A pair of cardinals showed up. Male and female. They ate the red berries I have no name for.
They didn't stay long but they were back before sunset. Same place. Right outside the porch.
I reconsidered Eye Level. Expanded it so I might squeeze more cloth into the available space.
Here you can see the wall that separates the Kitchen from the Room with the Big Round Table. A dining room I guess but I will work here. On Big Cloth. On a Big Round Table. There is a small skylight close enough. You can see my morning sitting area back there. The washer and dryer are there, remember? And Soul-o's sticks and catnip mouse are on the floor. This part of the house has height. Light. There is a small skylight in the Kitchen too.
I unrolled Nest of Days. Maybe you remember. Still needs to become larger but already takes up a lot of space.
Wall 2 then. And the Big Table Room that will never be this neat again. In the beginning, back in Centerport, I used to change stuff around almost every day. That is how it has become here for now. Not deciding, just looking. The Man said, upon waking, “I guess the whole house is the studio then?”
I used to use element more, but component is so related to compose. And then compound.
In any case as it relates to traditional patchwork quilting, my beginnings with cloth, building blocks.
But really, ultimately I end up with Puzzle Pieces.
Because in a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together in a logical way. Puzzles are often created to be a form of entertainment but they can also arise from serious consideration. And evolve into something more useful. Each component is for me the visualization of a thought, the fundamental element, and part of the language system I use to communicate. Share what moves through me.
The Butterfly has simply evolved into my symbol for becoming. Becoming more or less. Transformation, change, and the beauty in that. And the wing... reach. Not new. But the form it takes has encouraged a bigger appreciation of process as art.
Since each symbol is often a result of building and layers, They might be broken down into components themselves. It's an infinite process really. Like the basic square...thoughts,scraps, stitch, the names of things, all puzzle pieces that ultimately tell the story, clues to the thought process itself.
In this last year I have come to concentrate on dyed components more. I use indigo a lot. My approach to shibori is not so much to focus on the perfection of the technique but on how imperfection, witnessed through repetition, might help morph a shape and encourage the evolution aspect of over and over. Puzzle pieces with softer, more liquid edges. Like clouds, they help me imagine new form and story but still allow me to use them like quilt blocks. I hope you catch my drift.
I built the Butterfly above with 2 triangle components (my symbol for safety), folded and stitched and then embroidered the body. But way back in Diaries I started like this:
As I look back to Spirit Cloth Diaries I am thrown back to the time I was working on the the Magic Feather Cloth, a lot of these butterflies ended up on that cloth. I also just came off a class with Glennis Dolce. Although I'm moving down a less traditional path, I learned the basics of shibori there. I've put her free online class under Freely Inspire in the side bar, even though the link is also over at Feel Free. If you need the basics it is really helpful.
I'm back to adding to Feel Free. Cooler days mean more computer time.I just added a page for components under Composition and I will add a page for Butterflies under Components soon enough. There are so many ways to build a butterfly. Right? Not sure about you but wings seem a good idea at the moment as the end of days as we've known them seems to be upon us.
What might be better, that this Cloth has become a place and a path all at once. For all of us, to know that this is enough. That it is safe. A safe place. A safe way for just going. Home away from home.
I simply added a thread bead. Some extra light. Yesterday. The hot steamy day that ended with the biggest rain I ever remember. The sky was surely falling I thought. But the roof didn't leak.
And today is this kind of day. A cool start. Bright sun. And going resumes.
This small cloth has just been tucked in one of the pockets of HOME. As I close the box I think pockets are like little homes. I have been stuffing things in the pockets. Stray feathers and stones. Stray stuff from the studio. Just putting things in safe places. Just that. Not remembering details. Just knowing they will be fine. Resting. And happy to be found. One of these days.
Ok then.
Phase 1 of the Magic Feather Project is complete. For those of you who have been following and for those of you who came late, I am compiling the story in a separate place so it can make more sense. I plan to publish that link in a few weeks.
For those subscribed to Small Journeys, I will take this week off, ease into summer, do some blog and personal maintenance and be back July 1, continuing through the summer, on a summer schedule. What if Wednesday. Until the series ends.
Come summer's end I may be traveling. We'll see.
The shop remains closed while I consider another format for sharing, teaching and offering my work.
The Explainer, travels with the cloth we call Home.
He is a pocket, a safe keeper, maybe for questions or anything else that needs to rest. And he might be a traveling companion.
Or he might stick close to Home.
I am done. Shooting photos and preparing a site (link to be published soon) where the project might be reviewed in the order of days. Gathering the pieces of the long story has taken time. Longer than planned or imagined.
Now just getting ready to pack it up and let it go. Solstice falls on Sunday. And so does Father's Day. And the same day is the day my mother died, already 2 years ago. How did that happen?
Monday then.
I am truly exhausted, but in that good way. Like a long day in the garden.
These ribbons of feathers will act as ties for the large cloth we call Home. And then who knows? I've enjoyed this final process. Making strings of feathers. Dreaming into them. Imagining them as representing the PieceMakers, hand to hand, reaching from here to there. Standing for hope and kindness. Ties that bind. Strong and useful. And then light as dreams. Blowing in the wind.
I have spoken to Wendy. I will send the cloth on Solstice. She will wait for it. Welcome it. It was a warm talk, this one. Filled with knowing each other better. She brings out the love in me which sometimes gets clouded by all the crap that makes up a life.
But I guess that is just what she is good at.
Her gift.
I've been working hard to pull the story of this cloth together in some cohesive way. No small task, this was one big journey. Tangled up in a life.
Maybe I have slowed down even more, just to make it last.
I am lining the streaming with silk. The gentle pull of the stitches forms a soft curve. I feel like these long narrow cloths are like the old skin shed from the serpent of days.
