Still Spinning, from here...
There was a bit of a stomach thing. Yesterday. I rested a lot.
I've walked through the garden. That's all.
It is turning. The beginnings of that.
Cooler nights first. And yesterday it did not reach 80.
I didn't do anything in the garden. I just passed through slowly.
These. New.
Just there. Just like that. On one of the Butterfly Milkweed pods. It took two years but it is well established now. So I researched red bugs on Milkweed pods. And that is them. Milkweed Bugs. They were still right there this morning. They must like it there. They say it's ok. They just show up for short while. They reduce the number of seeds for next year. Some folks spray. Some folks consider it population control. For MilkWEED. In any case I stopped at considering it a touch of Red. For now. We'll see.
A touch of Red is always nice with green.
I just uncovered this. Nine for Growth. Part of the Nine Forever Series. Which was something more formal but now it isn't. From the post here, which was from Small Journeys (one of the free classes in the sidebar) here, and then here.
This another example of "weaving into".
There are so many ways to do that. Cloth through cloth. Try it.
I think I might put a few Milkweed Bugs on this one and call it done enough. Nine for Growth. Or Staring Growth in the Face and Seeing it Look Back. Sometimes things keep growing without you. It might do that. It contains that. The going. Despite a few bugs.
Later.
And there they are. 9 of them.
This. An old base. A woven patchwork base.
You might guess where I am going with this one. Some new paths for stacking stitch. I am working on a cloth woven base. You might catch the basics of cloth woven patchwork over at Spirit Cloth 101, the BASE section. I plan to add my cloth weaving class (Cloth to Cloth) to The list of Open Classes soon enough. This base was created with an anchored method which makes the cloth into sort of a loom in itself. So let me put that here now.
video link if you see no player
I have added a page at Feel Free, under Cloth Weaving- Weaving Into for this technique. There is much more to say about it after all this time.
The stacked stitching gives body to a cloth so it works well to stabilize the woven base. A nice contrast I think. Also here, I will use two color fields to form the moon, the light area to form a crescent. I will use home dyed indigo thread for the dark part of the circle. So I will crank up the vat for that.
I used a dinner plate to trace the circle. Just to get a sense of scale. Most blues here have been dyed over-dyed in indigo. Scraps of blue self. I also added a few loosely woven silk scraps to accent the edge and add texture, and will see how well this kantha style stitch might blend them into the surface and hold them.
I have gone ahead and added a thin cotton lawn, dyed in indigo, to the back. Tacked it down. To give it all a bit more body before stitching. And again I am making no attempt to make a neat back, still concentrating on how the stitch might be a composition element. And using many many short thread ends in the process.
I think also, now that the weather is warming a bit, I will be entering a new phase of Feel Free. Like all things not focused on, it is beginning to get away from me and needs attention. Perhaps if I concentrate on recording one thing at a time, like the running stitch, for each month, it will help me build the page base on my new site. And I am considering a few other things. Like a community gallery page. And enhancing the information base by inviting contributors. And that's enough thoughts for now. Transplanting indigo today.
Thank you all for your support. And have a good weekend.
Thank You to Quilting Arts Magazine
for republishing my article from 2010 in their new 15th Anniversary issue (#78).
Wow! Has it been that long?
Meanwhile, a freeze! And the regular studio has been closed down for a while.
I have stuffed some essentials in a warmer room so we only need to keep one fire going.
Now less is seeming a lot like more.
This year we have backed off from living in one room and we are managing the heat situation to keep costs down. We learned a lot in the last two years.
Time teaches.
Until December then...
Yesterday. I posted a picture of this pillow on Facebook.
Because a late October stray showed up here.
And probably this one will wander right into November.
Today. I just thought I would put the instructional video from Contemporary Boro here, since folks over at Facebook liked this so much. Of course I am in the embellishment stage on this side at this point (somehow it needed to become more), but the other side is still quite rough and I will be working on this in the coming months, out in the open. So just a quick look at the basic cloth weaving, 3D style. I will also add this to Feel Free as a sub page to cloth weaving later today.
Cloth weaving is a way to form a patchwork somewhat seamlessly. The basic method is described as the woven base over at Spirit Cloth 101.
This piece is about 16" x 9". I've further developed the 3d weaving idea, but that could be for another time.
I worked on this pillow a bit more, tucking and weaving and even extending the strips as I progressed by sewing more scrap together. The ends can be folded and tucked in as you go. It is easy to work on such a soft surface and I love the results. Pillows are a great way to use cloth, to recycle scrap and create comfort in the home. Or just something to hug. (I made the heart pillow when Dad was in the hospital, Mom used it a lot.)
I am having a bit of trouble loading pictures in Typepad. I have reduced the size of some of them, that helps sometimes.
Ragged.. I said to myself.
These winter days feel ragged.
Today is ragged and blue.
But 9 still makes me feel like dancing.
Chicken aka Soul-o is not blue.
He just is.
2009. I started this in 2009! More amazing is that some of you were traveling companions (thank you!) way back then as well. And now, after considering weave, I am back to REconsidering some old idea about weaving and sewing. If time Can fly, best to learn to do the same. Got some new wings and some new eyes and we'll see.
Time is patience. Patience is a kind of glue.
In August, among other things, I began to reread my blog. Good grief! I can ramble on.... Since 2006. If I knew then what I know now, I would probably do it all over again. I have noticed how I have learned a few things. I learned to write a bit better. I learned to take better photos. I learned more about myself. My sense of selves. About more. And less. Going is learning. So I'll keep going. I am so grateful that I have the energy for that. Really. That there can still be some going. Time is a gift.
Note to self: These little hand pieced squares are a bit over 1/2". That is rather amazing.
4 more inches of snow yesterday before it began to rain a bit toward evening. It seems a bit like the moon here. The man went out and took a few pics last night, because he was feeling a bit better and the lights near the driveway were buried in ice and snow and it all looked so strange.
Today is my birthday. I am 63. My gift was a new computer. It has a new operating system to learn and there are many files to be transferred and many things to be set up. It will take me about a week to get everything in order I think. It's OK. A chance to UnDo some techno clutter. And a better configuration to handle video.
We are still a bit under the weather but on the mend.
Still sleeping fireside on the fold out couch. Which gives Soul-o a friendlier view. I received a kiss this morning. A lick on the face that woke me. A little whisker tickle and a little sandpaper tongue on my cheek.
I took this woven panel (from one of my boro workshops) down from the wall today and extended it. This big winter has changed my sense of scale.
It's raining. It's warmer. Even though the cold will return next week, a sense of spring fills me.
This piece contains the ghost of a basket. And a moon. At least that was my goal. Its creation, a little equinox ceremony.
I plan to do a bit more stitching on it. But not much.
In a way it is the culmination of a lot of things, but then, again, it is also the birth of many others.
A Flower Moon cloth maturing...
Life is a colourful circle but you have to let it happen.
.........
Almost.
Which has come to be enough.
Yes.
I will be dropping some completed work into the shop over the coming days. With a release planned for the New Moon in July. So much stacked up here. There is a new tab up in the top menu bar, NEW WORK and stuff, which will always take you to the new additions in the shop first.
I am catching up a bit, and will not be online much again until Monday. The garden needs tending, lots of mail unread and It is also the Man's birthday. 60! Yes I am older than him.
For those of you in Diaries, I will be working my way back over the weekend. Gathering thoughts caught. Thank you for your patience.
If the path before you is clear,
you are probably on
someone else's.
-Carl Jung