Spirit Cloth

What is Just Going?

 

Good Morning Ragmates.

Today will probably be the last really warm day here.

The maples over the ridge have turned golden. Isn't that amazing?

Been exploring this land.  As it turns out, there are walnuts here. Right Here. As Mom used to say...How about that?

The dyepo(e)t waits.

Reconsidering  path has brought me to The Tenderness of Place  aka Everything is So Fragile (I decided, yes, yes I could, I could name them all that, it works right?).

There are things. I will be away for a bit. Away from here, home that is, here and there, but maybe still posting. We'll see. Just little things, no worry. 

just Being Part of It

 

 

Mostly I planted perennials this year. They will return. And reseed, populate.

But I also did a lot of dead heading and trimming, I brought the spent blooms in to make pretty and and consider the in between. And then they dry.

Soul-O likes to sit near them. Likes the way they smell.

Likes them so much sometimes he butts them with his nose. Seeds fall out, if they are ready, I collect them.  I lump them all together  and store them in jars, put them downstairs in the cool basement. So many from one flower. I will plant them before deep winter, spread them around at wood's edge. And along the outside and inside the garden fence. Some down at the end of the road in by the mailbox. The deer will eat some of them. Hey ho. 

And what has happened here? Playing with vertical and horizontal stitch lines, which is taking like forever, but then poof!, this old self has begun to have the feel of being woven in. I'm not done considering this and I will talk eventually. 

x

I don't know why this one is so difficult to photograph, just elusive in some sort of way. Perhaps I see something that cannot be seen outside a dream. The thing that remains in between.

The X emerged, I don't think I have talked about that symbol much. I have been gathering thoughts for a while. It is a combination of conflicting thoughts having to do with the unknown, crossing over, and placekeeping.  Not to be confused with the cross (which is here too.).  But my words seem inadequate this morning and I need some time ...

Anyway, this one is complete in the context of the day. Pinned to a bit of Sanity. The Heart of Season.  And the thread that runs through it. 

This is an old drawing that is very much at the root of my thread theory. 

Very old, like 60s.

I love it more today.

I will use it to pull me through to some new form of understanding. 

 

Even Though

loose page #82521

Commenting is a problem here, so comments are off. Ok, comments are a problem here, but let's see...

The service that delivered my posts by email has stopped offering email delivery and I don't plan to pay for another one. 

I haven't decided how I will use this place. Maybe my posts will be private. 

I put the globe tracker back, from scratch so I might know if anyone comes here anymore. My guess is mostly not. But green dots might prove me wrong.

I am still blogging over here for now, since I moved a while ago.

Nothing stands still for for long in my world. We'll see.

Deepening Winter.

It's cold, we've gone Polar. Looks like below freezing for a week or so. And maybe some snow. The big unstacked wood pile is frozen. An excuse to continue with other things. 

Life became really confusing this last year. Maybe actually just confusing. 

In any case, The Deep Pool of Thought... posts here and here... has become a larger cloth still, simply by giving it a different use. And it could be a blanket too if I keep going.  And I probably will, what else is there? And it's cold.

What's happening with all my internet places? Well, I'm sorting through that. 

I was going to start talking here today but the man is sleeping and the basement is cold and so tomorrow will hopefully be another day. 

Stand Up Applique

video on Instagram

Large Cloth as Place again

PlaceKeeping.

A term I have used for so long. For many parts of my journey, mostly in cloth making.

P is for Place. Place is a special part of Space. Very often a kind of home.  Or a destination. (as recorded in the Feel Free Glossary on April 19, 2019. Gee time has indeed passed quickly.) Then, even a reference point. Lately a place to hide.

How much this robe is like a blanket but then a robe's 3 dimensional aspect is so much more a "structure".

Here on a stick, balanced between a chair and a the half wall that separates the room with the big table and the fire room below. Before coffee.

I turned it other-side out. I made the blue side first, then coated the other-side with what I had here. It wasn't too hard because it is based on rectangles. When I first made this I was in another frame of mind. I wasn't much thinking about "through". I was trying hard to make sure that what was on one side would be independent of the other.  The invisible stitch was a big part of that. But over time, I relaxed. And began to take a different approach. A few things began to come through. I haven't worn it much other-side out. I never liked how the sleeves looked. I am going to coat them with another layer. I don't need to but I want to. Some thin plant dyed silk gifted to me by an old friend. To recolor them, which will make them warmer but not much heavier. Ultimately also useful.

