soozphotoz

Loving the Thread

sock monkey quilt (in progress)

In Natalie Chanin's  Alabama Stitch Book, she advices sewers that "loving your thread infuses the work with kind intentions." On a more practical side, running the thread repeatedly through your fingers before hand-sewing, removes excess tension and thereby prevents the thread twisting and knotting.

This sock monkey quilt is the first quilt that I have quilted together by tying it off with small knots. I have a small quilt that was made by my Great Aunt Myrtle sometime in the 1930's or 40's. I expect that a baby quilt will undergo many more machine washings than this heirloom, however I don't think that this quilt qualifies as an heirloom.

In the past, I've experienced many annoying curling knots when I've cut thread too long in an attempt to save time. Chanin's advice seems to work on both accounts; the thread has not knotted, and while "loving the thread" I took the time to send out small prayers for the recipient of the quilt. "Let the baby be healthy, please let the baby love books, don't let the baby be born with monkey ears, if (or more like, when) the baby gets big enough to jump on the bed, please don't let it fall off and bump it's head."

Now that school has ended for this year (woohoo!), I'm looking forward to a lot more of "loving my thread".

death and love in a creekbed

i trekked to the creek today
camera & macro lens in tote
to capture smaller worlds inside
the larger

i hadn't ventured to the creek
since the body was found
in January

hispanic male
multiple (twenty-seven) stab wounds
gang-related
fifteen year-old
Dennis G

only the winter before
he walked the halls
of my school
and played soccer

there isn't enough Kevlar
in the whole world
to protect a body
let alone, a heart

the creek water was low today
and as i tread through the sand
i looked for evidence
(of what i wasn't certain)
yet
not really wanting to
find any

instead i focused on the river rocks
glistening in the mud
and discovered an answer
written on a shard of muted brown glass

LOVE (with half of the E missing)
fragmented and sharp

i picked LOVE up
without even wiping it off
and carefully secured it in my backpack