Spirit Cloth

Use the time you have to know yourself

I say things over and over again.

Usually as I am going.  Probably because they work more than once. And that is reassuring. I am on a side trip here for the weekend. Continuing with new eyes. But I do this with Big Cloth too. Manage thickness as I go.  Managing is that, problem solving in the moment. Tending to need. While holding on to the bigger picture.

 

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It took hours. In the scheme of all things, not long really.  I enjoyed it a lot more with the extra layer. I could hold it more easily, the stitch rested in the bed of cloth with more ease.  I noticed how many ways I can fold this cloth and birth new eyes.

Maybe we can manage anger with a bit of thin cloth. 

Then this morning I just pinned to look. At a thought I had.

I note to myself how I so often create blankets with a center which radiates outward.  But then this is interesting suddenly. A path that runs through it.  I stacked a few small pieces I had here. Just to see and think about that. And then of course other thoughts surfaced.

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The Outside Looking Place in the Valley

There is a habit, well, a need actually to see more than one piece of cloth at a time, to see how they relate. Especially if they are being considered at the same time.

They are parts of a bigger story. I thought OK, I need a longer line, a stronger line. Now, more than that, I need a longer "thread". To understand the One-ness. I might thread a clothesline all the way through the forest. Connect the strong trees. Cloth like markers, and if they are green, for now, no one/thing might notice, unless they were really looking. Maybe the line should be green. Or brown, I could dye the rope. Brown is easy. Maybe I could use thread. For smaller stuff. Yes, this IS my real life. 

It's foggy, damp, and quite warm. The lion quilt is almost touching the ground. I think that is the size I am targeting for the baby quilt series.  Big enough to be a small person quilt. Or a lap quilt for a big person. Or a bed topper. Or even a table cloth.  About 60" square. Ish. That means the green cloths will need to grow a bit. Sometimes I let that happen first. Sometimes I let it wait for later. There are many ways.  I have in mind to make at least 2 more green bases though, so I might count the ways. Hazel kept going with just piecing squares and look how big it got! And if you use bigger squares, it grows quite quickly. Working on one right now. 

You can see in the background, there is a utility pole on the property. The previous owners had a street light installed. ???  We are finally having that removed this week.  Maybe they were afraid of the dark?  And we are paying for the extra electricity! 

I love this picture.

I think while I am creating the quilt bases I will begin to consider theme. That goes beyond color. The lion quilt is a sampler style quilt. That is a base that holds many considerings around the theme of lion. Why did I pick lion? It was appropriate at the time. I was focused on the beast/human relationship. I used the beast to represent people in my life. Lions seem powerful. Each lion has it's own powers. But more about that later.  I do like the sampler approach for a theme.  Many versions of the same thing. There is an inherent learning in the process. An expanding of thought.

Overlapping Fields

 

Field. Many definitions, but for me a space defined, chosen, within all other spaces that might act as a guide for focus. As in field of vision I suppose. And then and course, a place for wild open growth and play. An open field. Like Feeling Free. I play with the circle a lot, but not always. As I look at the quilts I have made, these shaped overlays, fields of focus, are fairly constant. Sometimes they happen at the beginning. As a base. Sometimes they are a tool to bring things together at a later stage. They are a layer of thought. Sometimes there are so many I forget. But they can often be used to explain how one thing might become another.  

Still with the circle this morning, I tried more than one. And the overlap (another kind of alignment) seemed an eye opener.

This piece that was hanging on the porch back here. Working with that, what-iffing, not on Wednesday, but hey. Again stitched over pen lines. Inspiring radical change on this cloth and also a larger application for a big cloth in the back of my mind. 

Digital musings for cloth and maybe paper. And imaginings, not yet recorded from the well of memory unspoken. 

And then, as I turn to press publish on this post, I see this. On the top of the patch basket.

From Glennis. And I think of overlap as form of Kindness. Friendship, Sharing. Sharing will bring new form. Maybe the simple beauty in this drove deep into my heart a while back and although I forgot, I actually remembered. Time is magic.

I am grateful, in these difficult times, that we still might find time and ways to share and be kind. Let's focus on that. If we all do it, we will all be OK. 

 

 

Hunker Down in a Field

 

The freeze is gone, I'd say.

May's Womb. Still a chill at night, but I trust we have crossed the line, here in The Valley. The unexpected snow has cleared the air.

The rain has quenched a thirst. 

Stitching without saying much, Needle Chanting, has quenched another.

I have weathered the storm.

The beginnings were simple here. Already present from way back. Looked at for a long time. Years.

A ragged nine cobbled from dyed cloth made during Whispering Color. And then creating the circle field to stitch within , like I do. A field of stitch can hold a lot of stray bits together. Create One-ness.  When I use thread beads I call it the Snow Globe effect.  Here, a stacked running stitch. Kantha. Maybe the Grow or Flow Globe effect. Imagine this bigger. Oh my. I have done it slightly larger but what about huge?  When I began a few days ago, I said it will take forever. It didn't. I stitched through snow, sun, rain, hail and a lot of wind. And now there are flowers. Imagine stitching through all four seasons. Oh. Ideas. Four Globes, one for each season. Four quilts maybe? Ha! I'm back!

This one though, will remain smaller. And only seem bigger. It was a big help to me in the last days.

Being imperfect, a little egg shaped, I suddenly thought womb. And those tie like corners that make it seem so apron like. I think then it is part of the woman series. Womb Woman.  Womb Woman's Apron. Need to work on the ties a bit. I can hang it from those. It turned into a little holiday cloth then. A Mother's Cloth. 

There is a lot of Deb's thread here.