Spirit Cloth

No Sun This Morning

You might have to click this to read it. I shrunk myself down this morning. To change the scale of self. That's all I got today.

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.

 

A Seeing Morning

Good Morning.

It's cool. Cool for the first time in a long time.

Evidence of cycle. I feel like this one was left for me.  Right outside the porch door. Yesterday's confusion led me to a small eye sampler started a couple of years ago.  Some eyes still colorless... "complete the full spectrum of vision" I said to myself. 

There are Shells of Summer everywhere. They seem like eyes today. New eyes. Old eyes. A reminder that we need all eyes. To see.

The first stitching was done on a single layer. I think I used a hoop. But I cannot find my hoops, tucked a way somewhere because I don't use them much. So I added another layer. Because it is easier to stitch on more than one layer without a hoop.  These stitches, today's stitches, go all the way through. I thought about through. Eyes that see through.  Different eyes.  Evolution. How many seasons will it take?

Then looking through New Eyes.

What I noticed here is how the running (walking) stitch outline seems like a solid line on this side. Because I can see the stitch where it disappeared as well. Appear and disappear have become one. Now that's a new kind of magic. 

They also look like some new life form.

Small Cloth meets Large Cloth

It was a long day, not doing anything I like doing.

And finally as we approach sunset and it is quiet here once again, this is what I accomplished.

The green cross cloth, from back here. I put the green wish there. Somehow it made me feel useful.

Probably everyone has lost track of my large cloth adventures by now. I have. I don't mind tho, I will get to them.

The guys couldn't finish today. They will be back at 8 am tomorrow morning.

Not Really a Post

...just a loose stitched patch.

Fuzzy pic, sweaty day. Just to be here, to be hopeful, wishful. And ok.

Some needed air duct repair scheduled for tomorrow and guys will be IN the house. Masks ready, every little thing is such a production.

 

This old wicker shade was here. Porch light. Fixed it.

Trying to Tell it

It's not the thing, it's the spirit of the thing.

How a thought rises through consciousness. That's what I was thinking a day or so ago...with all that has happened, it fell back in. Anyway there was too much coffee, probably because there was too much shitty wine.

I promised a video but I am not up to it really.  These big squares are 5". Once I start with a certain puzzle piece size, all the other elements fall into relationship with that. I talked about that here. Obviously, I could continue adding 5" squares until it was "big enough". But I've done that. 

I made the cross and stitched it to the base instead. Like a puzzle block. Maybe to see it that way.  There many ways to patch to a base. I talked about that here. As a matter of fact, what I talked about in Small Cloth can apply to large cloth, right? Just the scale is different which might require a bit of problem solving in terms of handling a larger cloth. But that is the never ending learning part.

So I made the puzzle pieces in the same way. Ironed around a template, edges glue-stitched to keep the edges in place while fiddling.  Then I stitched 9 squares (made more than 9) together to form the cross.  I glue-stitched the cross to the base cloth by sewing down the center in both directions, so the edges might flap open, allowing me to add the 4 more pieces to create the extended 9. A little awkward to work into the corners but it worked. Of course I could just applique them as well. Or draw the framework of the patch work and use the skatching (patching over a sketch) method. So you see, so many ways. I like to mix it up. Or go with what works with my mood or my energy in the moment. All the while noticing how each way has it's own feel. Sensing that.

There was some journaling.

link to audio if you see no player above

This was Monday's post but I didn't post it. I felt detached. But now, ok, there it was, an idea. Not planned bit as it happened.  Could I create a pieced back? One that would might show through the base cloth, like a shadow yet still a main part of the structure, and work with the existing pieced cross/extended nine patch? What if?

 

 

Day 8

 

And So

on a lighter note, a little small cloth, the catnip square. You know, when you have a few 1" puzzle pieces left over... and What if?

It's important for me to be able to lighten up. Laugh. 

Not to be too full of myself.

Morning Softness and Unfolding

 

The "studio" is full of still packed boxes.

Let's unpack then. Talk about stuff. Just like that.

It will help me understand where I am. A ceremony.

Because I cannot sit and stitch. My back feels better but I did a bit of damage to my hip joint, which happens now and then. It's a weak spot, that joint. Some healing has to happen before I can sit for long periods. That includes the computer so I am not out and around visiting on the web much either.

This was the first thing I pulled from a box. Sitting on top, one of the last things I cobbled together in the time before the move. Some small cloth. A nine lives patch. But more importantly what I want to call a story card.  I've been working on card ideas for a while. But I ended up not wanting to print cards. Not wanting more than one of anything. Long ago I was considering one of a kind cards.  Back in the Flickr days. Gosh I've known some of you that long. One by Jude. That was the name I was using. Anyway, now, not just paper but cloth and paper, hybrids I began calling them, but to make  long story short, oh ha!, they're coming.

This is a Cat In A Window. But that is part of the story. Still in the works.

My car broke down yesterday but we actually found a small repair shop within walking distance. (a bit of a hike actually)  Cash, 50 bucks, done, yay! New friends.

 

And this is funny lamp #2.

Funny because I just don't do ceiling lamps. 

I like it mostly for the reflections it makes in the window.

A moon maker.

I wonder if the previous owners noticed that? Probably not, I said to myself. I tend not to give folks enough credit when I sense they are not like me. I will correct that. It's not fair or useful.

Sometimes

Sometimes you think you are just over your head.

But then, when you stand back, put it in perspective, you realize it is just a frame of mind.

Feel Free went wacky again. Yesterday, later in the day.

A software update wiped out all my audio fixes and put the cute little audio player back but in the wrong places. I had a small meltdown. None of you have ever experienced those. (that might make an interesting audio)

The man says they are not pretty.

I made a late day post which expressed a bit of hopelessness. I deleted it.

I stayed up all night to patch it up. To prove myself wrong.  

She patched another hole, and so it goes.

You make a promise, you do your best to keep it.

New content in Part 2/ Small Cloth. Rolling.

A loose page #91119

 

I've tried my best to repair the audio issues with Feel Free. I think it is ok.  I am in the process of proofreading to make sure all content is in order and nothing got lost.  I will reopen the site next Wednesday, and do my best to catch up and complete part 2 of Patchwork in Perspective by the end of October as planned. And then... your guess is as good as mine.  There will be, most likely, a big space. But space can be like a thread. If you hold a longer view.