Spirit Cloth

Setting a Stage

 

Good Morning, before the News.

 

It's still too cold, but I am planning to be outside as much as possible as soon as the weather warms.

I will move a table into the corner. I could use the one that is there, but I think I would like to create a dedicated space since I have too much furniture in that small bedroom anyway (the one with the window that's to high to look out of). One less table will make it seem LARGER. Space can give a sense of Big.

And the man is itching to sit outside as well.

So I have put 2 links in the top menu bar on the blog. One to my Instagram because I do post random things there once in a while. And a link to photos tagged #ragmates2020.  A lot of you use Instagram and this is a good easy way for us all to check in to what has been posted there. Use that tag if you would like to share this way. As far as Facebook, I use it to keep in touch with far away friends and links to blog posts are automatically published there, like alerts. But if you are subscribed here, which I suggest, that's good enough. 

Now I will wander off and do some brain storming/thought catching which is how I begin.  Big Storming, I will call it that. All day, considering Big, the word big, the concept of big, which has begun with Not as Small. 

Welcome to my process, it is not always a straight line.

Day 6 of year 70

Just song for weeks, couldn't see them.

A pair of cardinals showed up. Male and female. They ate the red berries I have no name for.

They didn't stay long but they were back before sunset. Same place. Right outside the porch.

I reconsidered Eye Level. Expanded it so I might squeeze more cloth into the available space.

Here you can see the wall that separates the Kitchen from the Room with the Big Round Table.  A dining room I guess but I will work here. On Big Cloth. On a Big Round Table. There is a small skylight close enough.  You can see my morning sitting area back there. The washer and dryer are there, remember? And Soul-o's sticks and catnip mouse are on the floor. This part of the house has height. Light. There is a small skylight in the Kitchen too. 

I unrolled Nest of Days.  Maybe you remember. Still needs to become larger but already takes up a lot of space.

Wall 2 then. And the Big Table Room that will never be this neat again. In the beginning, back in Centerport, I used to change stuff around almost every day.  That is how it has become here for now. Not deciding, just looking. The Man said, upon waking, “I guess the whole house is the studio then?”

Moving Through

Just to see. 

Loving the sense of it. Many images building at the same time. In my mind.

By evening, yesterday, the new Place to Be had evolved into Yes,OK...

A more comfortable chair in that corner where the light is at my back. 

And a lamp, for evening stitching.

This morning, still Yes. Ok. 

On the table to my right, a makeshift green house for a new sprouting avocado pit. I couldn't bring my large plants with me. Starting again.

I have what I need.

Peace in the Valley.

One Month in

There was a fairy tale. (isn't there always?) Some other house, some other place. Not this house.

This house. Nothing special really. A house. A nice spot. In good shape on the inside, as houses go. Except the appliances were not working and there was no heat.) More practical for older folks except there are so many stairs. But as a house, mostly boring. My biggest complaint, especially in this small room, I have to stand up to look out the window. I think we need to make some holes for some new windows. The question is, will we?  When I moved into my other house, I was barely 30. I ripped it apart. Now, well now I come to be more comfortable with just imagining. After all I have certainly exercised that muscle over the years. And we certainly have all we need. You have to be grateful for that. This town is much lower income, more mixed ethnically. It's good to move away from white privilege. The culture that springs from it. I'm sick of it. Sometimes I sicken myself.

I've unpacked most everything and stuffed it into this room. (I cannot call it a studio yet) Except the looms and the weaving/dyeing stuff which remains in the basement. A basement, never had one of those before. The basement, though, is pretty much above ground, so it is dry and has potential. Imagining again. All the cloth is here, but, except for a few small cloths, work is not unrolled. Yet.

I keep doing this. One thing over another. Looking at one thing in the context of another. Perhaps resting in what might have been and trying to be comfortable with that without longing for it. Letting them coexist. I think it is a good exercise, especially as I age.  Just sensing the beauty in that. It's a different kind of form.

