Yesterday.
The front door has glass you cannot see through except a little square in the center.
Today, from a back window. A light snow at dawn. Apparently there was a little garden out back.
I bet it could be a great animal watching place if I plant something.
Sometimes you think you are just over your head.
But then, when you stand back, put it in perspective, you realize it is just a frame of mind.
Feel Free went wacky again. Yesterday, later in the day.
A software update wiped out all my audio fixes and put the cute little audio player back but in the wrong places. I had a small meltdown. None of you have ever experienced those. (that might make an interesting audio)
The man says they are not pretty.
I made a late day post which expressed a bit of hopelessness. I deleted it.
I stayed up all night to patch it up. To prove myself wrong.
She patched another hole, and so it goes.
You make a promise, you do your best to keep it.
New content in Part 2/ Small Cloth. Rolling.
The Wedding Quilt (made before I was documenting such things) is wearing thin. It was a thin summer cloth to begin with. Only 2 layers, the patched top and a flannel sheet backing. No batting. It accepts mending so well.
The old Square Patch was almost worn Away.
The new Patch is a Circle.
Mismatched, Perhaps.
Useful though, then...Beautiful and Crazy wHole.
Puzzle Solved. Square Peg. Round hole. Yes we can.
A Harvest Moon Patch then. Because Time Passes. We learn. Reap what we sow.
Sew. Ha!
The walls here are filled with pin holes.
From tacking up my work. For about 15 years now.
That's lot of looking.
I cannot take these walls with me.
? What if I can?
I took a photo, printed it out, tore off a loose patch. Just to show you. Imagine a wall paper pattern like this? Oh ha, folks wanting to have walls all smooth and plastered and painted, imagine papering your walls with imperfection? Way more cool to me.
Cloth Weaving with plant dyed scrap.
Dyed here. This place.
A kind of Home Base then. For the shop. And then not. Because it became a place to be for a while.
Nine. Nine dujour. I think it's a habit work keeping.
Dots. Like an excavation. This is turned reverse applique which you find in the Applique Lesson of Spirit Cloth 101. Here.
Cloth Weaving makes the the layering element(a kind of alignment) in the weaving process more apparent. When you weave with thread or yarn it is hard to notice how it is the process of appearing and disappearing that creates the structure as well as the pattern possibility, the magic. And with the cloth method, the layers can be manipulated in a different way. I like this built in layering of cloth. Being able to sense it, it lures me into playing with it. There is new form always waiting when a technique is reconsidered.
I have a bit of work to do, to put the process index back on track for Feel Free. But it will be ok. Just tweaking things and keeping it more simple and less ambitious (that disease that has to be kept in check). The Feel Free site will be back up in a month or so. As simply a methods index. A Glossary. Just to make things easier to find. I'm sorry, this stuff takes a while to settle. And again thanks for kind donations to those folks that I never seem to find by responding through Paypal. Love you all.
Am I here?
Sort of.
It feels like this.
Going in circles. But then not really. But then in perspective, always.
I ended up making frames of mind. And now using them as just that. Filling the empty spaces/holes. I stitched on this one, on and off with Solstice in mind. And Mom who died on that very day a few years back. Has it been that long already?
It's not done because it doesn't seem to be my goal here. I'm experimenting with a few methods and also just letting circles form. And playing with the idea of frame (edge) in my mind. And it's relationship to puzzle solving.
I'm here to meet with some real estate brokers and then, not, to be elsewhere again and will post to Instagram mostly in the next weeks. To reconnect as I can. Been reading on the web but not commenting much. Ok?
Expect a few crumbs in the shop.
...but spring's in the air.
It's melting faster than I can shovel.
So I stitched the spirit of the thing. Instead. Ha.
Good Morning.
So, way back when, in 2012, Spirit Cloth Diaries, I had continued...
There are many things in process that I would like to get back to. And I will, but today I am just playing with a new component...the component method of cloth making is key to my style but also to my sense of continuing. I like to develop symbols, units of meaning. I like to do a lot of them, keeping the thought in the back of my mind and going. Not worrying if there is art in it, just blowing it apart little by little, letting it morph, evolve sympathetically with my aesthetic. Then I put all of it back together somehow, as a series or a puzzle. Some how the pieces fit together again but they generate new form. Changed.
I want to draw it stitch it, piece it, patch it, and dye it. I am think about how the limitations/ potentials of a medium/technique might affect my direction with a design.
This morning I asked myself, where was the "weave it", what if???
Notes to self: Transformation might seem cosmetic but it moves through you. The third dimension of alignment is often overlooked. And cutting into is often feared.
Winter didn't seem that long.
I think maybe we will see a bit more snow.
But really, it's spring in my mind.
I painted these stairs to the sleeping loft white last year. I never put the second coat. I like them this way. And the computer is up there. It's a small space. Not a lot of head room. An attic. A mattress on the floor, a desk. Maybe 30 or 40 trips a day, up and down. A little bit of not so noticed but needed exercise. It makes a difference. It's warmer up there anyway. Making winter useful.
And speaking of small spaces and little bits of things, and old clothwoven patchwork base from 2010(!). Cloth to Cloth.
I've always had a thing for little bits of color. And taking a very long time to get to things.
A new star in an old setting. I like the nine colored dot pattern. Holding 9 forever like a constellation. And I'm wondering where the rest of those old bases are? And I'll find them because there is Spring Cleaning going on here. Big Time. A big time to let a lot of little things go. I'm going to travel light.
The Spirit of Standing Up.
I named it that.
I thought to leave it simple. But it is not simple really. The figure is embedded in goings on, context. The flow doesn't stop. You stand in spite of it. Hold ground. There is a lot more turbulence to come. Practice balance.
I love how the cloth has begun to curve in the areas of dense stitching. That's the nature of the cloth yielding to the spirit of the stitch. Ripples form. Pull things off grid. I named that part the learning curve. A new symbol perhaps.
The rain stopped but the leaky part of the roof almost fell in. Time must be taken to address the situation. Mend the hole. We'll give in and fix it. Hope it doesn't cost too much. Hope they don't have to open it up. It's a bit chilly for that. But February is sure to bring snow. And snow is wet and heavy.
If the path before you is clear,
you are probably on
someone else's.
-Carl Jung