Spirit Cloth

a change of heart

...in general i have to say i am horrified at the current state of affairs in this country.  it seems that change is a necessary factor for survival. a change of heart can be a good thing if it involves growth. find it in yours.

staying cool

...yesterday i was thinking maybe a cool cat is just so cool, there is no need for a story.

..then, last night  i was wondering ...is it possible to have a heart too big?

...this morning i am back to ...no, that's cool.....a big heart is a keeper of the rhythmn of the bigger drum.

yesterday i got to talk to lainie from red thread studio.  on the phone.  for real!  how cool is that?

let's all read that fabulous post once again shall we?

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.

building an edge

with one scream out of the way, i am working on another.  this piece is very unstable. it is being patched as i go, ragged style and sewn to a very thin sheer background to keep it light and flowing.  it has lots of silk velvet and i wanted to retain  flexibility and movement for maximum light play and the illusion of constant shift.  i have also added that old thin worn patchwork as a backing and it was an irregular shape, one corner completely missing... making the piece somewhat edgeless in terms of a frame.  i have applied a thick band of indigo stripe (thicker where needed) from the back side to contain it and fill in the missing spaces...otherwise it will keep growing in some blob like motion. 

some spots are thinner than others, especially where the cut outs are... so i am patching from both front and back and stitching the layers together to even out the weight, monitor its softness and keep it all together. the back of this one will evolve from process i guess. this one is a bit of a struggle in cloth making.  but a long and arduous process brings the gift of richer story.

...a soft scream could be a moon's lullaby...judging from a newly formed ring, a full spectrum of acceptance.

cut from the same cloth

...her eyes had adjusted to the darkness. 

...by the light of her own heart she recognized something familiar in the beast that came to meet her at the edge of her nightmare.

...the night became a crazy quilt. she felt warm and safe. (and a bit foolish)

dark and light

i am up early today.  woke at 4:30 am.  heavy rain on the roof.  darkness.  i sometimes like to sit in the dark and watch the light come slowly. i have 'soft scream' on the table. squaring up the frame and basting some wildness at the edge.  because of the ragged irregularity of this one, holding it together is quite a challenge.

 ...i have picked up an older piece, realizing it was also a soft scream and downsized it and framed it.  as i recall....it was "about darkness and how to embrace it.... the traveler in the darkness kept going... waiting for the storm to subside. the rainbow, she imagined, became more like a flower. growing and bursting with unbridled energy".  that's where i left it.

now i have decided to add another detail. to extend the story beyond the inner frame.  i found this old worn chintz floral.  i love to find pieces and match up the flow of two different motifs.  you would think this difficult but amazingly i find many fabrics that just fit together like puzzle pieces.  i think i will quilt this one today.  it is time.

the circle as a straight line

we grabbed the chance to catch a few of the last warm days by the shore.  the open space allowed me to unwind a bit.  i felt relief in the emptiness as i noticed the gentle arc of the beach stretching out in the distance.

as the tide came in i watched a large circle of sand become surrounded by sea and form a line on my horizon.  later i saw it  become a circle once again.  i started thinking about unwinding. how wound up in our little worlds we become.  and then the about the dot, how that can represent some sort of compression and concentration.  how depression is like compression.  how round and round in such a small space can create a kind of darkness.  how good it is to stretch out once in a while.

i returned to  long cloth  with the idea of how things happen.  something tight and compressed when rolled, but still something hollow in the center.  something to be unfurled for easier viewing. something round but then linear like a time line.  something  unrolled that seems a straight path but is only then a tiny piece of an arc which is part of another circle too big to see.  something bigger than me obviously.

...and speaking of unwinding, i feel like i have been offered a red carpet after reading the wonderful review over at MrXStitch. how about that for a welcome back? thank you arlee.

posts related to this long cloth.1. 2.

time out

...there is a time for resting...and right now seems like a good time.

keeping time

... i am returning to a slower pace and a series that has me hand piecing  those tiny squares once again.  the time keeper series focuses on dots and grids combined.  nine patches as a record of a more traditional patchwork.  dots as part of  my current circle theme.  where they overlap.  smaller cloth that gives me more time for detail. small enough to regulate or perhaps count the stitches. small enough to carry with me. little cloth pacemakers.

...i love to be able to take the time to go beyond the original thought. to use both sides of the color woven corduroy for a color and texture variation, or replace a dark spot with a softer darkness, keeping the rhythm in a new way. my heart skips a beat.

the  3rd spirit cloth blogiversay is coming up in october.  time flies.  i think i will celebrate by hosting the free what if workshop on wednesdays, a good time to begin something new.  i am thinking of a small giveaway project each week.  just a real-time walk through of process.  perhaps posting all day wednesday from start to finish.  step by step.  a workshop but also a way for me to keep some time for what-iffing each week. 

black and white

balance or conflict?

a heart divided but stabilized.

timekeeping revisited.

i am thinking a lot about balance, today being an appropriate day. i want to thank those of you who took the leap into my new shop. there is always that fear that it won't work or something. although i will be posting some older slower cloths that normally become larger and less marketable because of pricing... i will try to find a new balance in my work. smaller cloth that allows me to slow down and use the amount of detail i feel is more me and still keep the price in a fair range.   and slower larger cloth for my personal gift giving addiction.  i need both.