Spirit Cloth

Adding Body

Eye Woman.

Continued from here, here, here, and then here... in case you forgot by now.

Part of the evolving Stands like a Woman series. All to be quite consistent in size. About 12" square.

I guess this one will be very slow.

I've added details slowly. Creating an alignment of eyes that stand as one body. I had cut away from the original stack work.  But the center eye was not substantial enough. Sooo...

 

video link if you see no media player above.

 

Managing layers, sides, is a kind of rocking back and forth.

 

In cloth making, changes and revisions are more easily understood in relationship to mending. But really, over time, I have come to define design AS mending.  An adjustment to what is, making anything more useful for whatever the purpose. More beautiful to you because of that. We live and mend. Until we can't. Maybe then we might still share the ways.

(I will, again, add this video to the managing layers page at Feel Free.)

These old jeans

At a loss for anything to say today.

But then there is always something to do. And then something to say about it.

So. These old jeans. They are well worn and often neglected but loved even more because they still fit. After all these years. I use them to measure that. Fit-ness.

At no loss for loose patches, obviously. I always take note of wear. Linen is not good when folded or stretched. Like on the knees. I heard that about linen, how it abrades, weakens when bent. But to see it is to know it. To almost be it. We live and learn and patch holes. Or not.

Also at no loss for quiet company.

Winter settles in.

February is my birth month. I was born in a snowstorm.

I know there will be snow, at least in February.

Blizzard watch today. It began before dawn. The quiet wakes me.

I needed the blanket of quiet yesterday. My mind is worn out.

I'm sitting at the mending table.  Some self care. I am going to sit here all day and watch. Catch up on email and stuff.

Continue stitching on an older piece that just became bigger. And more useful.

I have decided to call it to keep from screaming. I have been thinking a lot about voice lately.  Being confused about that.

The stitched patch is like the snow. It came like season. Winter's voice. Looking for a word other than resistance.

.........

We expect more than a foot of snow today. With high wind. We are prepared, we lose power here often during winter storms. Enough wood has been stacked indoors to keep both stoves going if necessary.

Still Standing

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.

 

Another Face.

Last night we slept fireside.  Just to do that.

It was raining hard. The roof was leaking a lot. The power was up and down. And it just seemed warmer and drier and brought back memories of living smaller, doing that one room thing in winters past.  'Twas was a quick decision and as we pulled out the sleeper couch, I grabbed the cat quilt, which I had been mending ( yes still at that), and spread it out "face" down as a sheet.

Ha! Instantly it became the next piece in the Sanity Collection.

I think probably  the other side of a cloth has always been part of my consideration. Especially the quilt.  Which in many ways, over time, has taken on the sense of a Double Cloth to me, specifically  the class of double cloth that is referred to Double Face. 

Double-faced fabrics are a form of double cloth made of one warp and two sets of wefts, or (less often) two warps and one weft. These fabrics have two right sides or faces and no wrong side, and include most blankets, satin ribbons, and interlinings.[2] Wikipedia

It is interesting to use this crossover in terms of my own roots in weave.  I have always loved that the right sides of a cloth are often referred to as faces.  I just made a note to self that, for me, no kind of cloth has a wrong side.  I have a category for The Other Side.  Maybe I should file that under Faces.

The lines are a result of quilting. Not the conventional kind I used way back when that's what I did.  But now. As I mend and connect the layers with less regard for that.   I need to continue mending  this cloth for a while longer.  It is helping me through something.

Snow and then some

We did get snow.

Expecting more today.

He is watching me fill the feeders.

I'm off to the market and then I will stack wood on the porch.

I've not been feeling well. I'm doing an apple cider vinegar fast since last night. Sometimes not eating is good. Give it a rest.  A New Year's purge. Trusting in past experience.

Room

Beside myself.

An old piece of artwork. A self portrait.

The box, the wings, the breaking out. Oddly, one of the few things behind glass here. The paper is very old.

One of the first repairs to the Cat Quilt, long ago. A kind of holding Nothing patch.  Nook, my big old cat is immortalized on the Lion Quilt as well.

And now, after a bit of day dreaming, I've taken a new approach to filling the holes along the edge where many of the white triangles have disappeared.I used a lot of vintage cloth there. It melted but that's ok. I learn a lot by watching things melt away. It's a privilege really.

Filling the space with space. Sky like cloth. But Room. Room is the word on my mind.  Room to expand maybe. Get beyond just that space. Be filled with less maybe. Room makes things seem like less. Room to see. Windows

To be wrapped in space. Room as shelter. Room is a multilayered word today

 

Almost (not)

I am still Mending.

Really, I almost like it this way.

 Path = a symbol for In between.

Block 4

 

I will be mending this cloth through the end of this year. Posting pics here as I can, we'll see. Comments will be off so we can spend more time on notes to self. I was planning a shop update for Solstice, but I think I will stay away from that (maybe a few Threadcrumbs).  New Year's Eve then, Cheers!

Loosey Goosey Me and a Kind of Mending

My blanket self is made of Loose Patches.

This piece continued from HERE.