Spirit Cloth

Still Here

I have a bad ankle. From way back when I fell on the ice while taking care of Mom in her final weeks.

Usually it just aches, sometimes keep me from sleeping well. Probably moving to a house with so many stairs was not the best idea. Didn't really occur to me. I always think I'm 20.

He's not really helping.

We are moving toward December. A lot of things are preventing me from continuing here the way I would like to. It's probably not important that I list them. In any case, some time needs to be taken to consider them.  After ThanksGiving, I have decided to take the rest of the year away from the internet. I need less input for a while.  Time away from screens.  I'll be around. Planning to quietly participate in the Daily Dyer that Glennis is offering.  I think that will be enough.  To be on the other side of teaching for a while. Behind the scenes I will finish a big cloth and consider the move to WordPress/Feel Free because technical issues are hampering my ability to share media. A few stray crumbs may end up in the shop as I finish sorting through the stuff I brought here. A few stray snapshots on Instagram. Maybe.  But really less of everything. A quiet December then. To let the rest of 2020 go. December is my mending month, the robes are holding, this time it is self. 

and so it goes

On the wall for a while longer.

And now, not. Ready to stitch/quilt the edge. On the Big Round Table, in the room that was named for the Big Round Table.  This cloth would make an awesome table covering. But it is a blanket. What if it could be both? 

Anyway, it begins.

Earth Yellow

The mellow yellow of the pomegranate dye is developing nicely after being heated and cooled for a few days. Adding more skins as I go, the walnut part of the dye becomes less influential. I've yet to find a source here, I am still using the concentrate made last year before I moved. The color seems to develop in sympathy with the drying leaves here. The days wiz by, my mind has slowed to balance them.

Stand Up Applique

video on Instagram

beneath the story

Another way it might happen.

The other side of Holding Pattern. Coated with mostly plant dyed silk. 

The pattern emerged because I quilted the darker squares with darker thread. Something I call coloring book quilting, where the thread color is chosen in sympathy with the patchwork colors on design side. It has a double effect. It helps the design remain clean on one side and also brings it through to the other side. 

I had to load smaller picture files today. I am just having so much trouble here. I think my path forward has been chosen for me. 

I'm going to take this off the wall now. Probably not going to put it back up. It's about to be the blanket I imagined it to be.

 

link to audio if you see no player above

Big wind here today. Drying some cloth that emerged from the dyepo(e)t. As Mom used to say...

"Think I'll go outside and let the wind blow the stink off me."

Have a good weekend.

Cold and Going

23. 23 degrees. 

First glance out the window and my thought was, it's true, the aliens have landed. Or maybe they are leaving. In any case these are strange days. 

I missed yesterday's train . Of thought.

I added a layer of drawing over Holding Pattern.  I talked to myself.

audio link if you see no player above.

I did more drawing.  Thoughts for quilting/securing the space around the pattern. Which is a kind of basket. Self.

The question, not so much about pattern but the visibility.  Darker thread? Or lighter thread? And will visibility disturb the space? Maybe just walking stitch or ? a more textured thing? I will talk to myself again.

shift

I tried all morning to post here.

By now I forget what I was going to say.

It's ok.

Big and Small

Holding Pattern. All quilted except for the border.

In looking at it on the wall, I realize the edge is a bigger part of the whole than I had a sense of. This is something worth considering. How we perceive edge. And then...will I complete this gift by year's end?  Maybe it doesn't matter. 

84" square-ish. Big.

The stitching is intense. Rows, close together. Rippling. Feels good. A little video over on Instagram because, honestly. it's easier. I seem to need a bit of easier lately.

I rescued a little roof moss that fell to the deck. I made a tiny terrarium. To hold green.

We've been maneuvering through big wind , power glitches and tornado watches. Now just cold. And then of course, the virus has returned to the area in a big way. 

 

Just to put something here...

Been Loving Deb's exploration in photo layering lately.

This morning real life provided it's own example.

This photo was taken in the mirror across from the bed, already a reflection. And the window on the wall is a layering of the light and shadow from the actual window. Over cloth. Cloth layers. Ha!

A fire this morning. A freeze.

No woodstove yet. So hard to get anyone to commit to any work around here. Strange culture really. Not in a bitching mood though, too much of that everywhere, so let it go. The fireplace insert (the fireplace is on a sunken level) has a blower. Keeps everything upstairs warm. Works quite well actually. Not a bad plan. Maybe I will save some money.

And the frost is on the parsley.

It's obvious that media will be an issue here. So I suppose I am now going to be more focused on returning to Feel Free as the teaching place. I will do a new post about everything. Over there. Soon. Let's just get through this year.