Spirit Cloth

Whoosh Revisited

Hello. Again.

The only picture I thought to take...

I stitched a bit on a cloth after returning home. Home? Mostly because I was too tired to sleep. You know.

Right now I am considering pillow.  I need a place to rest.  Some of the velvet from Mom's wedding dress is patched into this one. A soft spot.  She was always one to say relax, think positive and everything works out...

I'm talking about about that in class today.  Keeping at it...with thoughts of letting it move through...

And yes, I will continue with part 2. Maybe with a bit more space between patches.

moss

 

Moss

As I continue with the path sections, I begin to use some very old green velvet to fill some gaps. The same velvet I used here. At the beginning of all this.  The cloth is from Mom's old velvet jacket. She loved moss green.  I sit here and realize how long some of these scraps of cloth have been with me. How many small journeys they have taken. We have taken. We have grown old together.

I have finished placing the stones on 2 panels. The sections measure about 9 x 21. For no particular reason except they feel about right. They might be tied together. Or not. I think there will be about 6. Guessing. Like guessing the number of jelly beans in a jar...how many stones are in the basket?

Our moss roof:

a ring of warmth

8:30 AM: It is cold.  Seems only right for February. So not complaining.  I am experiencing some blog issues  and in order to resolve them I have simplified the format to cut down on the traffic.  Things will evolve into something more "normal" soon.  But still, I am enjoying the simplicity.   And I have been building a website, just to gather all the pieces of Spirit Cloth in one convenient place.  Like Home.  Soon. Meanwhile, I am still working on all the unfinished heart pieces  I have hanging around here.  Just because  it's that time of year. Hopefully they will all be done by this time next year.

Today I really like this

9:52 AM:  Found the source of the spam.  The comment issue is still outstanding.

12:00 PM:  OK. I am going to try to switch back.  Some of my sidebar links were corrupted, what ever that means. So I have to rebuild some of my links lists.  Be patient with me.  I would rather be stitching.

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OK, yes some things are missing, that's enough fiddling for today. Typepad will not let me create a link list at the moment. So hey ho, maybe tomorrow.

through winter

i have to say that the curtains , that winter theater, let me do it...set the stage for the last act for this one...

...it transformed into something that, quite frankly, astounds me. (being astounded is such a personal triumph) it has spaces... lots of them. or just space. which almost protrudes into my sense of construction. i need this space as an important new component. this one, well, it weighs nothing. but it is strong.

...it has so many things, but the one thing, the heart that resulted from trying to cut a velvet applique from the surface and the stitches would not let go... the spot that seemed to ruin everything... a heart's remains...is everything. 

 

the velvet tear that became a tree is a small scrap form mom's favorite suit. she loves green, especially olive green.

hearts overflowing

the hearts of trees  are bigger than the seasons. 

Once I wrote...

I have never liked hearts. I have always avoided them because
of their commonness and especially because of my secret fear
of pink and all things too sweet.

And then continuing....Oh, but now that I am a bit
older, I am finding my fears hold a special place in my life. Like
billboards screaming opportunity, I use them as challenges and I
have come to appreciate them as a chance at something new.

(AQS 2009)

sometimes you say things without actually listening to yourself. today i am thinking about that. thinking about what i said, thinking about how this has all come to pass. just thinking about how this blog has become a way for me to look back on that and also a way to continue. how hard that is sometimes even though it seems easier everyday. And how many times i have used the heart, how many ways there are to redefine it. redefinition is really mending, isn't it?

i planned a little shop update to celebrate heart, and there will be a few things posted there today. but there were so many i just became overwhelmed by it all. i am collecting them all, old and new  (and a bit of whispering) and i will be dribbling them in as they are finished....so the shop will just be filled with heart for a while. and then it will be closing. the shop, that is.

today i love this

a story has two sides

..early morning and Was is still folded like cloth. 
the sun is out and temperature is above freezing. feeling lighter, seeing more clearly. 

 
a gift has  lightened my heavy feeling. a story so casually shared .  the loss of a child. i think sharing these things is a generosity.  story is a way to balance life's weight.  to raise awareness of a common journey.  to distribute the burden. the telling and the listening.  sharing story has two sides. double sided keepers.

thank you

 

in the spirit of new found lightness, i am working with silk gauze today. the strange thing about silk is in its lightness it can also harbor amazing shadow. it has unusual depth and a mysterious sense of weight.  there is a small journey waiting here.

today, i love this.

little by little

 ...this ol' heart has become  more complex...

...and even though it is about 12" square it seems much larger to me. i think i need to start whispering, i am welling up with words. the quiet kind, that come at you at every moment. filling you. and then everything else.

5:36 PM ...a little color, little by little, changing season.
...some curved quilting. a bit of sympathetic movement.

one warm day in february

40 degrees, seems like heat wave. a little needed melting but still tons of snow on the ground. the sun felt strong and spring was almost in the air.

but even with all the warmth and sun, the bay is still frozen.

...and the snow far from gone. it will be back down to 13 tomorrow. they say.

anyway, i think this one is almost finished.

and she is still there. waiting. at this point, it might be the ice that is holding her together.

a sense of heart

looks like we are in meltdown mode at last, expecting, at least, a few nights of above freezing temperatures.  we had to break off the icicles from the roof line to keep them from getting dangerously large and had some  fun creating some kind of ice fence, hoping scare away the winter spirits for a while.  when everything is covered in ice and snow, you start to lose your sense of color.  or maybe it is found again in the revelation that white comes in a million colors.

i always remember, when i was a fabric designer, how hard it was to explain to customers how differently light colors can be depending on how you use them with other colors. how a light pink might be white if there was less of it or if it was used with a dark background. or even a dark color nearby. how this can trick your eye. i rarely use pure white, i just use less of a light color. in this way it can seem  colorless, yet even in colorlessness it can hold a sense of something.

this piece already holds a sense of heart to me. the pinks which were dyed using the pinapple sage blooms this past fall. is soft,  a pink i can live with, and sometimes use as white, that has a sense of something else.

a thought in the beginning of february

...tenderness is a little fragment but it is no small thing.