what if

 

 

cloths begin telling stories that you don't even guess might be a story? What If, they are ways for things
to talk between one another? Things being
energies
either that have already occurred...as in needing resolution
or
energies
that are in some Realm of Possibility...?

this cloth, i thought, was about Place. about how Place feels. whether Place means a specific place on
the planet, or
one's Place in the life of humankind.

enough

 

 

and here we have it.

thank you all for all the thoughts and responses to this cloth. maybe what was most useful to me was the
variety in what everyone saw...i think this is good. it means to me that the cloth can tell more than
one story.

it began with no story at all. just a piece of cotton that i had dyed with the Mexican Elderberry leaves.
the urge to weave the top and bottom, leaving the center one solid piece. at first there were more woven
strips on the bottom, but then it was turned over with more at the top, more of the sky where the first
image was placed, the Wind that i had gotten from Jude. and then the Sun and Moon both with wisps of
Glennis' silk gauze, that with the Moon respresented the storms that i love here, great turbulent energies
that Wind brings. often crows and sometimes the single Raven will ride those currents swooping low and
abruptly rising, sometimes effortlessly being carried sideways, wings outspread. a single star. beneath
all this that belongs to Forever with the mountain in the distance is the figure who has learned that
she needs very little aside from these. plant people who are for me respresented here by the native
grasses and trees and a circle of stones that she has placed to mark the covenant she has made with this
place. just this is enough.

 

so far

 

will stitch leaves, and maybe begin the circle of stones tonight
just wanted to see this much, this far....

i don't know

 

how interesting. and disconcerting.
tonight, when i am thinking hard things, i sit
on the porch and what do i see?
not nighthawks or bats, but
hawk moths. Hawk Moths.
i had just watered the tomato plants. Not one
Hawk Moth, but several.
the season has been odd, and so...in keeping with that,
not so odd that here, in almost the last of August, they flutter.

but...disconcerting in that this is in keeping with a personal
change
no less
out of season
and the toad, SandRock, jumps.

in the final pages of The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
she talks of the Love Laws
"Only that once again they broke the Love Laws. That lay down
who should be loved. And how. And how much."

cousins

 

in keeping with jude's friend, the present form of the Black Swallowtail:
here is a cousin who cheerily ate the leaves ONLY on the grapes, and
ONLY after the fruit of the grape vine was no longer in need of leaves for the season. i have
no idea what s(he) might become next. it didn't matter, really, just
that s(he) was so perfetly grape like and lovely and amazing and
a very excellent partner of the habitat.

the ever present dilemma

 

 

susan..here is a closer pic of raven...the fabric is of one of the wrinklie gauzeie india import skirts...very
roughly cut
as for the rest, the ever constant struggle i have with my self about "adding".
something has to change that at some point and i have a little faith that it
will occur, but for now...
i have a couple more hours to sew this eve

a most Wonder full gift!

 

yesterday, there was a package...said Royal Mail and indeed it is!
this is a complete surprise gift from Karen
Karen Turner ~ stitching life
and i think probably we all looked longingly upon them
when she wrote about making two a while back on her blog...
well....it's BEAUTIFUL, a wonderful indigo blue with stars and
galaxies and a moon bead on top and perfect stitching as
she always does and then, i put it on and
it is the totally perfect place for the little #ll beading needles
that i like to sew the cloths with and i can leave them
threaded with different colors and NOT LOSE THEM by lying them
down inbetween scraps!!!!
Karen!!! it's really so so great and thank you so much for
thinking to send it ~*~ and i hope there are MORE in your shop.
I can already think of 3 people i need one for??????
Thank you!, i am so touched.........

perspective

 

many fragments on/off on/off
and today...
the raven
and the small figure
feel close to right, maybe

can you see the double?

 

a beginning of a different kind

 

this doesn't seem like much of a change for a whole day,
but it is.
aside from a photograph in better light,( as in real light v.s.
flash with interference of hallway light last night )
i did another daring thing.
i set the scissors to a piece of wind that i'd gotten in a fragment
pack from jude months ago. it is the first of either of the two
packs that i will have
cut
and used. always thinking it is too special.
a shift
and here, this wind will be, maybe placed differently, but
am pretty sure, on this cloth.
i worked the rest of the time on the image of the
raven, it's wing...

hey, penny

 

finished?

 

finished before, led to Continuing. but i think now, it's
finished. it has become quiet.
the white piece has been removed.
Learned: an image in my mind does NOT need complete reproduction
on a cloth. i am working toward making things Others might
connect to and they don't think with My mind and to continue
to try to make something "stand to reason", is not necessary.
Learned: i still don't know how to work with the silk gauze (the Sunrise).

more

 

would NOT use this particular cloth, but What If i
used something like it? (which doesn't exist yet)
this is making me feel crazy with ideas...
and oh, whaa, 10 days till Jude's back.....

revision

 

no. take off the center piece.
woven at the top and the bottom.
yes.

i did it

 

cut half, give or take, off...strips and the one center piece.
will WEAVE it, then listen and see what it says.

best yet

 

same leaves, same grey/green color
still wet
no boiling, just leaves wrapped in muslin, a day and a half in
aluminum casserole pot in Sun. 96 degrees f

a thursday of August

 

 

this, and a lot of stitching

the Mexican Elderberry leaves:
on the lft, a little lighter. just in the canning jar and a day of Sun
the right, the copper pot and some hours of Sun
both, washed with Ivory soap, seem color fast.

tomatoes canned. from the Farmer's Market. two jars had to go into freezer because i didn't want to
do the 45 min processing for two additional jars. here, where i normally give away bags, 3 were harvested.
used the water bath water in an aluminum pot with elderberry leaves and muslin. haven't looked yet.

surprise!

 

Deb G over at Beecreative has posted the ever so beautiful result of dyeing with Elderberry leaves...a
really rich amber apricot color. i wanted some of that so ran out and got some leaves from the Mexican Elderberry
here, plopped them in the little copper pot, boiled a few minutes and added a strip of muslin.
here is the surprise...finally...a really green Green!?!

a different kind of August

 

 

all the vegetables are still on Pause but ~
other things flourish...
this is the eldest garden toad and this is
the toad spa which has never before grown such lush algae
the cicadas sing day and night and there are many more
butterflies than i ever remember.

Continuing, but a brief rest for now

 

this, i think, is enough for now.

the leaves need to have brown attachment stems to the branch
the rising Sun needs more, as does the silk ray of light
most of all, the chrysalis, or cacoon needs work to resemble more closely the photograph i sent earlier.
it needs shaping and it needs the little decorations of ever so tiny pieces of thorn that the Russian Olive
branch provided. (dianna..the little pretzel looking things)

?

 

have a thing about just adding something that "looks good" but is not "about" the cloth....
so...can't let it go for the night.
holding it, it FEELS very good...the butterfly now and the light odd piece. it feels very balanced.
but
and so...i think...what is missing from the story...the sun light...?

a piece of glennis' silk is pinned.
now, can go to sleep. i need to be up at 3:30.

done

 

when i posted on the Beast blog, i noticed that the upper triangle had an antennae with a mark on the cloth....

i had not seen any connection with the components until this, so...a butterfly and maybe that's how it feels
to them too? so we share this unfocused face/beingness