Spirit Cloth

night and day

last night i woke up and decided to make this one into a wishing star.  i basted some points on it, put it away  and then went back to sleep. 

today i will be working on walking. the quilt that is.  i have found a piece of old white flannel to use as a soft spot, to warm it up a bit...the center is partially quilted and very thin. maybe i will just add a layer of the flannel to the back or work it into the front somehow...to mend the thin-ness and prepare it for the new season.

...it is nice to be handling a big cloth once again. something to get lost in. the cloth as is measures about 72" square. right now.

today i really like  and this.

dis-covering

when i start working on something...there is always a dig, a dig through the scrap pile.  i grab an empty basket and the fragment i plan to work on and rummage away, keeping in mind what was imagined at the out set.   one by one, the little bits of cloth are dragged across the piece to see if they connect some how. this is how i build a palette.

it is  mostly about color,  but it might be  pattern, or i might just pick up scraps that seem to hold the same story.  or something that has been hidden a bit too long.

....so i end up with a related pile of cloth tidbits. i never use most of them but i usually stick with the pile until the mood changes.  then it starts all over again.

stitching has progressed on the pottery piece and  i have started also to fill some of the spaces with tiny bits of ragged cloth, making a sort of cracked surface. i have experimented by using both the front and back of the snake print to form some shading.  this is nice and slow and  a story seems to be forming and i am thinking it is ironic that... as i am covering the base, i am uncovering  something as well.

shadows

it stormed yesterday (in more ways than one) and it rained all night.  as the sun returned this morning, i left the curtain closed to enjoy the shadows of mom's gift of dried lavender against the ancient pattern on the cloth.  the shadows in the thin fabric seemed almost a watery reflection of my dreams last night. i dreamed of fabric. i dreamed of brother nemo who is walking around some where in asia . i woke thinking of my son. a reflection of yesterday.  a day filled with life and fabric and a few unexpected shadows.

light and dark still fills my focus...so i'm working with another long cloth this morning.... the one where she looked outside herself... maybe to get a better look at her own shadow i thought, which was really her reflection.  i want to express that in cloth but first i traced and cut her form from a cloudy plastic sleeve recycled from an old discarded photo album.  the pages are aged and the photos can no longer be viewed clearly.  this is making a great stencil for me to use as a guide.  and the milky translucent quality is just what i want.  i will search for a very sheer linen for this layer of self...i think i have it somewhere.  i am sure it is somewhere.  in some dark corner.

auditioning a heart

 i have this scrap of shibori and i love its effect. a heart shining through the blues. a heart' edge defined by losing the blue. it is from laura at indigo night owl and i really love her work (she is on my supplier list in the sidebar).

i was doodling some ideas for doodle friday and i wanted to make a follow up to moon face with heart face.
...and i decided to use this scrap right on the paper to plan around it. this could be a very cool method to plan a piece around a special scrap in real size. i guess this was a what if that came so fast i didn't notice. but that's ok... it has given birth to a whole bunch more. introducing heart face.

doodle thursday

catching up because i slept through doodle wednesday.  a plan for twins. and a cool breeze.

... and just a heads up, sara has a new blog.

just the right piece

...it has been impossible to clean this section of the studio window without destroying this wonderful thin cloth that formed just outside.   i noticed this morning that autumn's first leaf has been caught and suspended there.  natures new story cloth is growing.
...later i got a good look at the keeper of this cloth.  she/ he? seemed to be mocking me....
...it is another lazy hazy day.  i am working on my own thin cloth.
...a lazy hazy day is just the right kind of day to catch the right piece to build a wing. sometimes it just shows up without looking.  it just seems to drift into the right place where it makes sense.  isn't that amazing?

last minute details

sometimes i think i'm done.  but i'm not.  sorting through a bin of scraps always gets me started again.  i added a few things.  a ragged star, a moonflower.  and the reflection of many moons that have gone before.

...i pieced together some dobby woven stripes for the back.  how i love yarn dyed woven patterns.  loom controlled embroidery...

ain't it great to be crazy?  is done.  so far.

nature's glue

yes. it is raining again. and i got out with the camera between drops to notice some real life stepping stones that had been decoupaged with random bits of summer. glued to the slate and brick with yet more water.

so i am indoors once again, trying to interpret nature's collage by gathering a few scraps to scatter about on stepping stones. a few bits of silk and sheer have been pinned here and there. i thought to pick an  ivy leaf for a template for some embroidery.  the light is weird today, color keep changing. 

Doodle wednesday Distorted Dots

what if you squish dots so they have some straight edges so that they could be done as patchwork. are dots still dots if they change? are the names we give things only part of what they can be?

undoing focus

i reached a point on coma where i needed to step back.  my feeling is there is too much thinking going on. the feel of the cloth has become tangled in reason and design and intention.  it has, again, gone off track for me.  my best solution is to stop trying to understand it.  stop looking at the big picture and become involved with the cloth on another level.
 ....i am needing something more basic.  just using the smallest scraps.  to hold it together.  to mend holes.  to create a texture.  to create warmth.  to create a recognizable rhythm.  to reduce choice to something more instinctive and uncluttered by ego.  something new and familiar like a way back out, or in .  big cloth, smaller ambition.