What if

 

i dyed strands of this to use on that little
Girl Scout Loom?
what is it called,?,??
knitcroshene or something?
cotton crochet thread...

weavers

 

 

this is beside the front door.
i am watching Jude's small plain girlscout loom. thinking.
these belts belonged to Dora, an extraordinary woman who
has been gone from this plane for a long time. she was
tiny, had a snow white french twist held in place with
a silver comb. she was a Tai Chi Master. there was a
period of time when we needed to wait together in a very
large room with floor to ceiling windows across an expanse
of a wall. at night. outside was a woods and pond and often
the moon. beautiful hard wood floors, no furniture.
space.
Dora would practice her forms while waiting. i would sit on
the floor and watch. she most often wore her black tai chi
jacket and pants. was her "uniform for living" like my denim
jumpers are. was then in her 80's. sometimes her sleeve
would ride up with a elegant and silent gesture and i could
see the numbers tattooed on her wrist from Auschwitz.
she wore these belts that stood out against the black jacket.
there would be two of her...her, and the reflected her in the
windows.
in the second picture, i saw that someone had woven an egg
case. i like that.

what if i

 

didn't want it to make "sense"? what if i just
stitched, without knowing anything at all?

the corner where i talk to You

 

i looked at the couch and it occured to me that i
could show you (me) the space right to the right
where i do all this sending

a Sunday

 

i have to chase the dogs off the couch everytime i want to see my progress.
i love each and every part of this...have earnestly invisible basted
all seams flat. even that.
there is nothing about this process that i have an urge
to
hurry
through.
there is a steady, concentrated rhythm to it all.

this one

 

 

from Cloth to Cloth I
it wants more

for Wendy's children

 

 

 

i know these have been here before, but i want them all together. tomorrow they will
fly away in the mail to Wendy Golden-Levitt who works with children in Toronto.
The request for the "window hanger" came via her, from one of the children who
saw the "installation" i had hung on my own window when some of the older
children were looking at Jude's blog and then at other blogs on her side bar.
She related strongly with the swirling wind and the feathers, which are feathers
from Jude. She said to Wendy "hey there is this person who makes stuff from wind and
that textile stuff we use. she makes it see through but not really. she's got
these feathers stuck on where the light comes in and she sewed in some wind
when it was swirling."
and it all flowed from there.
during the time of my work in Jude's Spirit Cloth workshop and then
the Patchwork Beasts, there were two other occurances of very separate
but simultaneously arising shared imagery in two other girls' healing work and
in my cloth making; the Raven and the Lizard. This amazed us all, was
hard to imagine happening, but it did and tomorrow i will send all three.
I am so honored that these three girls and i "see the same". there is
a second window in the studio and i will make one more window hanger and
am so awed by the opportunity to offer these. as Wendy said in one of
her emails..."in Wonder at the Mystery of it All".

synchronicity again

 

in keeping with the conversation on Spirit Cloth yesterday,
when i stopped by the mailbox, this was what had arrived.
interesting.

this is it.

 

 

 

there is the urge to think of more little things to add.
that it is "not enough". too plain.

but i won't. yesterday, looking for something else entirely,
i came across this bell in one of the bead tins.
i picked it out and looked at it for a long time, listened
to it's clear little tone. put it back.
and it all progresses this way:
~somewhere in the dream during the night, i am making something
with the bell.
~this morning, i see jude's jar.
~finishing the Wind strands, i am compelled to go find the bell, the
strand of magic thread, and
~the feeling that sometimes happens when dream and awake realities
cross, begins. i have no way to describe that feeling but the
closest i can come is that it is like some kind of vertigo.
a physical sensation.

and so, this is it.

life

 

today it is the Nigerian Dwarf Dairy Goats at the New Mexico State Fair.
then, home, trying to work on the Window Hanger and my across the road neighbor calls, all wild,
a snake is in her livingroom.
off i go.
frightened little young snake, back and forth...under couch, under chair
i throw a dish towel over it, cuddle it up, carry out and then have to shoo it across the yard to the
weeds.
Dear it. seemed tired and needing rest.

