Spirit Cloth

Hanging

Hanging here, these small loose favorite things, I used to dress up this ugly chandelier when I moved here...(do you believe we are almost a year in?) they have come to be quite handy in these stay at home times.

The thing about hanging...

...is that a thread is often involved, at least here, hanging by a thread.

Thread is good. It's the part of the equation that we can use for change. 

This is an old piece. I just named it Coming Back to Life. Normally I might go back and check what I called it way back when. Catch that thread. But I am wondering how useful that is. The story is already in me and maybe the current thread is what I should go with. To continue. Today is a loose patch.

It is still warm here but that will change soon enough. I have collected a lot of plant material here and cooked up an Earth Yellow brew. I often over-dye but rarely over print. I am thinking about that today. That thought is hanging in my mind. By a thread.

Things will be a bit piecemeal here for the rest of 2020. I think I will pull it all together with the turn of the year. Still stitching on Holding Pattern. It's a gift to be given by year's end.

Ps. I feel Good.

Soup

Sometimes, just living can rescue you.

Every scrap from the garden and leftover food prep has been frozen since this pandemic has emerged. I guess I was in a panic early on. I did not let anything go to waste. Fearing not being able to go to the market. The freezer is filled with bags of scraps ( ha, patchwork again...) and broth made from them. I have also been ordering fresh frozen fish from Alaska, that and eggs being the only animal protein in this house. We have relaxed the Vegan thing, now evaluated as not really healthy, and more of a fashion. Trend is a difficult battle isn't it? Time to learn. It's a privilege to live long enough to make your own decisions based on experience.  And then to simply live it without trying to convince anyone else. And so ramen style soup is on the menu once a day.

And less sugar is the new goal.

And then Soup as a concept is on my mind. Soup as in compositional concept and the One-Ness it embodies. Which ingredient (component) will bring it together?  Give it identity. 

And with that in mind, I'm cooking up a few ideas. How funny it is to be considering adding "soup" to my Spirit Cloth Language of words. A Quilt is like soup. And Soup is a story.

It's also time to cut my fingernails. What day is it anyway?

I opened the Spirit Cloth shop with the intention of offering some old work for sale. In the season of Gifting. But I feel and hear the holiday season will just stress the mail to its limits and so it might be better to wait for the change of year. 

Some other kind of energy

A Moon. Always a whiteboard opportunity. For story. 

Days fly by at such a frightening speed really, lately, I am  thrown off course. Then I think, what course?  I really have lost that sense of direction that keeps me focused.  My sleep is off, mealtime is off. I have little notes posted here and there to remind me of regular activities or to hold loose thoughts.

Last night we drank wine. It's been a while. We order Clean Wine online and drink less to keep our immune system intact. The Man  decided I need a computer.  Not his, but my own. And he is going to order one for me. He knows about this stuff.

I was sure it was just wanting one and not needing one but no, he convinced me. "It keeps you focused. You need it." I think he has just had it with the cloud around me. So we re-budget and drink to that.

I did stitch. Something moved through. And talking, it's good to know I can do this. 

Link to audio if you see no player

 

 

The Drama of Facing Through

The Cut:

The cut is hard sometimes, but I have come to love it. It is a wound, a hole, an opening, a separation, a new edge, a space, a way through, an undoing and a challenge. A letting go.

The Patch:

The patch is, well, quite simply a way to solve a problem. So it might be anything and everything we might use to do that. We could whittle it down to simply, an idea. 

The evidence of path:

Story. How did it happen? 

Most often, I cut through to make things smaller, to look through, or to weave through. Cutting away , as in erasing, that falls into another category. Much less drama, unless it annoys you to change your mind. The cut through is exhilarating. I think it shows a confidence related to understanding your materials. Or simply a curiosity that needs to be exercised. And it won't kill you. When I weave into, everything becomes quite stabilized, despite the cut. There is often a layer (of thought) you cannot see. And a new dimension is realized. Something moving through.

I may be indirectly addressing the idea of loss. Which seem to me arises from the fear of having to let go. But I think I am focusing on the IT. Letting IT go. Letting go is something quite beautiful if we stop holding on to IT. The thing-ness.  The thing needs to evolve. That is the natural order of how it becomes. Transformation, after all,  moves all the way through us. It's not like...a new haircut.

I have not figured out the audio yet, but hey ho.

If you follow me on Instagram, there is a video of the cut.