Spirit Cloth

Over the Edge

Today (Continued from Yesterday)...oh ha!

Today is going to be a hot one.

I'm still quilting House of Stray.

I'm doing it in a way I call Quilting over the Edge.  I've included here, a video from a while back. I have also created a Quilting Page over at Feel Free. Because I'll be collecting all my old considerings about that. That is what I'll be doing in September. The Feel Free Index list has been removed from the blog sidebar. Because it is about to get Way too big.  Instead the list has been moved to a separate page, Just click Feel Free Index. I also included a link to what's new.

Over the edge quilting holds raw edges well. And opens up many visual possibilities. This video is from an old post HERE.

 

video link if you see no player

 

I like how the strays now seem to be framed by transition.

The sense of holding yet freedom in that.

The aWay of Yesterday

I woke up feeling bleh.

As I get older I worry about not feeling well. My mind runs away with me, imagining what it might be instead of what it is.

But no doctor. Old Sea. Old sea speaks to me.

And apple cider vinegar and honey in a bottle of water. Mom's cure all. Day 2.

Two little girls on the beach yesterday. Hours spent catching little fish in their net. Putting them in a bucket. And finally throwing them back. I sat and watched for a long time as it seemed they caught me in many memories from my own childhood. As the sound of the waves seemed to wash my worries away. I floated. I stitched.

House of Stray. I called it that a while back. I am still calling that. It is about safety. Relationship. The freedom to choose Way.

By sundown I felt better. I slept. Here I am. Feeling good.

Still working at finishing up what is here. Because after a while there is no room for new ideas.

But sometimes when I pick up an old idea,it feels new again. And that's good enough.

Working my way around the edge. It's bigger than I remember.

 

 

As We move Toward September

There was a bit of a stomach thing. Yesterday. I rested a lot.

I've walked through the garden. That's all.

It is turning. The beginnings of that.

Cooler nights first. And yesterday it did not reach 80.

I didn't do anything in the garden. I just passed through slowly.

These. New.

Just there. Just like that. On one of the Butterfly Milkweed pods. It took two years but it is well established now. So I researched red bugs on Milkweed pods. And that is them. Milkweed Bugs.  They were still right there this morning. They must like it there. They say it's ok. They just show up for  short while. They reduce the number of seeds for next year. Some folks spray. Some folks consider it population control. For MilkWEED. In any case I stopped at considering it a touch of Red. For now. We'll see.

A touch of Red is always nice with green.

I just uncovered this. Nine for Growth. Part of the Nine Forever Series. Which was something more formal but now it isn't.  From the post here, which was from Small Journeys (one of the free classes in the sidebar)  here, and then here.

This another example of "weaving into".

There are so many ways to do that. Cloth through cloth. Try it.

I think I might put a few Milkweed Bugs on this one and call it done enough. Nine for Growth. Or Staring Growth in the Face and Seeing it Look Back. Sometimes things keep growing without you. It might do that. It contains that. The going. Despite a few bugs.

Later.

And there they are. 9 of them.

Whirling Patchwork

...Need to mend this old table cloth today.

I noticed one block gathering itself ito a basket.

I made this when I was working. From fabrics that the company manufactured.  I never did completely finish quilting it. Because they used it in a photoshoot. You can see some unstitched areas. This is a good example of how the cloth is gathered into the stitch over time and washing. The cloth settles into the tension of the stitch. I made this early on and might not even known that then. Not that it bothers me at all. These days I know more about tension. If it is important to the look of a piece, I can manage it. Sometimes though, it is just fine the way it might move over time. In this case it has always been flat enough and has been a table cloth for 30 years or so. With blankets, well, who cares really? Except maybe some judge of perfection somewhere. That has gone a bit out of style at this point as we have all been exposed to the global textile arena. Generally if there is some dense stitching near some unstitched area, there will be movement, especially if washing and drying is involved. A lot of "art cloth" just hangs there. Although, there is a slow flow there as well, if you look carefully over time.  Personally I like a living cloth.

Looking at how cloth and stitch react to one another, well that might even give you some ideas. That happens to me. And these days I manage stitch in a different way. If I want to quilt but prefer some areas to be less busy with stitch, I alter the length of the stitch, sometimes using that very tiny invisible stitch so the tiny stich hardly shows but still hold the cloth in place. I call this Wizard stitching (and sometimes Sympathetic Quilting). Poof, the thread appears and disappears as needed yet holds all together like magic.  Managing a stitch like this is not possible on a sewing machine. And there is much less play in a machine stitch because there is a more consistent compression and not the weaving in and out that  gives the cloth space to relax.

Since I am at the point of finishing a lot of old work and because I have some patchwork that will become blankets soon enough, I'll be talking a lot about quilting.

To be mended today as well...

Some crazy raccoon party last night. By the light of the moon.