Spirit Cloth

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.