Fold, Fallow and Plough: Evening Crow

Pied Beauty

Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889)

Glory be to God for dappled things—
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches' wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced—fold, fallow, and plough;
And all trades, their gear and tackle and trim.

All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:

Praise him.

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Evening Crow

It's hot and I'm retreating from the garden into the sewing room. This is my latest project: appliqued crow and fencepost and strip-pieced background. My sister gave me the strip set for my birthday and I'd been wondering how to use these calming neutrals. The quilting is a free-motion wing motif and I may or may not do some threadwork on the crow and fencepost. It's not a big quilt, maybe 60" wide and 72" tall, but for me, that a lot of quilting! It reminds me of that wonderful time of day, not quite day and not quite evening. The wind picks up and the temperature drops and the summer's day, just briefly, turns pleasant.