Spirit Cloth

January Pause

Typing a quick note. Did not expect to be here.

So the issue is rationed bandwidth which has no particular pattern so I never know when the upload speed will allow photos. That is not legal, but in these weird days I've grown used to these things. I will take the high road. I'm an old woman and I've seen a lot of things.  I cannot really sit here all day trying to post. So we are switching providers (which require some extra installation efforts and expense) and will have better service after the 25th of January. I will use the extra pause to settle myself. My January self seems more unsettled than my December self. Some how I've become undone once again. I will open update the shop with the New Moon and open Feel Free, which has it's own issues, on February 1st. 

There was snow on the Magnolia buds yesterday morn. They form, they wait, while I hope they make it. The sun came out later and all has melted away once again. 

I want to call these pocket cloths now. The pocket is such a personal place. I'll do some pocket storming. Be back with that when I can.
This one. I was going along and then suddenly it occurred to me. The Tendency to Bloom. We all have it. Maybe just a wish for us all to realize it. To know what kind of environment might encourage it. To understand how  sneaky poison can be.

 

The Traveler and the Season

An old small cloth.

From back here...

I simply added a thread bead.  Some extra light. Yesterday. The hot steamy day that ended with the biggest rain I ever remember. The sky was surely falling I thought. But the roof didn't leak.

And today is this kind of day.  A cool start. Bright sun. And going resumes.

This small cloth has just been tucked in one of the pockets  of HOME. As I close the box I think pockets are like little homes.   I have been stuffing things in the pockets.  Stray feathers and stones.  Stray stuff from the studio.  Just putting things in safe places.  Just that.  Not remembering details. Just knowing they will be fine. Resting. And happy to be found. One of these days.

Ok then. 

Phase 1 of the Magic Feather Project is complete. For those of you who have been following and for those of you who came late, I am compiling the story in a separate place so it can make more sense.  I plan to publish that link in a few weeks.

For those subscribed to Small Journeys, I will take this week off, ease into summer, do some blog and personal maintenance and be back July 1, continuing through the summer, on a summer schedule. What if Wednesday. Until the series ends.

Come summer's end I may be traveling. We'll see.

The shop remains closed while I consider another format for sharing, teaching and offering my work.

Become a Vessel

 Be Useful

The Explainer, travels with the cloth we call Home.

He is a pocket, a safe keeper, maybe for  questions or anything else that needs to rest. And he might be a traveling companion.

Or he might stick close to Home.

I am done.  Shooting photos and preparing a site (link to be published soon) where the project might be reviewed in the order of days. Gathering the pieces of the long story has taken time. Longer than planned or imagined.

Now just getting ready to pack it up and let it go. Solstice falls on  Sunday. And so does Father's Day. And the same day is the day my mother died, already 2 years ago. How did that happen? 

Monday then.

I am truly exhausted, but in that good way. Like a long day in the garden.

Spring Fog

This morning the sea breeze arrived as a thin blanket.

A soft spring mist.

Mist fills spaces with mystery.

I get lost in imagining. Mist is a kind of mending.

Sometimes a relief. Covering the same old view and making it new.

Sometimes just making it easier to hide.

I am adding a few more patches to Home today. The last ones. They are pockets. Pockets are useful for many things. That is why I like them.

I'm a bit weary today.

I am going to shrink myself down. Really small. And take a nap in there.

Threadcrumbs.

 

Getting through it

Sometimes when you look back on days they seem to make sense.  But when you are in them they don't. That is just the way it is. I think story is that, the sense of it all. All of a sudden pieces fit.  In a flurry they gather to say something.

The heart, where it started, is still a flap. I secured it with a safety pin for now.  Forever maybe.  It can be undone. Redone. It's a pocket.

I didn't know if I could do it, but I did.  I cut through and wove a nine patch in some black silk. A fragment from a scarf from  Grandma that she wore when she was mourning. Later she liked it because it warmed her to know it was OK. She told me that. I remembered. She gave it to me without telling me again. And now, like weaving does, it went through. This smokey black nine. Which has given darkness some natural order.

It is very important. This bit of darkness.  It will help me complete something. This is when things happen fast.  Because it is right.

I have a lot to do today to catch up.  I know some folks have signed up for Small Journeys while I was offline and  I have lots of emails to read.  So let me do all that.  This blog will have 2 layers now. After this post. As Small Journeys take hold as a new format.  Thank you all for your patience.  The new wiring and connection seems worth the investment.  Easier going. Somehow, in these crazy days it has become October and I hadn't even noticed.

 

The inside

The Other Side of the cloth I call Home is still quite raw.  The inside of Home. As the details are added to the flying things along the flight path,  the embroidery shows gently through.  Like little  bright spots in the vast chaotic space.  Slowly a path is emerging.  A way to follow.  Threadcrumbs.

A center stone fell into place this morning.  A warm one.  I have had it in my pocket for a while.  I remember it.

Home. Almost all the safety pins have been removed.  It holds itself.

Somewhere quiet miracles

 

 

 

I have posted about Wendy's work before. It was Wendy Golden-Levitt and her work with children, and really the children themselves that inspired me to begin the Magic Feather Project.  For some time leading up to it all, cloths were sent  by myself and others, to that place where the children heal.  Magic seemed to happen.  I, along with other makers,  received this thank you note, in the form of a book. I have spent much time quietly looking, reading, imagining quiet voices and hands and cloth. And heart.  Listening to the wisdom in the healing words of these children. (The honesty might bring you to your knees) Holding it all, wondering what to say.  I have no words really.  What could I say that could add to this?  Instead I have been stitching it all into the cloth I call Home which will soon fly away, carrying love and hope from around the globe, to be part of this beautiful process.

Some old posts here, here and here, if you missed them.  And the links to Hand Eye Magazine, sorry, that place has become a bit too weird for me lately.  Or should I say slick, not much like the home it was at all, still Wendy's article is great...Real. Like this gift.  If you would like to contact Wendy to find out more about her work or anything else, I can share her email with you.

To Wendy and all you Beautiful Children, my pockets are full. My heart overflows.

 

 

Safe

Throughout this project, the Magic Feather project, I keep reminding myself what an honor it is to  hold the wishes of others.  What a difficult thing it is to be a parent (or even a good friend)  then.  How frightening it is when you are unable to protect someone from  the awful moments when the simple path to becoming is lost.   How many  forms that takes, the holding.  How the many forms of holding might simply evolve from that caring.  How even letting go is a form of holding. How everything you do is meant to be that. Holding. How  you wish that to be True. Possible  .Acknowledged.

I will add some pockets to this cloth I call HOME.  So some of the feathers might remain free.  But have a place to come back to and hide.  Or at least be alone for a while.  To consider holding.  Being held.

.

 

Leaves and

A pocket to gather them in.  Along with a few walnuts.  
Shelter is all about season, isn't it?

Today we will go walking.

making room

add a little, take a little away. keeping balance is my biggest challenge. i practice on cloth. it's a big pocket, soft and safe.

i'll keep the pieces i take off in there

for later.