rock/nut pieces stuck to inside seams.

I finally got to the "shaker" in one of his paws.  It sounds like the clay shakers I made when taking pottery back in 2000. This made me smile, as pottery has popped up all over the place for me lately. I made these by wrapping tiny balls and bits of clay in paper...wrapped them all in more paper, forming a ball and formed the clay around that. After poking a few pin holes in the clay ball (to keep it from exploding in the kiln), it was fired. During the firing, all of the paper burned off and I was left with clay bits in the clay ball, which make a great sound when shook. Each one of them makes a different sound, depending on the size and shape of the clay bits inside. They're pretty cool.

I tried to see what this shaker could have inside, but all I could see was a reddish material that looks quite like the dust inside of Puppy. Dust falls out when I shake it, giving some credence to my thoughts.

My clay shakers are sitting in a handmade basket, a gift from a dear friend, made by her father. Her father, a basket maker for a lifetime. He lives in a very small town in Mexico and to make his baskets, he first goes to the river to collect the raw materials - striping the reeds into long thin strands. Then he can weave. He has made these baskets...forever...and sold them to help support his family. He is very old now and no longer creates his signature baskets, but this one - gifted to me many years ago - he made as an elder, maybe older than I am now. An elder and still doing the physical work to make beauty. I treasure this basket. Now it holds a new memory too.

I took a break to do some research.

The paper towel began to look like a Rorschach Test.

I kinda see the profile of a grinning, evil looking mouse in this bottom pic. HINT: The bit of stuffing is the 'face' and there are no real back legs to speak of.

So, now, while pausing...I'm considering what steps to take next. I'm wondering if the vacuum suction would just rip him apart? How do I get that last bits and dust out? Thank goodness I didn't wash him first - this dust would be mud! Is it possible to get the age and odors out of him (he still smells so strong of cedar). How to ready him for a new generation? Is that possible? How and with what do I re-stuff him? Can I wash him? Will it do even more damage?

What is left of Puppy's stuffing. Amazing. Kind of creepy. Sad.

Then came the harder questions...

Can Puppy be saved? Should Puppy be saved? How and for Who?

If Puppy can not be saved...what ever shall I do with him? How do I honor how much little baby girl me loved him?

In thinking about all of this and feeling rather sad that I even began this assault on beloved little Puppy...I took out Lamby and decided that she is most likely filled with the same or similar materials. She has no obvious seams to open with ease. She elderly, but in tact. I think I'll leave her be. But, then what shall I do with her?

Oh what to do now?

May you take a chance

May you honor your memories

May you find ways to be okay with both

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2024 

Mending

 Drive into The Valley this week. Still pretty green for May and beautiful flowers to catch a glimpse of as we fly by. The ones below were captured at a red light, when I quickly grabbed my camera out and snapped a shot before the light could turn green. I have no idea what they are, except pretty. It smells so good when I put the window down. 🙂

I started mending this old quilt today. It was bought at Mervyn's years and years ago. One of those cheap, made to look 'handmade' - but not, quilts in a clear plastic bag. I'm not sure why this one was chosen, as I don't recall ever "loving" it. I actually think it is kinda ugly. Maybe it was the best of the available choices? It is not a color or pattern scheme that really talks to me, but it has served us well. The backing is a thin cotton, muslin type fabric. There a a very thin and worn batting inside.

I am literally just stitching edges together, tightly. I grabbed an already threaded needle (top photo, right side), which held some of Deb's threads and started sewing. That is how I roll it seems...too much long term planning (call that procrastinating) and then jumping in with those plans thrown to the wind!

My most general idea at this point is...

1. to move from split seam to split seam and repair these easier fixes first. 
2. use the scraps of threads in the baggie shown (I really don't want to "waste" Deb's lovely threads on this...whatever that means!
3. when I get to the larger areas, I plan use the recently washed dyed cloth

I wasn't going to care if the stitches show on the back or not, but have so far not sewn all of the way through. We'll see. I mostly want to be able to use this as the weather warms up here. It is nice and thin (even with that batting in there) and that's what I need right now. Perhaps the bits of color and patches here and there will dress it up a bit, make it more interesting.

