There were two positive aspects of my mother’s recent short stay in the hospital. She is doing very well after excellent care, and I managed to hem a rug I made in Sweden two years ago in Monica Hallén’s class at Satergläntan. (See “A Week at Sätergläntan is Almost Finished” and “A Colorful Rug: Sätergläntan Summer.”) I wove two rugs with the rag weft I hauled from Minnesota. One was fancier, with träsroser (rag roses), reminiscent of the exceptional Swedish wildflowers right outside the studio doors.
The second rug was unhemmed, and unembellished, until now. Remember the recent protests against the encroaching authoritarianism of the current administration? I joined my mother and her friends from the Kenwood residence for the gathering near the Walker Art Center (with an excellent protest song playlist booming out.)
I ran across a bag of stencils picked up at a garage sale or estate sale, so old that some of them were in an old bank envelope. Who has a passbook these days?
Now the Swedish rug, full of weaving memories, will spark memories of a different sort.
Excellent use of stencils!