Stars

Stars & Stuff.

It’s the middle of the day, July 4th.  I should be making chocolate chip cookies, or zucchini bread…something to take to the family potluck and fireworks this evening, but I just couldn’t let the day pass without a patriotic tribute here.  Quilts.  Stars. And other sundry things (isn’t that a great word? Sundry?  Like Sunday, by wry-er).

I love how evocative quilts are.  Of the past, how they hint at my roots.   Women making the mundane beautiful, or at least making do.  A few weeks past, I rediscovered quilt projects I’d “put on hold” almost a decade ago.   I can’t remember exactly why I abandoned them…a move, maybe?  An intense parenting moment?  Could I possibly have gotten bored?  Anyway. I almost cried (ok, I did cry) when I unfolded them.  Seriously?  What?  They are so beautiful, so promising.  And I’d forgotten them (I haven’t pieced another quilt since).  Yes, they can still be finished.  Someday…

I’m sharing details from a couple of the unfinished quilts (tops without batting, backing, or the wonderful final touch: quilting). They are reminiscent of July Fourthness to me.  Stars.  Arrows (or flight).  Blue.  Patchwork.  Seems fitting.

I’ll have to write about the “other sundry things” (parades, mostly) later.  Because I’m out of time…the cookies cannot wait any longer.  I will just end with this:

I love America.  Its  history, present, and future.  Well, I don’t love all of it (there’s nasty uglinesses here and there), but I have a theory (taken from art) that the most beautiful moments glow like jewels set against dark velvet.  Illuminated, shadows at their feet and behind their shoulders.  Rembrandt got this.  The night sky illustrates…and I think history embodies it.  There is a certain, unmistakable loveliness in contrast.   Shelley addresses it when he says: “We look before and after/and pine for what is not,/Our sincerest laughter/With some pain is fraught./Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought.”

God Bless America.

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