Spirit Cloth

Stand Up Applique

video on Instagram

A way to the edge

Red. Pieced because I just have scrap.

An edge then, link to video if you see no player...

 

 

I choose a more secure binding this time. Maybe just need that.

I finished one edge, right. Took about an hour. Hanging. On the wall, porch wall, painted it white. (White paint, lots of it, is out and waiting). A small section of wall that separates the room with the big table, left, from the main bedroom, right. Both have direct access to the porch. Doors have been open since June. Ants come in.

I like the red edge very much. 

Hunker Down and Appreciate the Ordinary

 

Just a few moments to reflect. 

I did not plan to focus on the Robe thing in such detail here in "Large Cloth".

But how it goes is simply how it is. And I let you lead me my friends. Lead me and accompany me at the same time.

You might recognize this robe "Without End" from one of the videos I published from the Contemporary Boro class in the last few days.  It's the one made from grandma's linen curtain.  With the binding made from scraps of my son's baby quilt. It was patched and dyed and mended and worn. My first attempt at ROBE. Dates back to 1975 or so. And then the cloth began to weaken. To honor it I undid the seams and attached it to a foundation cloth for support. To take the strain of tension away. It is now a wall cloth. And I renamed it Temple. It is not a religious statement. It is symbolic of a dwelling place for an aging deep seated feeling of honor.  I have only begun to put this together, it has been hanging on walls for a while and needs more stitch. 

I put this here today simply to emphasize how one thing might become another. And still be useful.  It could have become a blanket. Maybe it is now an art cloth.  One I wanted to create , wanted it to make an impact. Maybe just a Ceremony. Because I needed it as a reminder of how I feel about cloth. In a new way it is still a robe. It wraps me in peace. And tells, to me, my own story.

How strange,it has grown larger now, Larger than Life.

Hunker Down and Dream

 

And of course.

Computer issues this morning. So no media. Will run a virus scan for the rest of the day.

Just how it is here with a little cloth considering on the wall.

Just playing with that piece of cloth from this post. It is pinned over Nest of Days, a pieced large cloth still in process, just to see it as, perhaps, the center of something larger. And to use it as a drawing board so to speak. The temporary is nice to have. To dream upon.  Here, just a small cloth from Small cloth class surrounded by a few loose dyed patches. And I kinda like it. It's a simple whole cloth approach that could be interesting. If it is to be a baby quilt though, many things like wear-worthiness must be considered. Anyway, these thoughts going on in the background. 

Have a good weekend...

It's March!

day 13

Feel it. Smell it. Spring. I'm charged. 

This morning the window sill glowed.  And then, I changed my mind. I want need this window to go all the way to the floor. It's in my head now. It's a must. I'm changing furniture around again. That's a good sign.

And yesterday, while splitting old logs, we met our first Eastern Eyed Click Beetle.  At first I thought it was a snake or something... I put a link here 'if you be curious', those are false eyes.   I think I need some of those. You can never have too many eyes.

It's great to be outside more. Everything is vibrating. Outward.

I hung 3 more cloths in The Room with the Big Round Table. I basted them before hanging to get the pins out.  Just a bit of reconnect. I actually reconsidered the 3rd one based on the two above. I did some photo play. Below. ↓ One over the other.  I became engaged with the thought that it doesn't matter which came first, only that they have connected.  So the bottom piece has some transparency play now. But I will talk about each piece in detail when I am done hanging.

Now that I look closer, each wall in this house is a different shade of yellow. Depending on the time of day they all look different again. Color is so much about light.

There are tiny birds nesting in the porch roof.

As always, with a change of season, I feel reborn.

Day 7

 

A New Sense of personal achievement.

There are 3 bedrooms in this house. One large one and 2 very small ones.  One has my studio tables and a window you need to stand up to look out of.  And then a smaller room with the same sort of window. I envision it to be a guest room if we need one. This room, below.  Just about big enough for a bed. 

And some bigger cloth.

The Small Room. With more wall space than floor space. Reserved for Deeper Cloth. Less has been said about these cloths. But their stories are bigger. Especially in a small room.

Pictured here, Dividing Space, Heart's Path, Universal Basket/Self, Temple and Personal Order.  For now.

Big Cloth in a Small Room.  I sit quietly this morning reconsidering the sharing process. How much my presence online has been about relinquishing ownership. How it came to be that way.  How I know it will always be that way as the Big Art Thing escapes me.  How it is not about that at all. How I have arrived to the Place of Peace with ambition.

Still, a list.

I will host one more round of Patchwork in Perspective, Large Cloth. It will have 2 small parts. And I will wait for Spring. Sign up information to follow.

I will continue to add content to Thought Catching (Patchwork in Perspective, part 1) and I will open that up for late enrollment if you are interested.

I will release a few old classes and add them to the Free Enough section of Feel Free. Just because there is a lot of content there.

I will complete my book. Don't hold your breath.

I will reduce my online presence, specifically blogging, in this my 70th year.

I will host at least one live workshop  once I complete the above list, if I love long enough. Just to come to grips with an old sense of shyness. 

 

 

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?”

Forest

8:30 AM

Last night, In the muted cloud filtered moonlight, I was suddenly sitting IN one of Valerianna's paintings. I have one right here. On the wall in front of me. It wasn't rolled up but sandwiched between rolls of cloth to keep it safe.

Her calendars are on sale now, I love her work and the life she celebrates. The simple nature of it. Reminds me of Simpler Times. Simple is no small thing these days.

I'm going to take a few stitches. I'll put them here later...

Later... 9:35 AM

I put the eye there. Sooner than expected. You saw it, I didn't, but we are in this together. I have a whole stack of patches with new eyes. Ready.

 

Letting it Unroll

The last thing I packed.

When I named it. Remember?

So I just unpacked it, which is unrolling really, because I roll cloth, it travels well that way. And unrolling is so much a ceremonial kind of thing.

I finally found my pins and my basket of tacks. The small piece I pinned here was the piece I was working on in Small Cloth, I was mapping transition. Which I could say now looks a bit like a learning curve and at the same time a stream of consciousness.

It's been hard for me to be back here. To find words, to share how it is, even to stitch. I've just not been There. But reading my own post yesterday and a friendly reminder from a good friend (((Dee))) yesterday brought me Here, which is, yes, enough.

Now, if I could just find my recorder, (my studio is a tiny bedroom with not enough space or light)and then remember how it was that I put the recording here (my mind seems older), I could talk a bit about this, how and more importantly why these fit so well together. Talk about the bigger PUZZLE.

The walls here are all different shades of yellow. I like white, but it is fresh paint so let it be.

And this is the road in, or out.  And a very long and steep endeavor to put out the trash. I will try not to make any.

PatchWork me

Built from Scrap...

...and holding together.

Self Realization

That's what's left on the wall today.

And there is a new post up in Thought Catching...