Spirit Cloth

out of the blue

we enjoyed the long weekend. the sun has returned and there were lazy days laying on the sand or the grass. looking up.
...i've been stitching. slowly. and thinking a lot about blue...indigo mostly...and how shibori often reminds me of  the sky and how things float around, lining up and crossing paths and exchanging energy. i am a bit slow getting back on line so i will probably post again later...

by the way... i sent eva some fabric and look at this! (click on those pics for a closer look)

hand and eye and coma

thanks to elaine lipson...and her quiet yet constant dedication to bring us crumbs on the textile trail of slow cloth, i recently subscribed to the new handeye magazine.  a wonderful new publication focused on textiles and connecting cultures in the spirit of sustaining craft.  my copy has arrived and the format is large and the concept clean and simple and the photos are enough to whisk you away.  you can read more on their website (click the image), the mission statement is here.  a great new read, i love it.  i have added it to the publications in my sidebar.

and so i have been whirled away. the sun has returned and so has coma.

when the tide comes in

...it has been a quiet few days. the weather has been sunny and rainy and cool and warm and rainy and sunny. the extreme weather these last months has literally washed a lot of the beach away...leaving a narrow strip which means less humans and more of the natural animal life. we took some walks to check out the new shoreline.
..... and we were not alone.
i suppose i was inspired with the tides edge. 2 sides of the shift ( now aka 'the sands of time') have become blue. shades of indigo of course. one washed out and soft, the other deep and dark. and a few new details are starting to show up on the shore in between.
the other two sides were inspired by holding things together. symbols. keepers. strips of knotted silk. i think i can say that they are a tribute to the storm that life can bring, the battle we endure to hold it together. the simple beauty of that when seen from a distance.  and some attempt at immortality on a quieter scale.

... i am enjoying the slower pace. there are  new  old friends here.

split seconds

 ....i am calling this finished. somewhere Under the rainbow. part of the becoming more series. this will be posted on etsy with the new moon (... love saying that) . at 18" square it is part of a new medium sized mini quilt group. my favorite part of this one is the how many new ideas i got while working on the details. a lot of earlier what ifs have shattered into pieces. this happens when you spend more time which always results in looking closer.
.....i had fun expanding the "coloring  book" quilting idea by adding my own new lines before coloring in.
....but one favorite thought splinter is the the fragmented quilting. i asked what if i just quilt in lines? cross hatch style. every which way. and then what if i do a second running stitch, that double one, in a another color to make it more noticeable?  and then again by quilting with a starburst....but using a drawn dark line with a light stitch...a double running stitch effect with only one set of stitches? yes! and then my favorite, the colored dot on the center of the burst.....the daddy long legs (and its ragged version). all the colored dots by the way, lined up become a rainbow. another one.
that's how it happens (in a split second) under the rainbow...now aka thinking out side the box...

monday medicine

indigo dyed wooden beads. indigo, dots AND holes in a neat package.
what else can i say?
i don't use beads much. things change.

update: i thought what if what i don't like about beads is that there are always too many?

the spirit of a fabric

over the years i have collected fabrics, many have been kindly gifted and many are almost too fragile to use. there is real energy in some of the older pieces, they speak to me with story and persistence that inspires me to honor the amazing gifts they bring. this piece of silk is from mary and has been cut and used several times in other projects. i have cut around the wear and i am still left with some threadbare pieces. the past days, when i was flooded with self pity and moody complaints, i turned to this scrap for a change of heart. the design is so lovely and those almost invisible silk threads still shine ...worn and tired but held together by some beautiful patience after so long....i basted it down , following the design, to give it a bit of support. in return, it filled a hole in 'persistence' quickly... and i could feel its strength. this wisp of a thing was holding the cloth together. immediately the two pieces of fabric bonded, the design underneath ,still barely visible, was like a new skeleton.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                .
.....it was easy to see that the silk floral, as it was wearing, was losing its color in spots so i decided to wrap the design element  with lots of colored thread to keep the spirit of the design preserved and integrate it into the style of the piece. one of those variegated threads i dyed a while back gave the stitching a faded quality and a sense of time(lessness).
.....a little more stitching was inspired by bringing the drawn design up from the support fabric and tacking down some of the loose threads. although this looks fragile, i sense the silk will stay for quite a while, and as the fabric fades there is the gift of witnessing the change. the design will stay put revaling the second generation of radiance below.
with all this positive energy, i was able to almost complete this piece. brooding takes more time  than stitching. i used the wrong side of a checkerboard print for the border. and i almost started brooding again when i realized i did not have enough. that was right before i asked myself what if i just draw the missing pieces right on the fabric. so i did.

doodle wednesday's little helper

 everyone needs a thinking cap now and then.

ps. i just realized it is thursday.

the gift of inspiration

...i received a wonderful gift from julian who runs exot with my brother nemo. wow!...  (shown here with some fabulous wallpaper fragments i received from brother jeff , a while back...) i am always impressed with gift giving when it is right on.
this book documents wallpaper design from three pattern books in the department of prints and drawings at the victoria and albert museum. 900 designs dated from 1837-1852. just packed with inspiration.

...i have always loved old wallpaper. i just love that it is often layered,yes!, and  its faded quality is often used to generate my color palettes. the patterns themselves are really quite adaptable to fabric, many originally created as textile designs in repeat and motif.  and then, i especially love those unusual papers that look like stone or wash effects. beautiful surface ideas. a while back, when i worked on the listen to the river quilt, i did a bit of work with some old wallpaper fragments. i have done a lot of computer printing experiments on fabric with these which i want to go back and dig out of the archives so i can document my results here on the blog. i'll be doing that today. then i can inspire you.

wallpaper related links: 1  2  3

wallpaper related posts: 1  2  3 

undoing noise

.....i have been thinking about this post for days without finding words. i had in my head some sort of idea of how to explain how my thoughts begin. or how anything begins. it was something to do with dots or the birth of dots. the only way i can think of explaining it is with something like a whisper... that it begins with a whisper. something often not caught probably because there is just always too much noise. so now i am thinking about whispering... that it may be something in my head and how to let it out without too much noise. or what if it is something outside my head...and how do i let it in without too much noise? ...just so i can hear the next one.  that is all i could get together on this one. quilt whispering. i am planning some of that soon. i got me a video camera and i will looking for you all to be listening, and i promise not to make too much noise. now back to the garden for a while.

the face as a story

 ...for me, once there is a face, there is a story. like a collection of scraps come to life, it is a perfect way to express and unify many fragments of idea in one image. i always come back to it as a way to communicate. to personalize the association between dream and reality. the face forms a center that draws the rest of a piece into focus.
.....i have collected a lot of faces . i use them as inspiration. i don't always know their real stories so i make up my own.  and i am especially drawn to  masks.  the double layer of face is an incredible concept. i think masks will be creeping into coma real soon. there is quite a collection over here .  if you like masks make a visit, each one has a story.