Spirit Cloth

a wishing heart

There was some going...

while feeling unsure.

I just really like the threads in this photo.

There are a lot of loose threads here.

to be continued...

...as we near my 71st birthday in February of 2022 ( geez, do you believe it?) I will begin recording creative process over at Feel Free as part of a new (teaching?, maybe just saying) segment of Patchwork in Perspective, the forever part. In preparation, the Feel Free site will be down, for a bit, so I might make some necessary changes. 

What will this place be then? Home I guess. The safety net. In case I fall back inward at some point or run out of things to say.  I have a sense that I might be rocking back and forth. 

Snow stopped, sun's out. I love how Soul-o is more of the beast today. He just came in from the cold.

Something this simple...

Old drawings.

They make up a good portion of my loose pages.

This one, the original thread, one of my favorites. For so many reasons that are ready for reconsideration. But today, the angle of observation. The putting in perspective. Such a simple way to change a form. To create the illusion of depth. But then, perspective or point of view becomes an illusion, as does form. And so...(to be continued)

This drawing has many stories.

I put the PlaceKeeper back in the top menu bar, (links to follow) tried to clean up and delete old links that are no longer valid. Still work to do there. Maybe it will all change. Things change. People change. Focus changes. For now it's there. I am not so much of a web surfer anymore. Many folks have abandoned blogs and moved to Instagram, which I have sort of fallen out of love with. I mostly use it for shop updates. La La La. 

It may move above freezing this afternoon. Currently a balmy 19 degrees.

Inspired by the Cloth Itself

And a thread from here to there...

I am really enjoying this scratched/old filter lately, probably because I can relate.  I had added a dyed layer over a print, loving how the illusion of it sliding behind the foliage gave it depth.  That gave me a similar idea here. 

But before I go further, let me just say, that all my audio and video will be at Feel Free now, as I move to my new series Everything in Perspective. I have decided to continue as long as I can with a modestly priced password protected format. You can come here to read about life and see what I am doing (and that can be enough) and then you might choose to follow the thread (if you are so inclined) to dive deeper into my process. Very much deeper. 

Why?

The feed here is unreliable and media is next to impossible to host, especially audio.

This blog has so much content, but the way I just go makes it hard to hold the bits together in any cohesive manner at this point.

I need to generate a bit more income. For reasons that aren't just about me.

The WordPress format is helping me organize my thoughts for book-writing.

I will release a full description of the final part to the series at the end of the month, which will begin mid February. If you are subscribed there you will receive details in a post, if not there will be a thread from here to there.

The thread from here to there, sounds simple, but really the journey is really so much more than a straight line. If you try to map how it holds together.

We are in for another storm. And frigid weather following. The most winter winter we have seen in a long time. I need to run to the grocery store because grocery delivery here is no longer happening due to a shortage of drivers. And low inventories.

But Hey. Let it snow.

 

 

 

Hanging

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.

Ps. I feel Good.

it's not Wednesday

but I'm here.

Actually I am always here but you can't always find me.

It's Today. On the ironing board. Just there.

Note to self: Stop making excuses. Find the Joy. Joy can be a common thread.

Learn to Grow Stuff.

It's time.

The Outside Looking Place in the Valley

There is a habit, well, a need actually to see more than one piece of cloth at a time, to see how they relate. Especially if they are being considered at the same time.

They are parts of a bigger story. I thought OK, I need a longer line, a stronger line. Now, more than that, I need a longer "thread". To understand the One-ness. I might thread a clothesline all the way through the forest. Connect the strong trees. Cloth like markers, and if they are green, for now, no one/thing might notice, unless they were really looking. Maybe the line should be green. Or brown, I could dye the rope. Brown is easy. Maybe I could use thread. For smaller stuff. Yes, this IS my real life. 

It's foggy, damp, and quite warm. The lion quilt is almost touching the ground. I think that is the size I am targeting for the baby quilt series.  Big enough to be a small person quilt. Or a lap quilt for a big person. Or a bed topper. Or even a table cloth.  About 60" square. Ish. That means the green cloths will need to grow a bit. Sometimes I let that happen first. Sometimes I let it wait for later. There are many ways.  I have in mind to make at least 2 more green bases though, so I might count the ways. Hazel kept going with just piecing squares and look how big it got! And if you use bigger squares, it grows quite quickly. Working on one right now. 

You can see in the background, there is a utility pole on the property. The previous owners had a street light installed. ???  We are finally having that removed this week.  Maybe they were afraid of the dark?  And we are paying for the extra electricity! 

I love this picture.

I think while I am creating the quilt bases I will begin to consider theme. That goes beyond color. The lion quilt is a sampler style quilt. That is a base that holds many considerings around the theme of lion. Why did I pick lion? It was appropriate at the time. I was focused on the beast/human relationship. I used the beast to represent people in my life. Lions seem powerful. Each lion has it's own powers. But more about that later.  I do like the sampler approach for a theme.  Many versions of the same thing. There is an inherent learning in the process. An expanding of thought.

Wednesday

I see patchwork.

Where?

Everywhere.

The dried mud that washed down during the biggest storm ever since we've lived here gave the brickwork a lovely look.

This is a wrapped back stitch. With one strand. Dark. Light. Magic. Finer. More like that Magic Thread. I want to talk about this in SMALL CLOTH class on Friday. 

New content in Thought Catching today. 

It's hot and humid and I'm fried. Goodnight.

Yes, I'm Back

Still Wishing...

The weather has turned chilly again,  there is a fire burning, and I can't seem to have enough of these.

A new class post is up for those enrolled in Patchwork in Perspective part 1... some thoughts caught in a Tangle. 

Thread by Deb. You probably need some.

The Originals

ThreadCrumbs.

Just sorting through the nest. Looking for a rainbow.

And celebrating the paper egg carton.

No more styrofoam please. Please. I need me some chickens.

New Eyes

Continuing.

I made 2 videos. The first one had the wrong focus setting so I had to scrap it.

Here is the best still I could capture from the beginning and I'll just talk about it.

audio link if you see no player

And here is the second part where I caught my focus error.

 direct video link if you see no player

So this morning it is looking back. And I am too. Looking back and not sure of what's ahead. 

Maybe salad. I'll start with that.

Have a good weekend.

 

For reference (from Feel Free)

Split Back Stitch and Wrap Stitch (from Spirit Cloth 101/stitch and Patchwork Beasts)

Direct Doodling (excerpt from Small Journeys)

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