Spirit Cloth

Summoning

 

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I am a firm believer in Form Follows Function. And to extend that into the spirit of the thing, if you have no use for what you are making/doing, it will not turn out to be anything much at all. Usefulness is a broad concept. Maybe you need to make a living, maybe you need a blanket, maybe you need simply to see what happens. But there has to be something. For it to be something. 

This one is forming. Through intention. Even though I remain on the edge of what it might look like. I want it to be a two sided blanket, I don't want one side to be more than the other. I want it to center me and yet express empathy. To give visual form to that. No matter what it looks like. 

The red. Such an odd addition. But I like that it fits, make the candy colors work more deeply. As I drew and expanded the original red lines, stitched and then thought the split stitch was too blah and would also take too long, I switched to my signature Wrap Stitch, (here, stitched only on the top layer) I drew some dividing lines, for the bars, and suddenly those spikes seemed like backbones.  And courage popped into my head. And then the words...to become whole again, to heal, requires courage. 

I spent a long time stitching, and not one single minute watching either convention. I feel clear headed. And that is what I need this one for. 

What if

When what you have imagined, begins to take form...

You can rest for a while before continuing.

A Seeing Morning

Good Morning.

It's cool. Cool for the first time in a long time.

Evidence of cycle. I feel like this one was left for me.  Right outside the porch door. Yesterday's confusion led me to a small eye sampler started a couple of years ago.  Some eyes still colorless... "complete the full spectrum of vision" I said to myself. 

There are Shells of Summer everywhere. They seem like eyes today. New eyes. Old eyes. A reminder that we need all eyes. To see.

The first stitching was done on a single layer. I think I used a hoop. But I cannot find my hoops, tucked a way somewhere because I don't use them much. So I added another layer. Because it is easier to stitch on more than one layer without a hoop.  These stitches, today's stitches, go all the way through. I thought about through. Eyes that see through.  Different eyes.  Evolution. How many seasons will it take?

Then looking through New Eyes.

What I noticed here is how the running (walking) stitch outline seems like a solid line on this side. Because I can see the stitch where it disappeared as well. Appear and disappear have become one. Now that's a new kind of magic. 

They also look like some new life form.

Caught by Just going

Here I am. With a little help from a friend.

How about that? (quoting Mom here)

Path. On the wall. On the wall for many days, through this and that. Hasn't grown. Probably I set myself down by the stream of life, to rest.

Like most bigger cloths, smaller cloths find places to stay a while.

Now more than ever, I find myself acknowledging how hard it is to explain how I think, what I think, why thought is so elusive yet vital for understanding. How I've often compromised my true thoughts to accommodate connection. To validate, we seek approval by acknowledging a common path... Still, it is the strangeness of thought that I find most useful. How useful it is to realizing new form, even if no one else ever catches it. So much time passes, I feel someone somewhere must understand, but then after so much time of substituting the love of approval for personal truth, well, form often twists into some more acceptable shape.  Truth may simply not fit to the agenda.

Path has form also. How we go. In itself it is as much "a work" as it is "a way" to the work. It takes time to be able to step back and look at it. 

The other day, when I posted that lovely John Lewis photo over on Instagram, one of my followers commented "I'm confused, what the hell does this have to do with cloth?"  In a very tell tale moment, I deleted the comment and did not take the time to explain.  I think this is a sign of our times. And my age.

I did say to myself, though, the cloth is a metaphor. And I added , in my mind, "asshole". Was that me thinking? Or was it someone else?

Anyway, 3 things pinned there. Not just pinned, but thoughtfully pinned. This caused me to consider 3 aspects of path.  Path as a frame. How path becomes place and might hold and give meaning to what happens. Change it even. Path as pattern, simple as one step in front of another, maybe the result of a simple plan, and then how a shift in pattern, intended or not, might change it's form, how we might even see it as a mistake. And alliance, how something so different might fit by considering which parts lean into one another. Together how path is, again, a puzzle. 

These considerings are useful to me. For story, for form, to connect my life with my making. The question today, for me, is do you understand? Do I need you to understand.  Do you need to understand?  Is it possible to understand? Does it matter?  What's the use? Which will ultimately lead to... do I need to be here? These questions are for me, not you. Here, because Instagram is not the place for them. And I am afforded the luxury (privilege) to consider them. 

Calculating the span of Heal (ing)

A Nest of Days is serving me well  a resting place for new clothwork.

This one grew a bit, just a single layer of muslin overlapped and stitched.  One layer, the center is 3. That might be managed later.

The man is, in the meanwhile, sanding the table.

I think we best heal from the inside out.  I can stretch and touch the edge, while my heart remains the center.

No stitch today but this exercise is also doing. Getting into the spirit of the thing. I made a video but it became a bit too brazen with no bra. Maybe if I wasn't going on 70. Ha! Feeling Free  but not that free. So here is a less offensive snapshot I cropped out of it. 

Simply Keep at It

Sun's out but it's a bit cooler today.

What a relief.

A little quilting, just simple, around the edge quilting.  Seems to add a simple logic of building to the new day side.

And then around the sun. Hardly visible from the other side if you don't look closely. But it is there, the new day has come through. There are many choices for thread and stitch. Stitching does not have to scream, it can simply whisper. There is satisfaction in the way this is going. It takes me back to a simpler time when no one was watching. It is nice to know I am still that person.  That I have held fast to what I love. I like the place it takes me to. No, wait, I AM that place.

There is a huge hibiscus tree at the edge of the wood that I had not noticed until it bloomed. This morning it was all-a-buzz. You hopefully know that sound. I saw this pollen drenched bee and thought... keep at it, find a way, do the hard work, gather, take what you need and spread the goodness.

Let's hear it. With me?  bzzzzzzzzz

Hunker Down and Align

These times

create great personal, as well as

collective, Challenges.

Honesty

is a kind of alignment.

Thought Catching

is a kind of honesty.

I need space and light.

Time for myself.

I miss the sea.

My days seem cluttered.

Scattered.

 

One way to make a room seem bigger and lighter is to empty it. Paint it white.  Emptied, yesterday, late in the day. Paint next. As soon as it is warm enough to open windows. Patience. Below freezing again. Another robe lesson coming tomorrow. Or maybe later in the day.  Just taking me longer than expected to put stuff here with all these internet interruptions. I will figure it out eventually.   Thinking about everything, in terms of Alignment, really helps. 

This is on the other wall.

Across.

They seem related.

I needed that connection.

Breakfast with Lightning Woman

 

We sat together. We had a long conversation.

Her breasts were a bit overwhelming so we went with more white in the eyes to balance things out.

Maybe a bit too much but it's too late, her eyes are really open, no turning back now, we agreed.

Suddenly...

She has become a map.

Something has happened with me, with this one.

It feels good, it feels right and I will be talking about it soon.

For now, Happy International Woman's Day!

Still, Useful

day 16 of year 70

So, Here we Are. I thought.

Two old rags. Then, p a u s e . . .

Rags are really one of the most useful things.

Then, big laugh. I hope one big laugh and big cloth become a morning ritual.

As I unroll what we carried here, I am feeling a release from expectation. An undoing. It's like an exhale. Right before a big deep breath. 

day15

 

Progress.

...as always, only one stitch at a time.

Still unrolling, the big ones are draped on furniture,spread on the floor or just being the blankets they are. I cannot help but rock inward when I touch the Big Cloth. I curl up. Yesterday I considered a wordless workshop. Today I am laughing. At Yesterday. Because I have the power to do that. It keeps me healthy, perspective. I am grateful for the remedy.