Spirit Cloth

Big and Small

Holding Pattern. All quilted except for the border.

In looking at it on the wall, I realize the edge is a bigger part of the whole than I had a sense of. This is something worth considering. How we perceive edge. And then...will I complete this gift by year's end?  Maybe it doesn't matter. 

84" square-ish. Big.

The stitching is intense. Rows, close together. Rippling. Feels good. A little video over on Instagram because, honestly. it's easier. I seem to need a bit of easier lately.

I rescued a little roof moss that fell to the deck. I made a tiny terrarium. To hold green.

We've been maneuvering through big wind , power glitches and tornado watches. Now just cold. And then of course, the virus has returned to the area in a big way. 

 

It's hard to know the big picture...

...probably because we never really get to see it.

Still we try to hold the sense of it. It doesn't make me feel small like it used to. I can just be part of it. Like a patch. It is easier to hold on to that these days. The Bigger Cloth.

I was simply exhausted yesterday. I slept early and I slept deep. Soul-o seemed to know, he stayed close.  This morning, after 4 tries, photos! 

The piece above, an unfinished small journey from the class with the same name.  I added and stitched the overlapping circles after asking myself "is a circle just the mother of all shift?" And I named it It's Just Time while working on it. Because that's it, not the thing, or the blog or the book or the anything. It's just time, the story. And all this shit is just part of it.  Be in it and share it or not.  What is it going to be?

I posted at Instagram this morning, trying to feel like it was the blog.  Very uneasy feeling, even though I post there a lot, it is not the same as I feel here. So I can share yes, I will continue to do that there, in case I cannot here. But I will struggle.  What else is there? 

I am tweaking Feel Free to become a back up blog. That will take a while.  I know TypePad is fading as they are now directing new sign ups to a WordPress server. They are struggling too. Maybe I will just choose to appreciate that. I fear less about losing anything here, I think the functionality will slip a bit but I can always reference the content and leave it here. Comments might be an issue, but I will just go and leave crumbs where you can find me if I lose you.  My heart IS in it. It was just a few hard days. For many more reasons than just this. We are all in the same big boat.

Calculating the span of Heal (ing)

A Nest of Days is serving me well  a resting place for new clothwork.

This one grew a bit, just a single layer of muslin overlapped and stitched.  One layer, the center is 3. That might be managed later.

The man is, in the meanwhile, sanding the table.

I think we best heal from the inside out.  I can stretch and touch the edge, while my heart remains the center.

No stitch today but this exercise is also doing. Getting into the spirit of the thing. I made a video but it became a bit too brazen with no bra. Maybe if I wasn't going on 70. Ha! Feeling Free  but not that free. So here is a less offensive snapshot I cropped out of it. 

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.