These two spots are what I accomplished in my first sitting. I'm going back in for more...

Thanks for looking here.

May you come to workable conclusions

May you enjoy the time spent on a task

May your days be filled with bits of color

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2023

Finding Beauty

 ~ → ~  ~ → ~  ~ → ~  ~ → ~ →

From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler

I finished "From the Mixed Up Files..."...a book I hadn't read since I was in grade school! I even found a desk name tag and a note in it from when my daughter had a turn reading it.  I remembered the basic outline of the book and the fact that my absolutely best girlfriend and I loved this book so much. We wanted to hide out somewhere and solve some grand mysteries. haha

I am part way through "Dr. Doolittle", which I very little actual recall about...except the memory that I loved it as a kid, wanted to have a zillion animals too and the fact that I learned to play "If I Could Talk to the Animals" on the xylophone in 4th grade summer music class - which is also where a I met a new friend, who would go on to become one of my best friends all of the way through college. Who knew that standing side by side, playing that song who become so much more.

On this day, Wednesday, there was so much beauty in the prickly!

And on that same day and the days following...there has been much beauty in the light as well.

The rock rose below was fairly glowing, it shone so brightly in the afternoon sun.

Along with the prickly and the light, there was much beauty to be found in the very well watered, sunlit greenery!

This week I broke into my big bag of old jeans. They've been too small for a long, long while. But, many of you may agree that jeans shopping is not as easy as it was when younger! So I kept them.

Now, they all fit again. A couple of the pairs had holes in the knees, which could be left alone or mended. I plan to mend them. I pulled out my Deb fabric and threads. Some choices will be made. Since it is knees on jeans being patched, I pulled out the fabrics that seemed the most sturdy. I'm considering more stitches than needed to just hold patches in place. I'm also considering leaving the pieces as is, in their organic, came this way to me shapes. I'd like to sew the edges in Liz's oft used herringbone stitch, as I like how secure and dense the stitches are. However, I hesitate learning it in this tight space. We'll see.

Back in 2013, I posted my jeans patch and the charming comment from a toddler. I patched from the inside that time. 🙂 

NOTE~ It was interesting in that 2013 post I was whining about my computer functioning. While today, I intended to add a note here about the odd happening I noticed the other day. When checking for any new comments, not gone through correctly and landing in Spam. I found a handful of them, where I usually find none. I think they have all already been published, as they go back years. How odd. Anyway, I'll hit publish, but most likely will not go back in time to find them and post answers (if I haven't already). We can just move forward, yes? Just, please know how much I try to answer the comments that folks take the time to place here. You are important to me.

May beauty show you the way

May  all of your choices be worthwhile

May you shine

xo

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2023

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2023

Super Duper

Tonight is the Super Moon.

The super-est super moon!!

I really wanted to capture the way it was as we drove home from the grocery store.

But timing is everything in photography.

Well that and having a camera that is good enough to get the job done.

Tonight was not one of those nights.

But, I'm sharing the photos anyway (smile).

Shining down on a main street through town.

Up the canyon near home.

When I heard the term "super moon" as I drove home, 

it made me think of one of the What If? cloths laying in the studio.

I thought: What if a Super Moon wore a cape?

Wonder what it's super powers would be?

So, I cut out a flaming red cape for this starry moon!

The white lines are flaws...that I liked and put in the moon on purpose.

Don't know if I'll actually sew this, but I had to at least share the laugh here!

I can hear it shouting "Up, up & away!"

Last week on a sleepless night, I patched the little white crib sheet from work, 

leaving it with a little lovin' along with the hole.

heart patch

Back side...see the hole?

So, Happy one-day-later Solstice!

Happy Super Duper Moon Night!

Happy Weekend to All!

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013