Spirit Cloth

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. 

How and Why. What. Continued...

It was a long noisy process but it went well. The large white oak was tall and had split into multiple trunks, maybe 5 or 6.  They came with a bucket truck and wove in and out of the power lines, slowly snipping the branches, dropping them carefully until the danger was past. The tree had been most likely damaged by gypsy moths, I have been though that before.  But the wood was mostly good, so maybe not that long ago. We might had left it standing had it not been so close to the wires and the house.  They also cut a lot of the fallen trees here outside the kitchen window.  More good wood and now clearing the way to the layered stone rimmed ridges that go back to the stone walls.  There is real wild garden potential here. That cedar which was hardly visible before will be much happier. There is more air and light and open paths to walk. 

I was talking about the lion quilt yesterday. Remembering how it came together. And then not so much why I made it but why it seems important and what it became and then what it has become.

I got interrupted yesterday, which has me on a side trip this morning. After Henrietta asked if I had the drawings of the lions. So I will just talk for a moment.

Link to audio if you see no player below.

And just now, rewriting history I guess, a new loose page, overwritten, to make it useful in the moment. Now motivated to tear up the past and use it to patch the present, make way for the future. Regenerate.

I will start with noting A Field of Color. As a start. As a Base. Considering A full Spectrum of them. I can use them to explain. And they can be used as blankets for little people. Ok. Which color should I begin with. Green?

Hunker Down and Appreciate the Ordinary

 

Just a few moments to reflect. 

I did not plan to focus on the Robe thing in such detail here in "Large Cloth".

But how it goes is simply how it is. And I let you lead me my friends. Lead me and accompany me at the same time.

You might recognize this robe "Without End" from one of the videos I published from the Contemporary Boro class in the last few days.  It's the one made from grandma's linen curtain.  With the binding made from scraps of my son's baby quilt. It was patched and dyed and mended and worn. My first attempt at ROBE. Dates back to 1975 or so. And then the cloth began to weaken. To honor it I undid the seams and attached it to a foundation cloth for support. To take the strain of tension away. It is now a wall cloth. And I renamed it Temple. It is not a religious statement. It is symbolic of a dwelling place for an aging deep seated feeling of honor.  I have only begun to put this together, it has been hanging on walls for a while and needs more stitch. 

I put this here today simply to emphasize how one thing might become another. And still be useful.  It could have become a blanket. Maybe it is now an art cloth.  One I wanted to create , wanted it to make an impact. Maybe just a Ceremony. Because I needed it as a reminder of how I feel about cloth. In a new way it is still a robe. It wraps me in peace. And tells, to me, my own story.

How strange,it has grown larger now, Larger than Life.

So Ok. Ok.

(day 25)

Stretch.Smile.Continue.

Not what I had in mind...
But what I had. It could work.

I'm considering what I call a Hunker Down workshop. Here. Perhaps I just renamed part 3 of Patchwork in Perspective. Large cloth and anything else that gets us through this.  But of course as always, I'm not sure what I am thinking.