Souvenir Handkerchief #3: Special Coronavirus/California Wildfire Collector’s Edition

 

Keep handy for smoke, tears, and general despair

Here you have it - the third and final hand-embroidered handkerchief from the Coronavirus series. Scroll back on this blog through time, or click the Coronavirus label in the menu to the right to track the inexorable decline into madness. After months of masks, social distancing, and societal mayhem, along came the California wildfires with orange skies and toxic smoke. I just stitched my way through the insanity and here you have the result.

In the detail photos below you will see the now-familiar virus; the smoke; the year 2020 floating around (the virus forms the “0”s in 2020); the words “”signs,” “portents,” “space” and “time”; fire and smoke, from billows down to those lethal 2.5 particles that stay in your lungs forever; and the title of this piece, “Solemn Lemons.” I have found myself playing a lot of text twist games on my iPad in the evening as I watch TV because I find myself unable to concentrate on even the stupidest old sitcom reruns. One evening the solution to the full word(s) in the text twist game were “solemn” and “lemons,” which is such a lovely anagram I thought, Oh, that is going on the handkerchief.

And for those stitching fanatics who simply can’t resist turning a piece over to inspect the needlework:

 

The back, with stitching revealed

Bleeding Heart Liberal Pin

 

Wear it with pride

Sometimes all it takes is a few scraps of fabric that meet by happy accident on your craft table. That and a desire to send something lovely to an old college friend who occasionally sends me incredibly thoughtful little gifts in the mail every so often out of the blue. The fact that she has spent over fifty years pounding the streets of Manhattan as a foot soldier for social justice meant the rest of the project just created itself. And here you have it: The Bleeding Heart Liberal pin.

Front

Back

If you, too, would like a bleeding heart liberal pin, here is a quickie photo tutorial.

Draw a heart, transfer to cardboard

Cut out heart, glue felt to each side

Glue outer cloth to each side

Stitch all around, tight against cardboard. Trim. Overhand stitch around trimmed edge.

The final step is to sewa little “blood” on the front and stitch a pin clasp to the back. Now off to fight the good fight armed with empathy and compassion.