it was very pretty.

closer still

 

the strip on the far side will be finished tonight or tomorrow. the strands of
silk gauze wind will be returned to where they were before i decided to do this
kantha stitching. that will not take long.

this feels so good for so many reasons but i will write about that
when it is finally finished.

resting on the rocking chair for now

 

i don't know what to say

 

back to the "op shop", that term is catching on for me...
on intuition
don't usually go so often
but
look what was there........
and
squares
.
it's really quite beautiful. machine sewn, and i am now very curious about who got this far
only
and gave it up?
and what will
i
do...at first thinking of taking it apart, because of the squares, using them in "my" way
of panels
but tonight, i keep looking at it and i don't know.

8 something p.m.

 

the halfway mark

just so you know

 

that i'm not being a slacker and just taking pics of my underwear and
bugs
here is what is also going on. i was invited to make a "window hanger",
a curtain, and in keeping with using what is at hand, i had to get
creative with piecing cloth on cloth to get the correct dimension for
the window. this has led to doing Kantha stitches all along the bottom
and side additions. slow going but i am making progress.

Fruit of the Loom

 

drying on the house fence

how it is

 

grasshoppers grow by sheding their exoskeletan

tonight, watering, this
stands out
someone changed
grew
and i squat, staring, wondering what that
feels
like?

also, thinking on the porch steps, to past years when So Many grasshoppers ate pretty much everything...
this year, that was so odd already, and there are very few grasshoppers.
but this one grew, fulfilling it's destiny

a little more to do

 

i think making this futon cover is
ecstasy

GLITCH

Velma just posted anonymously that blogger does not let her comment here
anymore.
?????????????????????
i have made NO changes at all.
Does anyone know what i can do?????
or what this is???????
thanks

wild ones

 

so close to bindweed here

this edge

 

it's taking a while. and could happen no other way than it is, by doing, as i go,

but this morning i am so taken by this piece of denim where it was gathered to the bodice. it looks like
the rains look in Monsoon storms coming at this place in a literal sheet of water with lightning strikes
announcing the arrival...so
i couldn't let this disappear into a seam but had to stitch it to the top.
and here is the absolute wonder of what i am just now beginning to know
about what i have learned so far from Spirit Cloth; jude, yes, but actually Jude/her Cloth.......
that i can let the cloth tell me how to go forward and with just those 3 stitches...
invisible baste
split backstitch
kantha
i can create a world i never dreamed.

couldn't wait

 

had to begin at least a little. other things needing to be finished, but i couldn't wait. the wheat colored
square is one of 6 linen placemats that i also got. one or more will be incorporated.
i have needed something for this futon couch for a long time. it's the dogs'. they are neurotic about it.
in warm weather i put a sheet over the cushion, in cold, a wool blanket. i almost never sit there because
the moment i do, they are all there, thrilled and climbing all over me and each other. there are four of
them.

i want to thank You All for hanging in there with me as i worked my way through the Raven cloth. i really
appreciate each comment and thought about what was said as i worked. i think i reached a critical point
in my learning curve in being able to express something very close to my Heart, that is actually REAL
here, but also to let it go just enough so it could also represent other things for other people.

so, again...thank you. it is such a good feeling to see your comments appear. and also come to know each
of you more and more by the exchange.

much love and appreciation to you All...me

scored BIG

 

our thrift shop has 10cent Tuesdays. all clothing 10cents. Today, a fluke of luck, not only were there these
denim jumpers that are my "uniform", but 10cent Tuesday had been extended to be 10cent Wednesday!!! 6 jumpers,
the one in far left of photo an overall skirt even...that i'd mentioned on jude's Spirit Cloth the other day!
6 perfect shape (perfect for me, being worn, soft) jumpers, 60cents.
how good does it get.