Spirit Cloth

Some Old Thing

Years and years ago, I made this patchwork for a pillowcase.

I gave it to my mother.

It was one of my first patchworks where I departed from commercial fabrics. In fact the yellow squares at the border are cut from my high school gym-suit. I clearly remember high school gym. Probably because I was always embarrassed by the teacher because I was not athletic.

I got it back to repair. But time passed and so did Mom. It's not a pillowcase anymore. It's a story fragment. I cut part of it off to use in something else. I don't remember when or what. But it's probably buried in this blog somewhere. The indigo is new. I can say I patch with dye. And of course, there is a lot more to say about dyed patchwork when I pull it together. I hung this on the wall to remind myself to do that.  I've not time for a lot of things right now.

It's raining. Way more rain than we need really. It just keeps raining.  Yesterday, after waiting so long for a dry day, I had some wood dumped. I covered it with a tarp, not having time to stack. And expecting a shower. It's been raining all night and still raining. Like a monsoon. At sunrise, no tarp and a big pile of drenched wood.

Excuse me, but SHIT.

a little romance on friday

...that's what i am calling this one. a dream catcher. a little something i put together while whispering hearts... and thinking about suns.

passwords for the may whispering will be sent out Sunday. Check your paypal email please.

have a good weekend.

a thought in the beginning of february

...tenderness is a little fragment but it is no small thing.

 

friday

Friday is go see Mom day. She is very neat. And smaller every time I see her. She seems just fine but... I know she misses Dad so much. Often it hurts me to understand. 

And I compensate by making a few orderly stitches. To fake some sort of control. Neatness is like that. It covers up a lot of chaos.

the beauty of in between

The Spirit Cloth Workshop has come to a close, and The Beast Class has just begun, and I will be busy for a few days getting things completed, started and sorted.  I know some folks have issues  due to a blip in the cyber-thread. Please contact me by email if any issues exist, everything should be sorted out in a day or so... In the meantime, I have thrown a few things together in honor of the chaos.  Sometimes the endings from one thing can be the beginnings of another. And new energy can be the result of the collision. Poof!

I'll be back when the dust settles. Ha!

floating through summer

This summer is brutal in terms of heat. I feel the climate changing. Maybe I have just lived long enough to witness a shift. In any case, I feel myself shifting with everything around me. The walls are covered with cloth fragments and we are living on fruit.  Drifting from this to that, depending on the the way the day begins and ends, I probably would not know what day it was at all except for the reminders on my blackberry and computer screen.  I feel like I have become more of a dreamer than ever before.

A lot of time is spent, watering the small garden plot during an extended drought. My little island of green. After a good overnight soak, it welcomes the heat in a tangle of growth and thankfulness.  I will go check on mom today. Maybe stitch a bit of silk. Sip a bit of tea. Untangle a few things.

still faceless on friday

...exploring the idea of true face.

another day

got to head off to mom's today....leaving the beast to guard the new long cloth. i think she senses the history in this one. she is a story cat.

this cloth is made up of old cloth, rescued cloth. one key element is a piece of fabric that was found inside the wall of a little house, the backing for some old wallpaper. if you have been reading here for any length of time you might remember it as part of the story in the listen to the river quilt. for brother jeff (aka walter) . he sent it to me while i was making his quilt. . i could have framed it.  the fabric is old, and worn and filled with holes, yet, after being rescued and rewoven with other old cloth, it seemed to hold up fine, adding support to a community of old scrap. holding something together once again. useful. purpose redefined. i sense that this cloth, if it could speak, might say, " thank you."

stitching relief

...yesterday was sunny and warm. but not the best of days personally. i dug in the dirt for a while, which was nice. but when i picked up the square sun, i noticed the silk had really puckered up  after i quilted the sky to a backing. so i made the best of it, using the extra fabric to form some relief, for a face. i have used this method before but this time it seemed much needed, this relief. some metaphor for problem solving...

...as a book mat, this one came out a bit longer than planned. it finished at about 5x12".  i just kept adding a little more blue. and a little more blue. boro style, to mend and extend the edge.  the yarn dyed checkered gauze backing shows a little on the edge here and there...creating a sort of magic fringe with its alternating thread arrangement.  what if the sun was square? it might be a very long day.

today it is raining and i am off to see mom. i might play a bit more with the square sun idea. it has an old sky feel to it.

white magic

...5 AM...

...8 AM...

...3:30 PM...

...it's still snowing...