I extended her red. Still using the leafy shapes available in the weave-sketch. Mane, Red, Fire, Reaching. Change. I will bring some green into her. Exchange. An exercise in liminality.
I see this as part of Sempathy. Evolution.
I should talk. But it is difficult here.
Really what I want to say is it is not about you or me or he or she or we or they, or even the thing. It (and what is it?) is about exchange. That is what makes us useful.
It's 13 degrees but the sun is out and I need to go outside and breathe it in. Gather my selves. Have a meeting. About the New Year, which at this point seems as if it should be marked by my upcoming birthday. A more important point for Mapping. Yeah, I need some time.
To me it is a kind of paper. Paper, a kind of cloth. In my mind I often weave them together.
The wall cloth dyed by Richard Carbin. (in my resource list, sidebar) Isn't it beautiful?
I will put this table on the porch in the spring. When the roof isn't leaking and there is sky lighting. I think I might create a wooden frame that might be attached to accommodate some weaving as well.
I made a change to the roofline. Because my mind kept doing that. Just the line, like drawing. Balance.
And the hickory has turned, while the oaks are just beginning. I made these photos look a bit old, simply because it seems like I have been here before. I like that thought and felt like sharing the feeling.
The little loose drawn patches, from a while ago have begun to catch my interest for several reasons. But as a crossover to my paper work most of all. Been mostly reconsidering paper in the background. Weaving is still what drives my dreams. There has been less time to do but plenty of time for tea. And to imagine.
I woke up. I looked. I wove into the edge, some old pink silk that was nearly to thin to stand on its own. I need time I said to myself. Then, the hearty laugh I needed so badly.
How a thought rises through consciousness. That's what I was thinking a day or so ago...with all that has happened, it fell back in. Anyway there was too much coffee, probably because there was too much shitty wine.
I promised a video but I am not up to it really. These big squares are 5". Once I start with a certain puzzle piece size, all the other elements fall into relationship with that. I talked about that here. Obviously, I could continue adding 5" squares until it was "big enough". But I've done that.
I made the cross and stitched it to the base instead. Like a puzzle block. Maybe to see it that way. There many ways to patch to a base. I talked about that here. As a matter of fact, what I talked about in Small Cloth can apply to large cloth, right? Just the scale is different which might require a bit of problem solving in terms of handling a larger cloth. But that is the never ending learning part.
So I made the puzzle pieces in the same way. Ironed around a template, edges glue-stitched to keep the edges in place while fiddling. Then I stitched 9 squares (made more than 9) together to form the cross. I glue-stitched the cross to the base cloth by sewing down the center in both directions, so the edges might flap open, allowing me to add the 4 more pieces to create the extended 9. A little awkward to work into the corners but it worked. Of course I could just applique them as well. Or draw the framework of the patch work and use the skatching (patching over a sketch) method. So you see, so many ways. I like to mix it up. Or go with what works with my mood or my energy in the moment. All the while noticing how each way has it's own feel. Sensing that.
This was Monday's post but I didn't post it. I felt detached. But now, ok, there it was, an idea. Not planned bit as it happened. Could I create a pieced back? One that would might show through the base cloth, like a shadow yet still a main part of the structure, and work with the existing pieced cross/extended nine patch? What if?
I usually take one of 2 approaches when binding an edge. Turned or ragged, but mostly binding the front openings of simple garments is just like adding a simple seam binding to enclose and strengthen the edge. A place that gets a lot of wear. The place where outside meets inside. With a bit of imagination, it could be decorative and functional at the same time.
The basic turned casing is the strongest and most common.
A little more about edges edges from another class that was not about garments...all these techiniques cross over really, you just adapt them to your own situation.
If you want a more padded edge you can add another layer of cloth or use a thicker fabric. Once I used a strip of old quilt with the batting still in. OR you can sew one binding over another. A lot of times that happens from repeated mending. You see the result of that on a lot of old boro garments. For Wind, I wanted a thin edge. At least then. I never finished the Kimono Shirt. I was naming it East-West. And I had plans to weave into it. We'll see...
Have a good weekend. Blog issues will keep me busy. Hopefully next week Typepad will feel like cooperating and I can continue...I want to start a quilt.
Just sitting idle, focusing how hard it is to get started is a sure fire way not to get started. Yesterday I sat around tangled up in that. I went back to nine, which , because I have come back to it so many times, has become a circle. Imagine that. I use Nine to find a way. I begin with a square. Probably we all have something we love. Start there. Love is a seed.
This morning I sketched this. I thought I can stitch this. One square in the middle that can be lifted up like a page. Actually I could put a few layers, like a little book in the middle. Actually this could work with paper too. Actually, that might be a great class. Cloth to Paper. I can get so easily ahead of myself by Thought Catching. That used to confuse me but not anymore. It just leaves me floating in a sea of possibility, and a sea can be like a liquid basket. Evolutionary. I miss the sea honestly. But floating helps.
I need one. A path from one thing to another. To fill in a Widening Gap. Now I can imagine being one. My self as a bridge between selves. I worked from that digital drawing from yesterday. Without looking back at it. Her lower half, drawn in. Above her, stitched. I almost said "only sky". To myself. How one thing becomes another always seems quite simple but it's not. Not if you know the story.
Here I am, with a fine list of Piecemaker/Ragmates, already enough to build a ring of safety. I will go through my emails in the next days... and to keep it simple on this side, answer you only if you have had questions and give you mailing instructions if you need to mail a check. Just to be clear, you can sign up anytime, pay any time (or not)and passwords will be sent a week before the Series begins. If you want to attend, please remember to fill out the form by clicking the link in the Newsletter. LINK TO NEWSLETTER. And please only pay/sign up for Part 1 because the rest is still forming.
Woven dots and other designs that use supplementary thread to make designs during the weaving process are often referred to as On Loom Embroidery. Probably I mentioned that before.
Here is a beauty I found in the scrap basket yesterday. And old cotton sheer with a soft red thread running across, caught at intervals, skipping across spaces, the float being clipped later, called a clip spot. On one side it appears as a dot, on the other side you can see how it is caught in the thin white weave. Looking through the cloth you can see the red thread and the dot elongates showing the structure.
I dipped this one to test the developing indigo yesterday. And I will send it to Hazel. She is already having funwith this idea since my last post about it.
I have so many cloth stories to tell. Probably because I have so many cloth friends.
And I did the first dip on the edge. Early this morning.
