Good morning friends, family, fellow travelers,
It's a rainy Patriot's Day here in Boston: a Monday holiday celebrated by Massachusetts and Maine to commemmorate the beginning of the Revolutionary War. It's also the day on which the Boston Marathon is run every year. Given that I work less than a mile from where the Marathon ends at Copley Square, the Massachusetts Historical Society is closed for business on Marathon Monday each year. I'm home with the cats working on craft projects and catching up on email during Hanna's workday. We were going to meet up together at Fat Ram's Pumpkin Tattoo here in Jamaica Plain for tattoo consultations, but that appointment has been pushed back until after the artist returns from holiday. New ink is in the air! More to come as the design(s) takes shape.
Image: A collage of three reference images featuring a botanical print of lupines, a view of the Three Sisters mountains in central Oregon, and the Michigan lakeshore.
It's been a cool April so far, which is not terribly unusual for Boston. In my twelve years here, my experience has been that Boston is generally cooler than the Michigan through June and then summer begins in during early July and lasts through September. But we don't look to be getting an April snowstorm like many of you in the upper Midwest had this past week! Spring flowers are starting to send up shoots and trees are beginning to leaf out and flower. On our morning walks in the Arboretum and to and from work we see signs of spring.
Image: Pink buds ready to bloom on an ornamental tree along the sidewalk near MHS.
It's been lovely and quiet the last couple of days. The temperatures were in the mid-70s and the cats luxuriated in the sunshine on the back porch; I did a lot of crafting and finished the binding on my big orange and purple quilt! We don't have a space in the apartment large enough to photograph it open, so once the weather clears up and the bushes dry I'll be taking it up into the Arboretum for a photoshoot. Watch for pictures next newsletter. With the big quilt done, I'm finishing up a number of small half-done projects: Persistent Stitches commissions, raffle items for the Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund (EMA Fund) annual fundraiser, project planning for some future mini quilts and not-so-mini quilts. Here is one of the pieces I did for the EMA Fund event -- I really like how the colors on this one turned out!
Image: A cross stitch reading "resist persist" in variegated orange-yellow embroidery floss on a navy blue background, with a red felted frame and black wood frame, embellished with orange-yellow lazy daisies. You can commission your own here at Persistent Stitches!
In the past few weeks I've read a few things worth passing along ... so here they are. Guardian reporter Lois Beckett did excellent reporting on the systemic racism within Romance Writers of America (RWA) and the romance publishing industry more broadly. Archive of Our Own (Ao3) was nominated for a Hugo! Casey Fiesler explains why that matters. One of our city councillors-at-large, Michelle Wu, has been a longtime supporter of improved and free-to-residents public transit here in Boston. Boston Globe reporter caught up with her on the 28 bus route, one of the busiest in Boston's MBTA system. I confess that Hanna had to explain to me who author Bret Easton Ellis was, and will happily continue not reading him based on Andrea Long Chu's delicious pan of his new ... memoir? And finally, thanks to a colleague who saw the link and thought of me, a blog post about the archaic Scottish handcraft -- distinct from knitting and crocheting and practiced mostly by men -- known as cleekit!
Image: Cross stitch pattern showing a stylized bluebird sitting on a branch with the text "Votes for Women" across the center of the piece.
Coming up a week from Thursday is the preview reception for the MHS exhibition on the fight for women's voting rights in Massachusetts, timed to coincede with the 100th anniversary of Massachusetts' ratification of the 19th amendment (June 25, 1919). I've been involved as part of the team working on this exhibition for over two years, and it's exciting to watch it finally take shape! The exhibition curator Allison Lange, our exhibition intern Rachael Barrett, and I are all planning to wear suffrage white to the reception (here's hoping I can manage to handle the bluebird themed cocktails without a spill!) and I am working on a prototype for this suffrage bluebird cross stitch pattern for Persistent Stitches. I plan to offer it as a kit! In 1915 in support of a state referendum for women's voting rights (which lost) the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) had 100,000 bluebirds printed on tin to display throughout the commonwealth in support of the measure. You can see the example I drew on for the pattern above in the Smithsonian's collection.
The rain has stopped for now, so it's time to go run a few errands up in Roslindale Village. I hope all of you are seeing signs of spring (if you live in the northern hemisphere) or signs of autumn (in the southern).
