Spirit Cloth

 

 

almost June color

I went with the extended nine format on the Green Cross cloth.

It needed a warm hug.  Been missing hugs. How strange to hear that hugs are not a good idea anymore.  I had left the edges unattached here so I should be able to stitch the 4 new patches to the main cross without removing it. Just continue the patchwork while it is on the base. An interesting idea in general maybe. The ground is not white, it is a creamy yarn-dyed cotton with a very subtle check. As it turns out it gives me a pale grid for reference. Sometimes I cut away from the back of a patchwork applique, leaving only the seam part. To keep an evenness. But the fabrics are quite light and thin, so no need this time. Yet.

Use the time you have to know yourself

I say things over and over again.

Usually as I am going.  Probably because they work more than once. And that is reassuring. I am on a side trip here for the weekend. Continuing with new eyes. But I do this with Big Cloth too. Manage thickness as I go.  Managing is that, problem solving in the moment. Tending to need. While holding on to the bigger picture.

 

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It took hours. In the scheme of all things, not long really.  I enjoyed it a lot more with the extra layer. I could hold it more easily, the stitch rested in the bed of cloth with more ease.  I noticed how many ways I can fold this cloth and birth new eyes.

Maybe we can manage anger with a bit of thin cloth. 

Then this morning I just pinned to look. At a thought I had.

I note to myself how I so often create blankets with a center which radiates outward.  But then this is interesting suddenly. A path that runs through it.  I stacked a few small pieces I had here. Just to see and think about that. And then of course other thoughts surfaced.

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Stay Home, Share, and consider When Time is not about Money

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Some of us are luckier than others. We have time to consider time. I suppose you could call that privilege. 

Time is not Money when you have enough.  Time might even be a gift.  The spell is broken, I am remembering the dream. 

What Runs Through my Mind

There were long wild dreams.

I woke up and spoke the words, The Spell is Broken.

I lost part of the thread in waking. I guess there was a story.

There was a bit of work on this in the evening before sleep. Some thin silk to fill in the whites of the new eyes. I will work the third one in stitch. I like variation in technique in one piece. It raises the awareness of change in the expected. This split image is interesting. It would be interesting to see both side of things at the same time, not thinking about them as separate. We may say we do, but we don't. We, by nature, are divided.

I'm churning today. Unsettled. 

Still Going in May

It rains every morning here. It just gets greener and greener.

Food is growing in spite of critter interference, in the deck planters.

Decided to try a patchwork version of a green themed baby-sized quilt Just to show how that might happen. I picked the cross pattern. Nine 5" squares.  A green(ish) cross. A new Nine Lives Patch configuration.  Works for so many reasons right now. As a symbol and as a simple project. I guess I could call this one Life as well. Oh, maybe the life series. Oh that works for all of this Hunkering Down and getting through it. Going in green. 

Did a bit of Doodling. Of course. Which gave me more to think about.

Now I will talk...

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I am just going to stitch this down then. Try something different.

One Thought over Another

So then...

This Circle of Green, maybe I could also call it Life.

Just talking...

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just a quick thought

Still Fuzzy

 

The Outside Looking Place in the Valley

There is a habit, well, a need actually to see more than one piece of cloth at a time, to see how they relate. Especially if they are being considered at the same time.

They are parts of a bigger story. I thought OK, I need a longer line, a stronger line. Now, more than that, I need a longer "thread". To understand the One-ness. I might thread a clothesline all the way through the forest. Connect the strong trees. Cloth like markers, and if they are green, for now, no one/thing might notice, unless they were really looking. Maybe the line should be green. Or brown, I could dye the rope. Brown is easy. Maybe I could use thread. For smaller stuff. Yes, this IS my real life. 

It's foggy, damp, and quite warm. The lion quilt is almost touching the ground. I think that is the size I am targeting for the baby quilt series.  Big enough to be a small person quilt. Or a lap quilt for a big person. Or a bed topper. Or even a table cloth.  About 60" square. Ish. That means the green cloths will need to grow a bit. Sometimes I let that happen first. Sometimes I let it wait for later. There are many ways.  I have in mind to make at least 2 more green bases though, so I might count the ways. Hazel kept going with just piecing squares and look how big it got! And if you use bigger squares, it grows quite quickly. Working on one right now. 

You can see in the background, there is a utility pole on the property. The previous owners had a street light installed. ???  We are finally having that removed this week.  Maybe they were afraid of the dark?  And we are paying for the extra electricity! 

I love this picture.

I think while I am creating the quilt bases I will begin to consider theme. That goes beyond color. The lion quilt is a sampler style quilt. That is a base that holds many considerings around the theme of lion. Why did I pick lion? It was appropriate at the time. I was focused on the beast/human relationship. I used the beast to represent people in my life. Lions seem powerful. Each lion has it's own powers. But more about that later.  I do like the sampler approach for a theme.  Many versions of the same thing. There is an inherent learning in the process. An expanding of thought.

Hunker Down for real

Another circle of green, then OK, a Pool of Green.

A Pool of Green for no reason.

So. Just because. Just because I had a lot of green silk.

How things really go, let's count the ways today.

The video is cut off at the beginning, I said I'm sorry about the shadow, but actually not really sorry. I just thought I should say that. It dragged on a bit, way too much, and I was a bit out of the ring of vision. But too lazy to edit. The washer was running. The man began asking me questions as he was trying to fix the hinge on my computer, which, we know at this point cannot be fixed. The house is small and it's hard to get away from each other. The sound carries. It was raining and so that was that.  A pool of green seemed a way to escape. AND So again, the goal here, has to become not to present a soft edged fairy-tale in slo-mo with a soundtrack as if everything is perfectly aligned (which I, like all other creatives might consider convincing and valuable, some more than others),but to show and tell how it goes. I am not sure we learn that much from the "hollywood" effect anyway. I guess we are entertained and can rest there.  But we are more likely to aspire to what cannot be. Or just isn't.  Which makes us into followers. Which seems the goal of the century. And all that might come with that.

I am not being negative. Someone asked a question this week. What are you learning about yourself through all this? I think I feel a bit confused about the effects. The changes. Except the part about me that is becoming increasingly impatient with bullshit. Especially my own. I think more deeply and then make a note to myself... getting older makes bullshit less and less useful. Probably because there's not enough time for it.

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And then after watching this again, another note to self...another self perhaps. From another perspective...we all have enough of reality anyway so why not seek out the fairy-tale?  Who needs to watch this?  I could have just said I drew a circle and scrunched some silk into it and now it looks like a pool of green. I like it. And that's enough. Then I might take a picture of myself running through the forest wearing this as a cape. I might enjoy that I suppose and and you too.

Life is hilariously confusing.

The rain stopped and the squirrels dug up all the seedlings in the raised beds on the porch. I'll not worry too much about gardening to eat this year. Whatever grows grows. I doubt the fencing will go up this season. Money will be spent on chimney repair first, which looks like a big job. And there are certainly enough wild greens to eat. I will perhaps concentrate on composting and caring for and pruning what's here. Especially that pear tree. Maybe plant a few small fruit trees. Sow some wildflowers. Buy from and support local food growers. 

Just now the resident red fox hopped over the stone wall and ran under the porch and down into the woods below. I see her every morning. She reminds me of Just Going.