Spirit Cloth

Morning Softness and Unfolding

 

The "studio" is full of still packed boxes.

Let's unpack then. Talk about stuff. Just like that.

It will help me understand where I am. A ceremony.

Because I cannot sit and stitch. My back feels better but I did a bit of damage to my hip joint, which happens now and then. It's a weak spot, that joint. Some healing has to happen before I can sit for long periods. That includes the computer so I am not out and around visiting on the web much either.

This was the first thing I pulled from a box. Sitting on top, one of the last things I cobbled together in the time before the move. Some small cloth. A nine lives patch. But more importantly what I want to call a story card.  I've been working on card ideas for a while. But I ended up not wanting to print cards. Not wanting more than one of anything. Long ago I was considering one of a kind cards.  Back in the Flickr days. Gosh I've known some of you that long. One by Jude. That was the name I was using. Anyway, now, not just paper but cloth and paper, hybrids I began calling them, but to make  long story short, oh ha!, they're coming.

This is a Cat In A Window. But that is part of the story. Still in the works.

My car broke down yesterday but we actually found a small repair shop within walking distance. (a bit of a hike actually)  Cash, 50 bucks, done, yay! New friends.

 

And this is funny lamp #2.

Funny because I just don't do ceiling lamps. 

I like it mostly for the reflections it makes in the window.

A moon maker.

I wonder if the previous owners noticed that? Probably not, I said to myself. I tend not to give folks enough credit when I sense they are not like me. I will correct that. It's not fair or useful.

Cardinal. Northern Flicker.

Simple Little Things

Caught in little things.

Today, time off from "fixer-uppering". Was going to paint the porch ceiling but I'm exhausted.

It might look like I am doing the same thing over and over but I am evaluating a new free seaming technique. All these loose patches are coming in handy for that. Building is on my mind anyway. And I will share my thoughts soon. Little houses have me thinking of worlds. How the reach we have becomes that.

I found a whole world in a tin pail this morning.

It seems like it is still autumn there.

This is the tiniest bluejay feather I have ever found. The gridded shadow of the screen has made it into patchwork. That makes me smile.

How Cloth Informs me

Old Silk Ties.

I think one of the first attempts at collecting cloth started there.

Thrift shops. And of course some of Dad's old ties. And his Dad's ties.

Silk. Jacquard woven. I always loved the little motifs. Even before I learned how to weave them. Loving them pushed me to that.

These small woven designs often become symbols for me. Or help me develop motifs in stitch. I've used this circle divided into 4 before. For me it is a kind of calendar. A clock. A junction. But I ran across this scrap while sorting this morning. I just cut one dot out.  I made a note to myself about heart and time and season and the rhythm of the thing. The spin in the beat that creates center. The circle that the sense of things can make.

As I begin the index process for Feel Free, today, I think I might start with S. And try to speak about Spirit Cloth. I get asked about that so often.  And really, every time I get asked, I have to ask myself again, why Spirit Cloth?  The answer to this question always becomes a rocking back and forth between now and then. What was I thinking? What am I thinking now?

As a new season unfolds here, most personally for me, I know I must mend the design of my Feel Free project. Perhaps scale it back a bit to fit a more mobile phase in my life. Make it smaller but not less. In the meantime, I continue working on these small pieces that portray a wandering self. A stray has no agenda other than to keep going and enjoy the safety in  kinder days. The chill has gone and the gentle rains have moved in. I hear the geese overhead. They are their own magic carpet.