2015 SOLSC 20/31: I Lay My Stitches Down

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Tara, Betsy, Dana, Beth, and Anna

for hosting this meeting place each day in March

and for nurturing our writing lives. 

Didn't you just love putting a 

two in the tens place today 

and a zero in the ones place 

for twenty slices completed?

                                  

    I'm sharing a new-to-me book that I learned 

about in a session at NCTE in November.

Catherine at Reading to the Core is

hosting this week's poetry round-up.  

       Be sure to stop by for a taste of poetry love.

In January while reading the poetry shelves,

searching for inspiration 

for a Poetry Friday post,

I stumbled across this book.

I clutched it to my heart

and headed for the checkout desk.

It took me awhile to get around to reading it.

My WTR (want to read) stack always looms tall 

and sometimes spills over onto a second shelf.

Introduced to the author

and her research process for the book

in an incredible NCTE session, 

I was not disappointed!  

A perfect post for Poetry Friday during February, 

a great focus for National African American Read-In,

except that February found me working in our library, 

sprinting to finish writing a curriculum unit,

and overseeing a kitchen remodel.  

Meticulously researched by Cynthia Grady,

each poem is "... ten lines of ten syllables,

to mimic the square shape of a quilt block."  

Each poem has three references:  

"to reflect the three layers of a quilt:

...a biblical or spiritual reference,

a musical reference, and 

a sewing or fiber arts reference."

Beautifully illustrated by Michele Wood,

 the quilt squares at the bottom of each poem

appear somewhere in the illustration on the opposite page.

Additional text in the light brown border

gives historical background to enlighten the reader.

Each poem is written in the voice of a distinct person.

You will linger over the words and the paintings.  

I eagerly search for the words 

"I lay my stitches down," 

 that became the title of the book,

and find them in the final poem, "Basket." 

"...my thimble, thread, and needle comfort me,

I lay my stitches down and troubles fall

away.  Before too long, I'm breathing with

the rhythm of my quilting - listening

wide with every fiber of my soul:..."

Plunge into Grady's exquisite poems

 and Wood's rich, vibrant illustrations.

Listen to these voices from the past. 

You may reach for thimble, thread and needle,

or choose to arrange some words on the page.