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jude
I don't know why this one is so difficult to photograph, just elusive in some sort of way. Perhaps I see something that cannot be seen outside a dream. The thing that remains in between.
The X emerged, I don't think I have talked about that symbol much. I have been gathering thoughts for a while. It is a combination of conflicting thoughts having to do with the unknown, crossing over, and placekeeping. Not to be confused with the cross (which is here too.). But my words seem inadequate this morning and I need some time ...
Anyway, this one is complete in the context of the day. Pinned to a bit of Sanity. The Heart of Season. And the thread that runs through it.
This is an old drawing that is very much at the root of my thread theory.
Very old, like 60s.
I love it more today.
I will use it to pull me through to some new form of understanding.
I finished the spirals. And I will go ahead and put an edge on. I hardly ever make the edge the last step. The edge makes it a place. Shapes context. I will edge it in red. Red, courage, red holding center, now red on the edge. A ring of courage which has me remembering the ring from so so far back. My first symbol. Somehow I am closing a circle.
I have always lived with clutter, things.
I just want simple now. Just cloth.
I do believe everything small here will become big. Large cloth is a life process.
Except what I pop into the shop in the clean up process. Maybe just to share some scraps of self. Help pay for some chimney repair.
For those of you subscribed by email, there is a video below and if you see no player you can watch it directly in YouTube by clicking this link.
I am a firm believer in Form Follows Function. And to extend that into the spirit of the thing, if you have no use for what you are making/doing, it will not turn out to be anything much at all. Usefulness is a broad concept. Maybe you need to make a living, maybe you need a blanket, maybe you need simply to see what happens. But there has to be something. For it to be something.
This one is forming. Through intention. Even though I remain on the edge of what it might look like. I want it to be a two sided blanket, I don't want one side to be more than the other. I want it to center me and yet express empathy. To give visual form to that. No matter what it looks like.
The red. Such an odd addition. But I like that it fits, make the candy colors work more deeply. As I drew and expanded the original red lines, stitched and then thought the split stitch was too blah and would also take too long, I switched to my signature Wrap Stitch, (here, stitched only on the top layer) I drew some dividing lines, for the bars, and suddenly those spikes seemed like backbones. And courage popped into my head. And then the words...to become whole again, to heal, requires courage.
I spent a long time stitching, and not one single minute watching either convention. I feel clear headed. And that is what I need this one for.
I did finally get the full video to post on Instagram. It will probably be that way now. Words and audio and more photos here, video there. Things are what they are and we go. Now that I know better how, it will simply be easier to continue and I thank you for understanding. The process, a patchwork in itself.
The seed ended up in the corner. The cloth is a bit white and I considered a tea stain but then I began to love the purity of it. So thin, the earth showed through and that was good too.
In words, if you did not see or were unable to see the video... I use a red pen to draw the rays, ink being see though, the lines appear brownish but I will redden them up with stitch. Just a running stitch in red to bring the lines to the other side. For now guides. And of course quilting at the same time. Strength. Stability. This is an old pueblo symbol and I have used it many times as a sun, but it is as I learned though my research, a sacred symbol and I will only use it as a guide now, to something else. A teacher.
For a two sided cloth, some stitched go through and some don't. Moving between the layers appearing and disappearing is the magic connection.
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.
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?
I am having issues with the internet again so I cannot upload video today. I am not going to dwell on it really.
On the heels of yesterday then...pinned to Sanity. A Wom(b)man's Cloth.
Womb Woman's Apron. I added the red fringe (continuing) and some old garden ties (holding) from my old garden back there, I think to stake the sunflowers before a big storm. I was going to weave some ties but this seemed an act of kindness to some old cloth. It can rest here for now. It has inspired new direction for a robe called Wind.
What if a field of stitch will ground this thing?
Whispering, the Man had a sleepless night and is finally resting, hope you can hear me. Too cold for the porch this morning.
And probably will again. I witness how it happens.
This one does not lie flat. I remember when that used to bother me. It often bothers others. I guess at this point, the nature of cloth and stitch is a great source of expression for me. Part of my symbolism has become linked to how the cloth form takes shape, not just the image I create. These things are linked by process, change. The story is that.
Most likely, this factor would never be known by the observer unless mentioned. But still, there is the fact that it's there, to be seen. Felt. This Eye Heart thing, it puckers up like most circular stitching does. Cones. A result of the tension and take up as you go round and round. There are ways to prevent it. Or to marvel in it.
In truth, I said to myself, it simply rises up. It pleased me suddenly because it made so much sense suddenly. Here. Truth Rises Up. As I age I am more aware that truth rises up. Through change. It is simply what happens. I live in sympathy with this evolution in my creative mind. .
I said, a day or so ago, there seemed to be no flowers here. Not so. I didn't wait long enough to see.
I think maybe this post should've could've been over at Thought Catching (Patchwork in Perspective, part 1) But I think it just needed to be here, for now, before I begin again over there.
Today, and for the last few days actually, my thoughts have been about thinking. About changing my mind actually. I am going to talk, just test, for talking here, in this new place. Practice. Let's give it a try...
Anyway, I left the moon underneath this time. And the sun has become a new kind of symbol here, another day. The moon is always there anyway even if you can't see it. And Dad, loved the sun on his shoulders and he loved just being alive. And I have decided that changing your mind is, in a way evolutionary. And in no way shameful or weak or embarrasing. It's just another day. Like tomorrow. For this thinking being, the moment is more than now. And that is just + going/gone. A thread.
Seems Soul-o likes a sunny spot too. And he seriously decided this is his chair. For now.
Trying not to clutter my mind with more than just being.
The window cross, the thing that stands combined with the thing that moves through... again... stitched with magic thread, the magic, a reminder of how things appear and disappear. The form it takes, how we simply bear witness to that, until we are that.
A new post in small cloth, thought catching later.
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