I found some basting still in this from like 20 years ago. I have been using it for so long I almost forgot how unfinished it could remain and still be useful. Most definitely it will never fall apart with all the layers. In my lifetime. It's robe weather. I have a few robes. What a luxury. Probably I only need one. 

I have decided it might serve me well to create some project pages over at Feel Free to keep things together.  Typepad continues to have issues and well, maybe. I will catch some thoughts about that today. While wearing my renamed robe other-side out. While I look for that silk.

And while I am rambling, the PlaceKeeper link up top on this blog has become so outdated, a lot of the links are not working, I will be rethinking that as well. Maybe while I line those sleeves.

Simply Keep at It

Sun's out but it's a bit cooler today.

What a relief.

A little quilting, just simple, around the edge quilting.  Seems to add a simple logic of building to the new day side.

And then around the sun. Hardly visible from the other side if you don't look closely. But it is there, the new day has come through. There are many choices for thread and stitch. Stitching does not have to scream, it can simply whisper. There is satisfaction in the way this is going. It takes me back to a simpler time when no one was watching. It is nice to know I am still that person.  That I have held fast to what I love. I like the place it takes me to. No, wait, I AM that place.

There is a huge hibiscus tree at the edge of the wood that I had not noticed until it bloomed. This morning it was all-a-buzz. You hopefully know that sound. I saw this pollen drenched bee and thought... keep at it, find a way, do the hard work, gather, take what you need and spread the goodness.

Let's hear it. With me?  bzzzzzzzzz

Holding on to Nothing

Named for the wispy silk scraps I am filling space with.

It's like that, holding on to nothing. It has changed since I posted it on Instagram last week. 

But also the image is developing  slowly around the concept of the name.  And the name has 2 parts.  Holding on to Nothing aka New Eyes. It's about my changing perception of what is real. How to give form to that. Make it some sort of place to hold on to. 

Also, these kinds of images I build with cloth are more personal in terms of how they might bring me back to paper. Paint. I realize that is what they are for. I have returned to a  lot of my smaller cloths late at night when it is quiet. I add a bit here. There. Then dream on them. Without words. Without sharing. Because I have no way to say.

My time online is a struggle. Typepad yes, but also a certain kind of energy is hard to find. I read but just don't find a lot of words to respond.  Even reading. My eyes tire. I do not think it is my health.  I think it is a kind of unnameable shift in priority. Dealing with things I can touch. Maybe it is just a sign of these troubled days. I know others have been floating in a similar cloud.

Floating is a kind of going while holding on to nothing.

I am not fighting with it, or feeling sad. I am just going along each day. To see how it will be tomorrow. 

Just saying this..

a path to Balance

What is balance?

For me it is not holding myself steady so I do not fall over. Instead it is a sort of dance, a rocking inward and outward, a stretching exercise where the goal is to constantly reconsider center while pushing limits. To Understand center as fluid. Knowing it's changing position.  Managing shift. Reach. A constant in-between.

It is so personal really. It's definitely not about following any one else's lead. It's inside.

I cannot really explain except that it is shapeless. And there is no fear of falling because I can fly.

This is one of my favorite photo collages. I cannot explain. And I feel no need.

Last night, power up on the porch.   

This photo taken from inside The Big Sleeping room, it was cold. Windows need cleaning.

The porch runs across the back of the house and spans both the Room With the Big Table and the bigger bedroom. Sliding glass doors from both rooms, but a wall in between.

Some bulbs replaced, fixtures repaired. The old wicker hanging lamp was left here but not working. So far we have been making repairs ourselves. The Man is pretty handy when he feels like it. The table has a story, will get to that.

My pace has improved. Slower and distributed through the day with not too much sitting. I spent time weaving her, Lightning Woman,  into the sky yesterday. A few minutes here, a few minutes there.  Taking her off the wall and putting her back. While dreaming of warmer days. And making pizza. And training Soul-o to come in and out from the porch. I put the litter box out there.