Hanging here, these small loose favorite things, I used to dress up this ugly chandelier when I moved here...(do you believe we are almost a year in?) they have come to be quite handy in these stay at home times.
The thing about hanging...
...is that a thread is often involved, at least here, hanging by a thread.
Thread is good. It's the part of the equation that we can use for change.
This is an old piece. I just named it Coming Back to Life. Normally I might go back and check what I called it way back when. Catch that thread. But I am wondering how useful that is. The story is already in me and maybe the current thread is what I should go with. To continue. Today is a loose patch.
It is still warm here but that will change soon enough. I have collected a lot of plant material here and cooked up an Earth Yellow brew. I often over-dye but rarely over print. I am thinking about that today. That thought is hanging in my mind. By a thread.
Things will be a bit piecemeal here for the rest of 2020. I think I will pull it all together with the turn of the year. Still stitching on Holding Pattern. It's a gift to be given by year's end.
Path. On the wall. On the wall for many days, through this and that. Hasn't grown. Probably I set myself down by the stream of life, to rest.
Like most bigger cloths, smaller cloths find places to stay a while.
Now more than ever, I find myself acknowledging how hard it is to explain how I think, what I think, why thought is so elusive yet vital for understanding. How I've often compromised my true thoughts to accommodate connection. To validate, we seek approval by acknowledging a common path... Still, it is the strangeness of thought that I find most useful. How useful it is to realizing new form, even if no one else ever catches it. So much time passes, I feel someone somewhere must understand, but then after so much time of substituting the love of approval for personal truth, well, form often twists into some more acceptable shape. Truth may simply not fit to the agenda.
Path has form also. How we go. In itself it is as much "a work" as it is "a way" to the work. It takes time to be able to step back and look at it.
The other day, when I posted that lovely John Lewis photo over on Instagram, one of my followers commented "I'm confused, what the hell does this have to do with cloth?" In a very tell tale moment, I deleted the comment and did not take the time to explain. I think this is a sign of our times. And my age.
I did say to myself, though, the cloth is a metaphor. And I added , in my mind, "asshole". Was that me thinking? Or was it someone else?
Anyway, 3 things pinned there. Not just pinned, but thoughtfully pinned. This caused me to consider 3 aspects of path. Path as a frame. How path becomes place and might hold and give meaning to what happens. Change it even. Path as pattern, simple as one step in front of another, maybe the result of a simple plan, and then how a shift in pattern, intended or not, might change it's form, how we might even see it as a mistake. And alliance, how something so different might fit by considering which parts lean into one another. Together how path is, again, a puzzle.
These considerings are useful to me. For story, for form, to connect my life with my making. The question today, for me, is do you understand? Do I need you to understand. Do you need to understand? Is it possible to understand? Does it matter? What's the use? Which will ultimately lead to... do I need to be here? These questions are for me, not you. Here, because Instagram is not the place for them. And I am afforded the luxury (privilege) to consider them.
Still the color is not good. But I am not focused on that right now.
Probably you will need to click on this to read it. You can do that while I am talking ( click on the audio link first), because dammit, I refuse to give up.
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?
Usually as I am going. Probably because they work more than once. And that is reassuring. I am on a side trip here for the weekend. Continuing with new eyes. But I do this with Big Cloth too. Manage thickness as I go. Managing is that, problem solving in the moment. Tending to need. While holding on to the bigger picture.
It took hours. In the scheme of all things, not long really. I enjoyed it a lot more with the extra layer. I could hold it more easily, the stitch rested in the bed of cloth with more ease. I noticed how many ways I can fold this cloth and birth new eyes.
Maybe we can manage anger with a bit of thin cloth.
Then this morning I just pinned to look. At a thought I had.
I note to myself how I so often create blankets with a center which radiates outward. But then this is interesting suddenly. A path that runs through it. I stacked a few small pieces I had here. Just to see and think about that. And then of course other thoughts surfaced.
The bird box, rescued from a fallen tree that was cut up this week.
Hung it here because there was a nail. Digitally doodled a circle of green around the hole, just to see before I paint it on.
