Spirit Cloth

Offerings

Yesterday evening, I put this here...

This morning, this...

Seems we are on the path to a more familiar October.

I often refer to the long cloth format as PathWork. I think it will be a good month for that. Just Going. I have a lot of pathworks in process.

Not so long ago, path became my symbol for in between. Today I am thinking: like a thread that connects here and there. And asking: where shall I we go?

I played a bit today with some old drawings. Three separate ones here. As a collage, one, the thread/stitch, connecting the other two.  Just to use them in a new way. To remind myself how one thing is a path to another. And how sharing the way is also an offering, like a path not taken enough to become a road but then how it might become more with company. If we don't try to keep it hidden. We might all take it to somewhere. Have a picnic perhaps. Enjoy the view. Wander off to share the real story. Like the map it might be.

How we might Continue.

Last evening. Fireside.

Brain Nausea.

The smallest beast. Going. Maybe not Just. Leaving a trail. Dividing space. Making a path. Bringing a bit of fresh air to an old piece of patchwork. Transforming it into a place to breathe.

The slowest stitch. Slower than even the slowest slow stitch.  Splitting hairs I call it.  A split backstitch using one thread. Takes forever because you add row after row and and no one might even notice. But it gives you time to consider and shape your vision.

Eventually. Evidence of how we keep at it.

I'm not particularly focused lately.  I'm just letting that play out. More walking than thinking. More going than explaining. I need a Wordless Weekend of Willful Wandering. Mixed with Day Dreaming. Take care.

And Happy Birthday dear Michelle.

How things don't happen but need to...

There were a few more stitches to be taken.

On Path.  Remembering where I was, not that I forgot but Paths diverge. I'm a multi path person.

I took a few more stitches. Which seem like steps. Walking stitches. You can't see them but they have been taken.

Path. One of many.

In the wee hours of the morning there was a big warm wind and rain and the snow disappeared like magic. I finally repotted the avocado because it has outgrown it's old pot.

April Going

It's April, still warm with cold coming. But mostly plenty of showers, true to form.

Yesterday, we, Soul-o and me, were out all day. I feel better for that.

Close to the earth.

He is always in motion in Spring. Mostly outside, going. I find it funny how he walks the paths if they are there.

I patched some path-work work. Offsetting the seam lines, making the stitch lines contrasted and messy, so they would show some imperfection. Working with thin coth that is more difficult to handle and less stable gives a nice organic feel to a grid. Here offset to look like brick. I am not crazy about this type of thing as an overall arrangement but I do like it here as it runs through the cloth like a path. Path is on my mind. How it divides space. Creates a place out of in between and makes that useful.

I like, here, how the patched pattern says solid but it has a feel of weightlessness.

I need to update my Newsletter. I am lazy on this humid spring morning.

Long enough

A Path.

A Path-Way, better.

Path-Way to Sanity.

Ultimately, this piece has huge significance for me. How can I say it? Firstly, it is , of course, a nine patch. Then by focusing on the center three, the vertical column, it became a path through nine. It made nine about going. Expressed it as a way. I am very much about going. I am always going, going, going. I'm a mover. I mean I am up early and I am always active. Physically and mentally, on the go. I run circles around everyone I know. The man says I make him dizzy. He loves my energy. Sometimes he sits back and smiles as I run back and forth through a day.

I was looking at it. Adding additional stepping stones. Looking at it as endless in terms of possibility and size. I could keep going. Easily. But now what has struck me, not for the first time, is that the three, the three steps so to speak, imply direction and intention to go. There is evidence of having gone as well. It makes a way in some minimal form. In between. And it is long enough. The path. With this sense I look at it with a feeling of Being. Being there. Still going but not driven past what it is. It's path within the context of resting. Nothing lost, just smaller. Within reach, undoing ambition, the need for more.

Why is this important? Because this is where I am. I found the Going I love so much in Being. Went there. And now it is hard to go back.

Long Enough. This is my thought. I have been blogging forever. I've plans to slowly reduce my online presence and mostly my interaction this year, continuing to add content (there is so much more and thank you for your continued support) to Feel Free. And just Be. I've a Sanity Series (the art part of me) to complete that needs quiet as its main component. I'm word worn and I find it is easier to talk to myself without saying anything.

I am not leaving, I am changing. Becoming less in order to become more. Considering new formats.

Nine as Medicine

Because it comforts me.

We all have these things.

And with a glazed brain, yesterday, I stitched this. On and off. InBetween naps.

And then, instead of taking it outside to photograph it on the snow filled brick path from my last post, I made a photo collage. That is one photo over the other.  The snow was already gone anyway. And I've still got a chill.

I like this very much and here's why...

 

audio link if you see no player

This nine also makes a swell mug rug. Which makes it useful in just one more way.

I have way more to say about this but right now I need another nap.

(You might find more about applique and thread beads in my right sidebar. Skitch Skatch (stitching and patching over a sketch)is a personal technique that I developed over the years and I will be talking more about soon.)

 

old and new paths

I need to be away for a few days.  With Mom.  I have my sidewalk cloth , a little something  that formed over at Diaries.  A new path I seem to be on.  To honor the time-worn ones. 

I am looking forward.  And back.    Hanging out in between.  Funny how that place between the two is always a new place.

See you later...