So here they are, still afloat, gloriously drifting through what might have been but not longing for it, acknowledging the beauty in it all. And the imagining. Later settling for how it might happen. Looking forward to it, actually. As Joy returns.

A Place in the Fog

Unusually warm and wet.

This morning there is real fog. Not just the brain kind.

And no back pain. What a gift it seems like. Just to wake up without pain.

An early rise and some arranging. Finally I can say a Studio. Two tables, some stuff. And a place for Soul-o to keep me company.

This house was not my dream choice. Still, it is a house and it is now warm and easy to be in. Now that I have a place to sit and put words together and gather cloth and paper and things, I might begin to tell the story of how we got here. And what's next. The man and I will share this work space. As desk space and such. When we need to. Because we know we can. Because we are working with a different kind of space.  We will add windows to the outside and inside walls if we stay long enough. To open it to more light. 

And I have new socks. A kind gift that made me smile.

Also, maybe I'll vacuum.

OK. It's OK. 

It's April It's been raining. Feels just about right.
Today I open my studio for Patchwork in Perspective ( Part 1). I've placed an icon in the sidebar here as a gateway to the home page. And here in this post as a test, it is the gateway.

Thought Catching is my initial focus.

Because it is how I we begin, keep going, and look back.

A Studio Day

A warm one. Before another polar vortex. I put my winter bitch in the closet.

I will build one small fire, warm up the stove. Since the sun is out, that's enough for the day.

On a lighter note, this will be a Stoodio Day.

The lightness took over yesterday. When I patched Joy back to my center.

Stitching, anticipating February, weathering a storm before it happens, stitching, sewing snow, S(new)ing...? Snewing. Probably with out the context, we might read it Snoowing.  Oh ha.

The patches are half dipped indigo, two stitched together seemed to be a snowscape. The cloth is doublewoven, from an old baby blanket, so I did not add my normal extra layer.  Maybe you remember this Cloth Story. More of those to come. Materials are like good friends, every day you learn a little more about them.

Along

So along with warmer days has come pollen.

And along with pollen has come allergies. And along with that has come headaches and some sleeplessness. But I'm used to it and whatever.

Along with warm days comes open windows and an open studio. Along with that comes the need to sort and clean and simplify and lessen once again.

Along with the sale of Mom's house has come stuff. Along with that comes once again, less space. I dumped most of it in the studio while it was not in use over the winter.  Not a lot but more than what was there.  So I'm cleaning. And sorting.  Along with that comes remembering.

Along with sorting comes the realization that I still have too much cloth. And along with all that cloth comes the need to talk more about cloth.  I feel the need for that.

Along with the need to talk about cloth comes the need to mention I will return to the YouTube audio format here on the blog. Some folks still have a problem. So along with that comes the need to solve it. OK then. Take the time. After all spring just solved winter.

 

How it seems to continue...

Sometimes.

What we want need needs rethinking.

Confusion continues as we rethink so many things here. Mostly triggered by aging and what that might mean in terms of comfort and challenge. We speak to each other about how being two makes that different than being alone. We openly acknowledge that two is probably temporary no matter which way things go. So we talk about the importance of independence as it relates to relocating.

I did close the studio. It's cold. If we find some cheap wood maybe I'll crank up the old stove once again.

For now, Soul-o has found a place in between in and out. He thinks it's just swell.

I cut up a lot of old starts that weren't going anywhere and threw them in the last remaining dye liquid overnight. New bases maybe. Old ideas are never useless. I like how they seem to be returning into earth.

New Year's Eve-ish

It just started to snow.

It's nineteen degrees today which seems a bit like a heat wave but it won't last long.

 

It's not as cold as some other places, I know,  but it sure seems cold enough.

I'll shut down the studio after today, to conserve wood. Because it looks like weeks of deep freeze. Two stoves ... too much work anyway. Maybe I will rearrange a few things as the New Year rings in. Time to live slower and smaller. Expect less.

There are things on the walls. Mostly they have been just there. We've been here and there.  I've mostly been wondering what I might be when I grow up. And singing. I did a lot of singing. I got nowhere with mostly everything but here I am.