Spirit Cloth

wave storming

 

Dense fog this morning. A relatively warm day.

I need to finish planting bulbs. 

Some parts of circles can make boats too. And sails I have some of those... most of what I had here was just pinned. So I can switch them around. I needed a small fleet this morning. A community at sea. What if a community doesn't depend on location? There are also those who got left behind. 

Fog over a small journey.  Fog can be dangerous at sea. And also , I imagine, very beautiful. 

I am not trying to be clear here, just dreaming. Enjoying the fog then.

Just simple what-iffing

It wasn't a plan but when he said, what if you make the living room into your studio?, it took me about 15 minutes to make the changes.  The only big window.  Oh yeah, feeling more like home.

Patch Play du jour. 

And I forgot about the sailboats from a while back, just found a pile of them waiting for stitch. I guess I could use the tips of triangles for waves. Way back they were mountains and even tee pees.  It's amazing what you might do with simple shapes. But I guess that is at the root of patchwork.  And I have probably said that so many times before.

Oh gee, what if I could make a houseboat?

Moving the studio has me sorting through piles again.

I feel a loose patch party coming on. It's the silly season anyway. I need to order some wine. 

There's not much wall space in this new studio spot, but the hallway could work. I need to look at all the loose dyed patches together. And the basement is cold. I will warn him, there will be no escape from my madness now...

I will calm down after the new year. 

I'm late posting today, so this will probably get delivered tomorrow, what day is it anyway?

Just November

There is no storm today.

But there sure are a lot of leaves.

The lightness has changed.

And I am , again, thinking about community.

And how easily that can fall apart.

How confident we can become.

But in perspective, well being, well, it might really take a village.

These simple pair-ings reminded me. What if I just spend some time connecting a few loose patches. A little building. An exercise in usefulness. An end of the year round up with scraps of self.  Just these little connections reassure me. End of the year beginnings.

Just Here

I am here.

Just building a path.

To what?

To what's next, I guess.

72 aka Path.

The colors look funny here but hey...

things are not always as they seem. 

Maybe we might even rest in that for a while.

just that small twist...

Not just black and white, but light and dark. The magic in contrast.

If you squint your eyes, less colorful.

I changed up a few pairs with 2 that I had leftover from something else. I remember talking about this concept way back, but hell, if I could remember where it was... does it matter?  It stays with me. And it softens contrast while holding the pattern.  It rocks between appearing and disappearing. It is so true.

So today I call this 12. For the 12 Pairings. Until tonight when it will become 13. I was going to save up a bunch of pairs over time and then sew them together in blocks but I decided I like the way it unfolds day by day. Of course I might just shift the placement now and then. A ripple in time. This cloth will become big, behind the scene. I will show it now and then. Simple and not much more to say , except 2 1/2" squares, until it needs a backing.

We are painting the dark brown wall on the porch white, to reflect more light. 

And the Dye Po(e)t is waiting.

I can just look at it for a while. Probably till fall.  I think I will try to build some sort of outdoor fire pit. There is no wood-stove yet, just that shitty fireplace insert and a not so functional chimney. Getting some estimates. If it costs too much we will just use the heat. It's ok.  Maybe give the wood away to someone who needs it. Finish some blankets...maybe wait till next year.

I think it's time to review where I am on large cloth making.

See ya Wednesday. Have a good holiday if that's your thing, but really not sure why anyone is celebrating America at the moment. Yup, that's what I'm thinking.

Wednesday Words

Pear. Pears. A Pair of Pears. At woods edge.

A Pair is a positive thing. In my mind. In any form. Because it represents the birth of a pattern. And pattern is a form of natural order. And natural order takes a while to play out.

I keep making these. Pairs. Pair-ings.

Pare. Trim. Pared down, putting patchwork into the simplest perspective. 2 pieces. Connection. The beginning of bigger. But this simple balanced component, that moved away from the ones, then threes I usually work with, takes me away from 9.

Why am I saying this? Because I notice it. Perhaps as an evolution on form and the sense of a change in center. A new balance.

And then. Just one pair a day. How hard is that? One small connection. Maybe not just black and white, just dark and light. Like night and day. Maybe just a record. A way to document, use what is here.  12 days:Surely it might be a blanket by winter. Or next winter. A nest of days.

So piecing. It just goes like that. Small Cloth+ Just Going. I don't work Fast. Just Steady. Even if it can be 10 minutes a day. I don't do it to prove anything. It is simply reassuring. Piece-making. I know it will grow. I will name it for how many days I keep at it. And enjoy using it. 

The other one, on the basement wall. I am going to dye it before continuing. Reduce its harshness.

 

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. 

The Circle comes through on it's own

It's summer and it is unbearably humid and hot at the moment.

Yesterday, Nest of Days, circle side toward me. Toward the rising sun.

This morning, the other side.  I had commented that I might want to bring the circle through somehow. 

Poof.

Today I am thinking about Oneness and both sides of the cloth as a Pairing. I am inspired to work the circle into the other-side so it is apparent without the lighting.  I also love how the porch seems to become a tent with cloth hanging.  If you ask me about process, I would have to say that although I am slow in getting to it, and some of you have fallen away with impatience, this is a big part of the process, how I get to where I am going. Lesson for today. Slow down. Let it unfold or just hang in the air...like summer dampness.

We are going out this morning. He's waiting.

So signing off for a few days.  Trying to set up studio in the basement, do some bathroom repairs, get my car inspected, split some wood...address some chimney issues... a big list has formed.  Need to get through it.

Quantum quilting

 

I suppose this one is just turning into 

an exercise

in connection.

One cloth, two sides. Now, just pinned, using the quilt math as a common reference. These could be two cloths, with two different homes, yet still be one. When one evolves sympathetically with another they are one.

 

One on One

Pairing. Pairings , as I call them, just simple connections, have often been my starting point for patchwork. Two, loose scraps, often mismatched, touching, then becoming more. Here, obviously more deliberate, but still, with a bigger cloth in mind, such a simple and effortless and gratifying way to begin. One plus one. These are 2.5" squares, because I was dividing space, and I started with 5".  I hung them on a string on the porch, like flags. Clothespins were too heavy so I used pins.

Black and white. The magic seen through new eyes.

Then black-ish and white-ish, because nothing is that simple, black and white.

Prayer flags I thought, though I don't like the word prayer because of its link to religion. I am yes, God-Less. But I thought just redefine it in your own terms. With how you feel. Prayer-ings then today. In the context of the moment. Because a prayer might just be a way for saying Please help me,I can't do this by myself. We might simply ask each other for help. Sometime yesterday, I decided to stop talking about what I really don't know. To sound like I do. Maybe focus on what I can do. Here in this local community. Connect. While still Hunkering Down which seems to gone to hell in a handbasket.

I will talk through cloth here. I know how to do that. That is simply how I find words.

First there were prayer-ings, then paired to become magic 4 patches, my symbol for the time it takes, night and day. Season. And I have the green cross cloth pinned other-side up, using the shadow as a guide to build. A reference point.

What if I use yellow ? Energy. As a center? I think this cloth , the base will come together quite quickly now, Because I am driven. I will embellish with stitch from both sides. Which I think might emphasize and even celebrate a layered connection. I look forward to the day.

It was close to 90 here yesterday in the Valley. It has become summer without me noticing. And we have been here almost 6 months already. Suddenly the forest is becoming carpeted in ferns. 
I have never lived with frogs and dragon flies before. The are glorious.