Spirit Cloth

Reflecting

September moves me

A great feeling of energy returned today. Even though company lingers. I pinned a few things to a special cloth.  Do you have some of Deb's cloth?. It'll knock you over. Vintage, soft, full of energy and heart, just like the maker. A gift really, a real deal. And I am sure she will appreciate the support. That's the real great thing about gift giving. It's like a kind of basket that might hold us all. If we let it.

I am playing with three.

As a compositional tool.  Thinking of in between.

How a September Stray is at home in between. Colored by that.

Just a silly digital note taking for now.

 

Hey hey.

(Deb's blog)

 

UnRolling Last Year

Cloth is my record. A shelter for my thoughts.

A chilly morning wind and the need to buy some wood is pushing me forward.  Not enough windfall this year. There is one dead fallen tree but it has become home for many.

I'll be setting up a new fangled shop. Watch for a new button up top. Now I am off to make breakfast for many people.

Sunday, September, Simple Sense

 Turning Slowly.

Just Sunday. Just going. Foggy brain.

A sense of Autumn. Everything seems washed in it.

An early morning Nine. Simple, Nine for a Sense of Color Change. On Sunday. In September.

Nine for Slowly Turning

And I am very sleepy. I think I might look for a few September cloths that are rolled up here somewhere. From last year.  See what sense they hold. If I have time to sit and consider that today.

Nine for Season

Woke early. Tired from company still here. Probably because I derive my energy through solitude.

As the sun rose, I thought OK, just stitch Nine.  Maybe just Nine for No Reason.

But then I thought oh! A reason. Season. Shift.

A little Nine for Equinox . A little Equinox cloth then.

Nine for Shift

I'll save Nine for No Reason for another day.

I got a lot of emails yesterday. Can't even count them. I am in between selves at the moment. Putting together some ideas in order to transform my approach to teaching.  Gathering the courage to move forward. Based on the huge response, I may  change my original idea a bit. I have canned the mailing list idea. Too big. I will post information here sooner or later. Probably sooner. But after the company leaves. On the Equinox oddly enough. As always, thank you for your support and patience.

The center square here was done as an indigo resist over the seam in a patchwork. One of many components I began developing in a past workshop.  I will be sharing more about that here, soon, but now I must go to the market and shop for many people.

Later then...

Nine for not Exactly

The walnuts are hanging up there.  Not ready. I collected 2.

Maybe hanging out, just to remind me how much cloth I have dyed with walnut in the past seasons. Lots of small pieces left. I gathered them instead.

I did a big sort and purge last year. Giving most of the cloth here away.  Keeping only the scraps too small for others to consider using. Or consider enough.  And then keeping the cloth with stories. The ones I can still remember.

Last night I stitched this. I was thinking how much I love home dyed cloth because it is never exactly a certain color.  I love the variation within the concept of using one color when you are really not. More like a range of in betweens. So then I was thinking of making the center nine. Using clear color. To make that contrast. And to sympathize with Not Exactly, I made it not exactly nine.

I think this is number 9 in the Nine For Everything Nine ForEver series. I am not sure.

I have decided to teach out in the open here for free from now on. Well not exactly for free. But free enough. If you want more information on my not exactly for free online classes you can email me for now and I will put you on the mailing list. Just stay tuned.

 

Just Now

Direction

Dyeing.

What is it for me? I hope to answer this question this  year. This is part of UnDoing too much.  We cannot be everything. It is too much.  One thing can be enough.  Narrow it down. Pick a way. Then there is hope for clarity.

Less isn't easy. But it is ultimately more. In my mind I sense it is the kind of more that weighs less.

I loved this photo I took last week before company arrived.  The stove top brew steamed up the camera lens.  Perfectly expressing my momentary  confusion.  About dyeing.  About company.

I sat and watched the copper rim make a mark on the tannin soaked cloth. Ochre. I loved that I sat there watching that. That I had the time to do that. That an answer is forming. And it weighs less.

Today I am restless. I am going walking with no planned time of return.

Because I already stitched this. Today's nine. For direction. While everyone was sleeping.

 

Going and Keeping Track

 

So this linear Nine Patch...

(back here as a path) I made another, in magic black and white. It seems to keep the old rhythm that rocks me in a new way. Something for in between. In between appearing and disappearing perhaps. It all seems to come down to that.

I look at them together, knowing they are so similar but at the same time, not at all. I see the first as a kind of wandering. Straying. An accidental alignment. The other more of an intentional arrangement. Still, neither is planned in a way to be static. Going and then a sort of staying. Holding. (Note to self: Form is completed by considering it. Or form remains dynamic if it is considered, reconsidered)

Nine for PlaceKeeping then. For Summer's cloth pages. Pictured here a ragged patchwork spread, begun in Small Journeys. There are 38 pages now, loose, a few still blank. The cover needs some work and I will continue work on this through the end of this month. The format pleases me very much. Scrap book #1. Goings and Holdings. 9/2014-9/2015. The travelogue series (small journeys in cloth).

Chilly morning. I considered a small fire. But then not.

Spider considered weave.

 

Safe

 

Yes, the Feather Cloth we call Home has landed safely.

The story is here, a button up top if you want to visit from time to time.

More stories to unfold for sure.