Spirit Cloth

Sun on Hold

Here we go again.

Snow coming. Again. Wood stacking. Again.

audio link if you see no player

Soul-o's idea for prepping for a storm. Rest up.

The Mending Room

The quilt in need of mending was on the studio floor yesterday. I wanted to spread it out, sit with it.

But it's December and time to save wood for colder days. And today is a colder day.

The studio is only opened on warm sunny afternoons when a fire is not necessary.

So I have set up mending camp in the small room below the sleeping loft.

Really it just has a table, a few chairs, plants and cloth on walls. We use this as a dining table when we have company which is almost never these days. So now. This morning. It has become the permanent mending table. A table is a great tool.

The room seems bigger because the outside seems part of it. Sun Moon and Stars built right in. The man cut 6" from the legs of both the table and the chairs a while back. Because I like low stuff.  It's a bit confusing when folks come over and cannot quite figure out what is different. '

I am really loving quilts as table coverings lately. Table blankets. I like this place to begin this mending ceremony. Reminds me of a Quilting Bee*. I feel like we are all about to sit down together and fix stuff. Ready? A Mending Bee then.

*Bee - a social gathering to carry out some communal task.

 

Soul-o is under there.

 

A Long Time

It's been a long time since I bent a needle.

That's probably because it takes a long time.

Today, I realize I am a bit like this needle.

In some simple way. I sense something IN me. The part that endures. That which does not break but bends. Does not break because it bends. Remaining ever useful.

It's a been a long time since I began the cloth we call Home.

So much time has passed. One needle. I woke up thinking that maybe the witnessing of time passing is as important as the cloth itself. (The children have been watching.)  To know that it, has in itself, taken on the shape of persistence.  Which clearly , on this day, I sense, once again, is the key to new form. And how we learn. 

These final days with the cloth, I feel them as the most important.  The freeing of the feathers and stones from the main cloth. Being one with that will stay with me forever.  There is something special there.  I think they have become more immediate as dream catchers. Free.

How dreams bend our waking thoughts.  Give us a glimpse of the power of imagination. New eyes.

I look at these strings of feathers. What if I had sewn them all end to end. Would they reach around the world?  Probably not you say.  In my dreams, most definitely.   I wake up.  Yes they do.  In so many ways not yet counted.

Fringe is my symbol for continuing.

Notes to self:

Bend like a needle.

Catch your dreams.

Water the garden.

 

May

 A bit cool. But still May.

The Man reduced the size of one of my worktables.  To better fit the now Warmer back room. More space. Space has become my new and most important tool. Easily said. Just cut a third off and move the legs over. OK.

8 hours later.  Rebuilt.  Big job but Good.  Sealer still drying.

Alphabet Soup (remember that one?) Washed and drying.  And still not done. Soul-o used it as a bed over the winter.

I will be back to Small Journeys tomorrow. (For those who are subscribed and have patiently waited through my April break).

And it stopped raining

6 AM

The wood is dry and good.   Especially when sleepy and actually always,  placing a good piece of dry wood  over the right coals, in just the right place is vital for a good fire to continue without interruption.  One of the best  buys we made last year was a pair of good gloves.

Not Fireplace gloves, Welder's gloves.  Put your hand right in the fire and get it right.  The right tool for the job.  The Man's idea.   Very cheap at Home Depot.  Better than the fancy pricey alternative.

There is an art to building a good fire.  I am working at that.

10:32 AM. There has been a sewing chair takeover. And I feel better.

 

 

This one

is  for sale today. SOLD, Thank you.

$55.00. (Personal check only.) Email me.  

I call it Open aka Not Closed. 

A bit of basket self.

About 5" x 11" 

A fine book mat  but it can also hang by a thread. 

 

Hoops and things

I rarely use a hoop when I work. I never liked them much. So much so that I developed a lot of techniques that seemed to work around using one.  But this cloth is so intense, I enjoy the ring of vision that the hoop provides.  And then. Because of the way this cloth was formed, a lot of refining needs to be done and the elements are very different in density (since I did not create them myself)  And now since I have been using a hoop, I am a bit more familiar with the feel of it. I imagine  the potential use it might hold for me in this year where the scale of my work is changing.

This one I found  somewhere. It's plastic and quite ugly really but it's been ok now and then. But to fully integrate the elements of this cloth I call HOME,  this big cloth, I need a bigger hoop.

On a whim, I put up a note on Facebook looking for a used quilting hoop and stand, and poof,  Deanna  offered to give me hers, because it is not in use anymore.  Deanna is always very generous.  I am grateful.

Today. Today one room that is not heated for the winter was warm enough not to be heated. At least for a while.  It was like a gift,  this small change in season.

 

A colored day

Today was a bluish day.

A big old  book fell apart and I am using the front cover as a lap board.  It is firm and flat but It has a slight  softness about it that is hard to describe. It's just perfect.

 

just right

Yesterday

Yesterday there was Big Wind,  and my thoughts were tossed.  Broken apart.  Breaking things apart is not losing them,  there is always a way back.  A thread.  I feel like this one is a map in a way.  A map of change.  Or a promise.  I am happy with the way I split the moon ( a Glennis moon of course) . How it gives a sense of continuing.  I could see this as a floor cloth,  a QU-UG.  If it were larger.  And I have named it promise.  It is not done yet.

Today, a soft breeze on the horizon.  

The sunrise through a cat's ear. 

I sit quietly, still struggling with the direction for the Magic Feather Cloth.  Tossing ideas in my head.  It might be, that I always work in such a solitary place, and I am not used to so many voices in one cloth.   I am still listening.  Not everything worthwhile comes that easy.  I am aware that I am involved in too many things.  I just turned down a publishing offer and  the chance at a small local show.  Because it is all too big to hold.  I did promise to do an interview for a publication,  but I don't know.  I think quiet is more of a tool for me.  It is my food in a way.  I am not good at  a lot of what dealing with people involves.  Especially certain people who are interested "getting something" from me.  Talking to Myself.   With friends.  With Family.  Talking with Cloth.  This leads me to new Form.   Growth.   And there seems to be just enough of that right here.   How big does the circle need to be really?

Living with scrap

I am working with small threadcrumbs/scraps lately, trying to build a ring of vision over at Diaries.   I often string my little pieces, sorting them by color or palette.   Keep them hanging around within reach.   You never know when you will need a bit of cloth anyway.    This way, I can snip off what I need. Or just look at them.   Remember where they came from.  Sometimes I hang them in a sunny window, or outside.  For a rain wash or a sunbath.  Sometimes for a long time. To give them a chance to weather and fade even when they aren't being used.   This gives them a sense of use.  I like that.  They like that.    These are hanging from a hanger with a crocheted cover.  Grandma made it to hang up her silk stockings to dry.

and speaking of scrap, might there ever be a shortage...there is a giveaway going on over here.