In persistence and friendship,
Anna
It's a rainy Patriot's Day here in Boston: a Monday holiday celebrated by Massachusetts and Maine to commemmorate the beginning of the Revolutionary War. It's also the day on which the Boston Marathon is run every year. Given that I work less than a mile from where the Marathon ends at Copley Square, the Massachusetts Historical Society is closed for business on Marathon Monday each year. I'm home with the cats working on craft projects and catching up on email during Hanna's workday. We were going to meet up together at Fat Ram's Pumpkin Tattoo here in Jamaica Plain for tattoo consultations, but that appointment has been pushed back until after the artist returns from holiday. New ink is in the air! More to come as the design(s) takes shape.
Image: A collage of three reference images featuring a botanical print of lupines, a view of the Three Sisters mountains in central Oregon, and the Michigan lakeshore.It's been a cool April so far, which is not terribly unusual for Boston. In my twelve years here, my experience has been that Boston is generally cooler than the Michigan through June and then summer begins in during early July and lasts through September. But we don't look to be getting an April snowstorm like many of you in the upper Midwest had this past week! Spring flowers are starting to send up shoots and trees are beginning to leaf out and flower. On our morning walks in the Arboretum and to and from work we see signs of spring.
Image: Pink buds ready to bloom on an ornamental tree along the sidewalk near MHS.It's been lovely and quiet the last couple of days. The temperatures were in the mid-70s and the cats luxuriated in the sunshine on the back porch; I did a lot of crafting and finished the binding on my big orange and purple quilt! We don't have a space in the apartment large enough to photograph it open, so once the weather clears up and the bushes dry I'll be taking it up into the Arboretum for a photoshoot. Watch for pictures next newsletter. With the big quilt done, I'm finishing up a number of small half-done projects: Persistent Stitches commissions, raffle items for the Eastern Massachusetts Abortion Fund (EMA Fund) annual fundraiser, project planning for some future mini quilts and not-so-mini quilts. Here is one of the pieces I did for the EMA Fund event -- I really like how the colors on this one turned out!
Image: A cross stitch reading "resist persist" in variegated orange-yellow embroidery floss on a navy blue background, with a red felted frame and black wood frame, embellished with orange-yellow lazy daisies. You can commission your own here at Persistent Stitches! In the past few weeks I've read a few things worth passing along ... so here they are. Guardian reporter Lois Beckett did excellent reporting on the systemic racism within Romance Writers of America (RWA) and the romance publishing industry more broadly. Archive of Our Own (Ao3) was nominated for a Hugo! Casey Fiesler explains why that matters. One of our city councillors-at-large, Michelle Wu, has been a longtime supporter of improved and free-to-residents public transit here in Boston. Boston Globe reporter caught up with her on the 28 bus route, one of the busiest in Boston's MBTA system. I confess that Hanna had to explain to me who author Bret Easton Ellis was, and will happily continue not reading him based on Andrea Long Chu's delicious pan of his new ... memoir? And finally, thanks to a colleague who saw the link and thought of me, a blog post about the archaic Scottish handcraft -- distinct from knitting and crocheting and practiced mostly by men -- known as cleekit!
Image: Cross stitch pattern showing a stylized bluebird sitting on a branch with the text "Votes for Women" across the center of the piece.Coming up a week from Thursday is the preview reception for the MHS exhibition on the fight for women's voting rights in Massachusetts, timed to coincede with the 100th anniversary of Massachusetts' ratification of the 19th amendment (June 25, 1919). I've been involved as part of the team working on this exhibition for over two years, and it's exciting to watch it finally take shape! The exhibition curator Allison Lange, our exhibition intern Rachael Barrett, and I are all planning to wear suffrage white to the reception (here's hoping I can manage to handle the bluebird themed cocktails without a spill!) and I am working on a prototype for this suffrage bluebird cross stitch pattern for Persistent Stitches. I plan to offer it as a kit! In 1915 in support of a state referendum for women's voting rights (which lost) the Massachusetts Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) had 100,000 bluebirds printed on tin to display throughout the commonwealth in support of the measure. You can see the example I drew on for the pattern above in the Smithsonian's collection.
The rain has stopped for now, so it's time to go run a few errands up in Roslindale Village. I hope all of you are seeing signs of spring (if you live in the northern hemisphere) or signs of autumn (in the southern).
In persistence and friendship,
Anna