Spirit Cloth

Trying to Tell it

It's not the thing, it's the spirit of the thing.

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.

There was some journaling.

link to audio if you see no player above

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?

 

 

Hunker Down on the Edge #2

Like I said yesterday...

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.

Link to video 1 if you see no player below...

A simple solution.

Link to video 2 if you see no player below.

 

So far pinned.

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.

Link to video 3 if you see no player below.

Link to audio if you see no player above.

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. 

Can you read this ok?

hunker down diaries.april.13.2020

Dawn.  Rain, small wind.  I wonder who is watching?

?

...there might be a lot of journal here, should I do pdfs?

My voice is a bit off, audio tomorrow if the power is still up.

Just Do Something

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.

She becomes a Bridge

This works right now.

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.

I'll be quiet for a while now.

Here is Soul-o becoming a basket.

 

Again the Crossover

Weaving and Sewing.

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 fun with 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.

 

Compass and crossroads and vibrating outward

I have always been quite curious. About how form evolves. To express.

There are many old thoughts here, coming together crossing over.

This is good.

 

Ghost Spring

It starts with a feeling.

It was the electric feeling that spring green generates. A throwing open of arms. A big deep breath.

Something new for a moment, then you can not separate it from the moment before . Or the moment after.
Ghosting. A bit about that over here.

Flowing

So Flow.

Over time, the force behind the thing that goes through it. The bigger thread.

When I stitched the Greening House (from yesterday) I pieced the bottom part of the house and then appliqued it, and the roof to the lovely old indigo cloth. To keep things light, as I do, I cut away some of that lovely cloth. And also rescued it for later.

The piece I cut from the body of the house had a small strip of the resist pattern on it. It was the beginning of a new house. It became like a band of clouds. Then a sphere on the edge of shadow. But not as moody. I stitched those two together. Then I used the piece I cut from behind the roof. Appliqued that to the bottom of the moon. And cutaway from beneath again, maybe a roof for another day. Then I created the Home Body from an old jacquard that reminded me of wings. Split a striped cloth so that the special woven red bit would seem to continue through. Sewed that onto the moon block where, up until then, the roof seemed to be a mountain. Suddenly I thought oh!, seersucker is like water. I have a small stack of old seersucker scraps. The last patch is a river.

This has a nice flow. But really, the important part is the Home Body.

This old doodle (this old house?)is on the wall. Some of you remember it. I know I have used it in many a post. I don't have the mind to find the references right now. But it is the square, my beginning. And also the box I put myself in. And the wing, well. Reach. Or not. So stuff crossed over here. The old doodle became like home. And patchwork a long story.  And words are flowing. Overflowing. Sharing is a bit like that I think to myself. Like the feeling that you have so much, you need help with it.

Karma

I did not work on this yesterday.

I sketched it long ago. On Paper.

And then, while away, I sketched it on cloth. I worked on it, using a method I call, and have often mentioned, Skitch-Skatch, a close and personal technique of stitching and patching over a sketch. First conceived back here. In an attempt to create a OneNess to my creative approach.

It is painstakingly slow. And often times frustrating. It is a design mending technique. That is, what is imagined slowly becomes what is possible. I've become more comfortable with that over the years. Knowing really, now, that anything is possible but not always what's expected.  So. I've created a place keeper page over at Feel Free for skitch skatch. I'm gathering old videos that apply.

I named this Karma. And then, Learn to Open your Heart.

Have a great day.