These framed stories are the remnants of my imagination, they come by way of the past. I was raised by women who made delicious, beautiful, and functional things out of nothing. They hemmed, sewed, stitched, and grew gardens. Clothes, food, art; they made their own. My sister painted and I wrote. My childhood was inscribed with the mantra, ‘Do what you can, with what you have, where you’re at.’ It became my preservation, a common thread, my restorative connection. These pieces of the handmade are dedicated to those women and the stories that came before me.