Spirit Cloth

Just to put something here...

Been Loving Deb's exploration in photo layering lately.

This morning real life provided it's own example.

This photo was taken in the mirror across from the bed, already a reflection. And the window on the wall is a layering of the light and shadow from the actual window. Over cloth. Cloth layers. Ha!

A fire this morning. A freeze.

No woodstove yet. So hard to get anyone to commit to any work around here. Strange culture really. Not in a bitching mood though, too much of that everywhere, so let it go. The fireplace insert (the fireplace is on a sunken level) has a blower. Keeps everything upstairs warm. Works quite well actually. Not a bad plan. Maybe I will save some money.

And the frost is on the parsley.

It's obvious that media will be an issue here. So I suppose I am now going to be more focused on returning to Feel Free as the teaching place. I will do a new post about everything. Over there. Soon. Let's just get through this year.

A Simple Test

I had a post planned, one that included some media. 

But it's not going to happen today. Blog server issues. I'm sure there is enough social media out there to keep you entertained. But there is a picture!

The Simple Life. I will name it and take the weekend off. Try again Monday. Cold is moving in. Maybe I will make bread. It's our anniversary anyway. Every Friday the 13th. How's that for a plan?

Roots and Waves and Upheaval

New Roots.

At sunrise. Roots always seem ancient to me. But they are also a symbol of continuing. And newness then, a way to hold in the going. I was glad to see these this morning. The year has been so destabilizing. And these new roots make me feel like I am more at home.

I just kept stitching. This morning I sense a sea of stitch has formed. I am resting, floating in it.

Honestly I feel more puzzled than ever. Stitch is simple and I can understand it.

Out walking. Still learning the land.

This might be a favorite place. Old Earth is such a Timekeeper. A Story Teller. A story cloth I may well rest beneath one day... I made a new category, Old Earth. The Earth seems older here.

Comforting Others, regardless

I thought a lot about what happened yesterday. How we don't know each other. How my scream's subject was not clear. How kindness might not need to know. 

I moved my old sewing chair nearer to the window.

I stitched a bit before sunset.

This morning, confirmation, the spot is just right. I have created a comfort zone with a small move. Still putting pieces of the puzzle together here, bit by bit. Building a sense of home is patchwork, in perspective. It's bigger than house. But it helps to start where the heart is. Then vibrate outward.

A way to the edge

Red. Pieced because I just have scrap.

An edge then, link to video if you see no player...

 

 

I choose a more secure binding this time. Maybe just need that.

I finished one edge, right. Took about an hour. Hanging. On the wall, porch wall, painted it white. (White paint, lots of it, is out and waiting). A small section of wall that separates the room with the big table, left, from the main bedroom, right. Both have direct access to the porch. Doors have been open since June. Ants come in.

I like the red edge very much. 

September

It finally stopped raining . Water that is.

The lightning last night was spectacular.

I finished the spirals.  And I will go ahead and put an edge on. I hardly ever make the edge the last step. The edge makes it a place. Shapes context. I will edge it in red. Red, courage, red holding center, now red on the edge.  A ring of courage which has me remembering the ring from so so far back. My first symbol. Somehow I am closing a circle.

I have always lived with clutter, things.

I just want simple now. Just cloth.

I do believe everything small here will become big. Large cloth is a life process.

Except what I pop into the shop in the clean up process. Maybe just to share some scraps of self. Help pay for some chimney repair.

change is in the air

That wind, that signals change, blew in this morning. It may not linger day to day, but it has arrived. I could see it in the treetops before it came through the open window. The wind that makes everything smell different. 

It is going to be a big acorn year. The squirrels are beside themselves. ( I was going to say in heaven, but we all know where that concept has gotten us to) It's the most joy I have seen in a long time.

The acorns are different here. And quite honestly, so am I.

I don't know my oaks well. I might study up. Make that a priority.

It's a clear day, and I slept long and deep.  I had a dream, Soul-o wanted to visit the old place. When we got there he met his former self at wood's edge. They did not hit it off. He asked to go home. I woke up and here we are. 

Red

The painting has begun.

The man woke up yesterday and said, Uh-oh...

The Big Round Table

A dining table, was the idea. Dining table. We don't need to dine there. No visitors. Won't be. And then in the back of my mind, a place to gather, a workshop. Not gonna happen either.  But it's big, and flat and easy to get around with a seemingly never ending edge. So it is the cloth table. In this year of Big Cloth. And this, this is the other side of Holding Pattern. From a while back. I was talking about it a lot then. And then, like most things, poof. (older posts about this cloth)

It has become bigger. It's for the Boy, an old promise. I did stitch those border pieces by hand. No machine here. 

It's real hard to show or tell you what I am doing, because Typepad is not letting me post media at the moment.

It has actually become a chore to try to post, one problem after another. But like big cloth, you keep at it.

I am simply coating the other side with very thin cloth basted in place (I call this a catch layer, I need to talk to explain that, maybe tomorrow?) and then adding a layer of plant dyed silk, patch my patch, Boro style, no pattern except the one that emerges from how it happens in the holding together. The center has already been quilted through from the front. But I am not getting too far with the edge, because clown cat here has become increasingly playful, spending more and more time at my side since his encounter with The Fox. 

I can say this once a week posting is not working for me. It is putting distance between me and you and diminishing my ability and then even the desire to explain. I have been thinking a lot about habit and process. And how it is that things remain the same. Part of my new thinking path has me stepping back to look at myself and my going, trying to see it in perspective, what and why it is like it is.. Noticing how my needs have changed. Not just cloth but Just Living. Knowing more clearly that this place is not the other place and laughing at my early attempts to make it so. In this last week I have undone all I did in terms of arranging, simplified and even gave stuff away.  I carried too much stuff here and I don't need it. Or even want it. Perhaps it made me feel secure during the process. I have only just "arrived" here it seems. I see it as just new space with a Big Round Table. And blankets. And beasts.

 

Summer Hours

Just to show the process, on what I now call a Balancing Act. 

The patchwork component, which is now like a large puzzle piece has been inserted into the Equality base, using the applique and cutaway method.

Just to show the thin-ness.

I realized that the black is looking green because the cloth is so thin, the forest is showing through. How good is that? I also note the shadows of the beams. Noting that.

The basement space. Which, despite the low ceiling and small windows, is quite a large space. Painting, caulking, scrubbing, repairing, and there is space. Clean space, although we still might paint the floor.

Just to show The Wall space !

Welcome to the woman cave. It's cool down here without AC, and warm enough in winter with a warm forced air vent. Dry because mostly above ground. So ok. Someday maybe a door to outside, a bigger window. But it's ok. The guy here put up some good lights.

I'll talk a bit more about this process when I get time, right now I am off to drop my car for inspection. Hope that goes well. Next, wood splitting. I have switched to Summer Hours through August. Look for me on Wednesdays.