handstories

evolutions

    Starting with a small stack of blue, what I thought would be a sea was pieced together.  A pink sky was imagined (there is something going on between pink and me lately...).  When the blues were stitched, suddenly they were sky like.  Ok, a green ground.  The green basket was pulled out.  Digging until something spoke to me... the map printed fabric, the earth, yep.  From there the pinks came together into a sun with reaching rays and blue stitches orbiting.

    Those rings of blue are related to a bunch of recent things...

    Spirals have been on my mind again, triggered by Jude's edge stitching, and reinforced when this piece turned up in that box wander last week.

 

 

    It's an interpretation of 13 year-old Moon's "hand" drawn galaxy, from five years ago.

    And then a necklace was seen.  I wish I had a photo of it.  At first I thought it was a cool spiral, not perfect, with lines crossing each other.  With a closer view, I saw that it was actually several separate silver pieces- circle, oval, and lopsided roundish rings, all of them hanging together from a thin chain, lines overlapping, sliding ever-so-slightly into new forms with each movement.  

    It's fascinating to me that the placement of lines can create the illusion of a different shape.  Concentric or overlapping rings seem a spiral, straight lines crossing each other at a center point feel round.

    The stars were added without thinking, and then questioned when I remembered that it was a Sun, not a moon.  Should the stars come out?  (Ha, thinking about how we say that the stars come out at night, meaning the complete opposite.)  The stars were left, because they are always there, even when we can't see them, but mostly because I like them.  And why should the moon be missing?  Why not?  The moon came out, too.

    Everything is and holds everything these days.

Attempt

Away from home today (Not the beach).  Can’t seem to reply to comments. Not sure this attempt at posting on a phone will work either. I have very few technology skills. 

But I do have scraps.
Will try again tomorrow, toodles...

too much

    The other day a box of unfinished pieces, big and small, was found.  I started to sort out the pieces, which ones I might still want to finish, others for dismantling to repurpose the cloth.  There were so many pins and needles to be reclaimed!  By the time the bottom of the pile was reached, I was completely overwhelmed with myself and shoved it all back in and onto the shelf.  Except for one piece.  I cut it in half to rescue the starry sky from the weird fish/sea monster below.  But even the effort it was taking to figure out how to reconfigure the bottom became too much.

    That same day, all of the plans to get to the beach became too involved- too many steps, things and people were having to be considered.  All I want to do is stand still in the waves.  I called it all off and will try again when things feel calmer and more known.

    So this little boat was stitched instead.  It reminds me of my first squares.  Simple.

    And then yesterday, this piece below began with the roots.  I got quite lost in them, and then a red tree grew.

    I don't know what's going on.

journeys

    Business first... These story cloths will be going into the shop tomorrow (Wednesday, August 19th).  

    There has been a lot of staring at these photos, and a wanting and trying to write about how things are at this moment.  Strong feelings of happiness, and sadness, and deep wishing.  The word "clinging" gathered itself and rose to the top.

    I found this when I cleared my shelves in the school basement seven years ago.  Where did it come from?  Floating amongst 23 years of teaching- books, supplies, plans, projects, props, backdrops, etc., and one little boat.  It came home with me, and sits here on the windowsill above the studio table.  It was beyond time to leave that job, some of you might remember.  As awful as that ending was, so many great things came from sailing into the unknown.

    Not long after leaving, this matchbox art was found in a shop.  The message inside might seem sad, but I love it.

    It tells me stories of longing, faraway lands and treasure, and whenever I read the words, "It took me too long to start",  "But, I did." is always tagged on in my mind. 

"Sharing Light"

Waves of thoughts

    Missing the ocean.

    From a place deep inside.

    Is this is a moon or a sun, maybe it's both?

    We're trying to figure out a way to go for a couple of days that will be safe, work around Moon's online school schedule, and won't cost too much.

    Mending an old old favorite linen/cotton shirt.  The best thing I have to wear in tomorrow's 95° weather.  A few years ago this shirt was donation pile because of never being worn, because it was beige.  Thankfully, it caught my eye while there was an indigo vat going.

    The old wavy glass windows of the house made a beautiful reflection on the studio wall today.  Remembering swimming pools on a hot summer days.

    Jude's posts about understanding, eyes and insect shells, led to the idea of winged eyes.  New points of view and understandings.

    I am all over the place- in doing and thinking, but seeing and being in the sea is a very focused thought.

Strange days

    She wanted blue hair. 

    This is how the inside of my head feels.  At this moment, Moon is off driving alone for the first time.  I may have hugged him a little too hard when he left, telling him, "Don't die."  

    More pink and lavender skies over a twilight blue tree (with thanks to Tina and Deb).

    These scraps want to be a tiny book.  Small is making things seem manageable.
   Well, some things, at least in my imagination. 

    I miss Blue.  He's still in Ohio, and will be moving to Michigan to start his new job in a couple of weeks.   He's happy, doing well, and in a good situation.  We were supposed to have this last summer with him home, but the virus.... The next opportunity will be Christmas time, but it doesn't seem likely that travel will be a good idea by then.  I wasn't ready for months of not seeing him to turn into more than a year.

    The favorite things book creeps along.  This page will be the "Story" blanket.  The book was begun in early April, with the intent of adding something each day for one hundred days.  This is day 125.  There are 41 entries.

    I tell myself that what needs to get done, will.

skies & writing

    Still dreaming in pink skies.

    Some dipping in blue.

        Yesterday I realized that I had grabbed the wrong red thread in the middle of the quote on the SJSA block.  But, even with an opportunity to redo some of the words, I'm noting that my handwriting isn't any better in stitch than it is with a pen.  Still more work to do on this.  How I wish I could sit side by side with the young artist and do this together.  This is an exercise in letting go.

Enough for now

    A few weeks ago, a friend shared something hard that is going on in her life.  This piece was started that afternoon.  The words "knowing" and "believing" went through my thoughts.  Knowing and believing that she will be ok, and wishing for her to know the same.  "You are a phoenix," I tell her.

    I say good things and really wrong things, and ask her to know that they all come from the same place of loving her.

    There was a struggle with this cloth, so many stitches were not right and pulled out.  I wanted it to be a beautiful glorious rising.  The threads, cloth, skill couldn't hold enough of what I wanted to say.  Sometimes there is no right, and all you can do is be there... and love.

    "Knowing & Believing... She Rose"

Imagine having to prove you're a Person

    This week was hot for here (which makes me grumpy), I decided to rearrange/clean out the studio (it got so much worse in the process), and I sliced my pointer finger (right where the needle sits while stitching).  It's cooled off a bit, the room is almost better, and I can hold a needle again...so some progress.  

    A new block by a young artist created with @sjsacademy arrived.  Her message honors Chief Standing Bear, a Ponca chief and Native American civil rights leader. In 1879, he was the first to successfully argue in the U.S. District Court that Native Americans are "persons within the meaning of the law."

    The blocks arrive with the pieces tacked down with craft glue.  My job is to secure the fabrics, embellish and add context to the piece.  The base cloth felt too white and thin to work on, so I added a layer of muslin around the center design.  It was cloth that had gone into a fading indigo vat so it has just a touch of blue here and there.  It makes me think of the sky.

    The artist wished for Sitting Bull's quote, "I myself would rather die an Indian than live a white man."  I'm wishing for Liz's skill with stitching words.