A circle of Green came to mind. A circle of green.
Washed. Dried in the sun. Stacked, topped with an apple. Because. Wine in a green bottle.
Then, ok. I had snatched this back from the shop the other day. Because I kept liking it so much. Especially for the circle that imperfection revealed. Maybe only I like those kinds of things.
I acted on a thought. Not what I envisioned. But OK.
I think there is enough green for what I had envisioned as well. Maybe for the other side. I am going to stitch this down. I will talk about it after looking for a while.
Field. Many definitions, but for me a space defined, chosen, within all other spaces that might act as a guide for focus. As in field of vision I suppose. And then and course, a place for wild open growth and play. An open field. Like Feeling Free. I play with the circle a lot, but not always. As I look at the quilts I have made, these shaped overlays, fields of focus, are fairly constant. Sometimes they happen at the beginning. As a base. Sometimes they are a tool to bring things together at a later stage. They are a layer of thought. Sometimes there are so many I forget. But they can often be used to explain how one thing might become another.
Still with the circle this morning, I tried more than one. And the overlap (another kind of alignment) seemed an eye opener.
This piece that was hanging on the porch back here. Working with that, what-iffing, not on Wednesday, but hey. Again stitched over pen lines. Inspiring radical change on this cloth and also a larger application for a big cloth in the back of my mind.
Digital musings for cloth and maybe paper. And imaginings, not yet recorded from the well of memory unspoken.
And then, as I turn to press publish on this post, I see this. On the top of the patch basket.
From Glennis. And I think of overlap as form of Kindness. Friendship, Sharing. Sharing will bring new form. Maybe the simple beauty in this drove deep into my heart a while back and although I forgot, I actually remembered. Time is magic.
I am grateful, in these difficult times, that we still might find time and ways to share and be kind. Let's focus on that. If we all do it, we will all be OK.
2012, wow, I wonder if I would actually remember how it happened with out this record of days? I find this blogging such a great tool, well, digital recording, and sharing, in general, helps me learn from experience. Because I do not prepare ahead of time, the truth of how things happen is more present. Real. And what can be more powerful than truth. Marketing has a different kind of power which scares me really. The power over others. Instead of... well, getting off subject here.
This is my audio from 2012. And me in an old sheet. Silly me, not knowing what I am doing. Trusting in something.
I always say this...this isn't brain surgery or anything. If you cut something away and don't like it, you can always put it back. We are design mending here. Right? The sewing on a simple rectangle based garment, well it's simple seams, change can be easy. Even the add and take away. Sometimes even in the middle of the making, things might be deconstructed and reconstructed. And worn at any stage. Get to know it.
At this point I decided to call this Wind. It was even making it's own wind when I moved.
Next is cut and maybe shape, then some basic stitch to create the base garment, then look again.
It's just great if you can get someone to take pictures of you in it. Even a video of you moving in it. Great fun. And you can learn by looking. If you are posting pics anywhere other than Instagram (use #ragmates 2020) let me (us) know in the comments. It would be great to see ourselves draped in cloth! If need be, you can send me a photo, I can post some pics here or there if you are not shy. (If you are subscribed by email, there is a link to #ragmates2020 in the top menu bar of the actual blog, you do not have to be an Instagram member to view)
After cutting/sewing and deciding on a shape that suits and feels ok, well then you might think about the front/ neck edging and another layer or layers.
As you can see, I did go with the simple curved cut to make the sleeves. It didn't make too much difference but it bunches differently under the arm and softens the overall shape. I often sew totally by hand, but because of my aching thumb way back then, I used the machine for the long side seams. I don't have a sewing machine anymore. Long sticks are a great way to hang these garments when you are designing, so you can see the whole surface. I remember that the next day after this pic was taken, I went to take care of mom for a few days. Those were tough days, like these. I miss her when I remember this class. A big cloth can hold days.
And it feels funny to see the old house again. My studio.
Next, I will review how I attached a second layer to give this substance.
And there was a bit of Robe Storming last night...
Note to self: I'm amazed I still sound pretty much the same after all these years. Still the same person but so much not as well.
