Samson's baby quilt...This is the back. All this was done tonight...So pleased. Tomorrow the binding will call. Samson was born October 5, 2022
Unraveled: The Life and Death of a Garment
Maxine Bedat (Author)
Longlisted for the FT/McKinsey Business Book of the Year AwardA groundbreaking chronicle of the birth--and death--of a pair of jeans, that exposes the fractures in our global supply chains, and our relationships to each other, ourselves, and the planetTake a look at your favorite pair of jeans. Maybe you bought them on Amazon or the Gap; maybe the tag says Made in Bangladesh or Made in Sri Lanka. But do you know where they really came from, how many thousands of miles they crossed, or the number of hands who picked, spun, wove, dyed, packaged, shipped, and sold them to get to you? The fashion industry operates with radical opacity, and it's only getting worse to disguise countless environmental and labor abuses. It epitomizes the ravages inherent in the global economy, and all in the name of ensuring that we keep buying more while thinking less about its real cost.In Unraveled, entrepreneur, researcher, and advocate Maxine Bédat follows the life of an American icon--a pair of jeans--to reveal what really happens to give us our clothes. We visit a Texas cotton farm figuring out how to thrive without relying on fertilizers that poison the earth. Inside dyeing and weaving factories in China, where chemicals that are banned in the West slosh on factory floors and drain into waterways used to irrigate local family farms. Sewing floors in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are crammed with women working for illegally low wages to produce garments as efficiently as machines. Back in America, our jeans get stowed, picked, and shipped out by Amazon warehouse workers pressed to be as quick as the robots primed to replace them. Finally, those jeans we had to have get sent to landfills--or, if they've been donated, shipped back around the world to Africa, where they're sold for pennies in secondhand markets or buried and burned in mountains of garbage.A sprawling, deeply researched, and provocative tour-de-force, Unraveled is not just the story of a pair of pants, but also the story of our global economy and our role in it. Told with piercing insight and unprecedented reporting, Unraveled challenges us to use our relationship with our jeans--and all that we wear--to reclaim our central role as citizens to refashion a society in which all people can thrive and preserve the planet for generations to come.
The Secret Life of Secondhand Clothes A note and podcast from Haptic and Hue
Maybe I have whined before: Here it is again: The physical therapist here has put me on a walker instead of a cane. I just cannot believe it. I try and try to find a way out of this embarrassment. Up to now, I see no hope. This passed summer, I fell 4 times in my home. Here at my new place, I have fallen 4 more times...All accidents of not paying attention...Really???? I guess no one wants to take a chance on giving me permission for a cane. I have bounced all 8 times due to my considerable girth...I am not sure I want to challange that and really break a bone...Sigh... And all I really want to do is rollerskate or body surf the Pacific Ocean.
Excitement today as I handed 3 quilts over to; Mary Jerz for machine quilting. I had some money left from selling my house. I am not going to Paris...already been there. I am not buying clothes....my beauty queen days are over. I am not buying shoes....crocs will last forever....But I do love fabric and quilts. I heard a quote from a friend of a friend that 80 percent of quilts made here stay tops only.. But Mrs. O'Quilts here...old as she is....is not going to let arthritis nor age allow that to happen here. I never really used a long-armer...Today, off to my friend Mary Jerz went my treasures for long-arming!!!!
seamlessexpressions@gmail.com I am grateful for Mary.
Tonight....again...I am trying to figure out what has happened to me.....Is it turning 75??? Is it all the stress and loss I have been under for the passed 9 years?? Is it Covid I had in early December??? My son's illness and his disappearance??? I do not know...but I will carry on best I can. I am so thrilled I am here in my new place, 5 min to the swimming pool and one second to my little patio and garden..Grateful!!! Also way happy my friends come and visit.
My mentors in the pool are a husband and wife....ages 88 and 94...OMG...She is giving me water exercise ideas to help me with my balance. Her birthday is at the end of this month. I am going to surprise her with a swimming potholder clipped on her front door. All the doors here are metal...Nice!!
