Moving over

I am taking a new workshop with Jude Hill and it is easier to post on typepad for the class. So just for a while, I will be over there.

summertimes.typepad.com

I am also trying out typepad to see if I like it better. So far I am not convinced, but I am not an expert at either place. Learning all the time.

Still weaving and stitching and moving through winter. This is not a picture of our skies, but a dream of another day.

Weaving In Black

A very dear friend of mine died last Friday.

Margaret

She was 90 and died in her own bed, what a blessing.

It still hurts.

I don't show my weaving projects here but I named this blog for them.

I weave to throw the shuttle. It puts me in a place of quiet and meditation. It restores my soul.

Margaret always said that we come here to grow a soul.

I think death is one of the things that make us grow

but it hurts.

So I am weaving in black. I don't have a pattern or have to think. I am throwing the shuttle and I am dreaming of Margaret. She was a weaver at one time in her life.

She was one of the few people that truly understood spirit cloth.

I showed her everything.

She knit all the time. When she woke up at night, she knit.

I should have known when she quit knitting.

She would say, Well you know, lovey, I knit all night.

So I am dreaming of Margaret and sending her love.

And missing her.

What is it?

I worked on this piece all day yesterday. It is just starting. I like the idea of it and I like the stitching that is happening. Done after this picture was taken. When I showed it to someone, she said it was cute. Cute...

I know this work is different than other stuff I do. I know if you don't stitch and don't try it you don't really know what it is about. I know that it looks like a waste of time to someone that is into woodworking or other crafts where you get a product that is useful.

But cute...

What do you call it? What do you say to describe it? Why is cute not the right word? It feels like someone patted me on the head and said "good job, linda".

I do know that people expect a product. I do this because I love the new creative process my mind has to go through. I love looking at the little pieces and seeing how they can tell a story. I love the quiet time I get sitting and stitching the cloth and how it feels when it is done. I love the story that is in my head when I am creating it. I love the connection I feel to other people that are also doing this work. But most of all I love the process..

Whenever I weave, I usually do make a product, towels, rugs, scarves, etc. This is not like that. It is just for stitching for the sake of stitching. I know it is not what people expect from me and not something usual. It is not a quilt and will never be a quilt. It not useful.

So "cute" is what it is and I guess I should not be upset.. but I was a little.

Winter Weekend

This is what our backyard looked like last Wednesday. So we decided to stay home and enjoy the weather. It was great to have four days of unplanned time. Thanksgiving day was just four of us and it was simple and wonderful. The rest of the weekend has been time at home.

I had this table in the basement and have been wanting to move it to my weaving room. With a little help from my son and granddaughter, it is in place. The bench from my loom can slide over to table and be for both places. It is crowded but every space is used. I love the table, it makes it so much easier to do my small cloths.

So this is the cloth I started this week. It is funny, I wanted to do a tree and left the big space for the tree in the middle. It is from gifted cloth and it raveled so well, it looks feathery. The picture isn't as nice as the real thing. I wish I could get better color. I looked and thought and felt this cloth for ages, now it is coming together. Love when that happens..

Birthday

Today is my birthday. Yesterday was an awful day. I went to bed at 7 and just laid there and thought about my life. I went through all the decades and thought about where I would have been on this day. It was really interesting and something that no one really knows but me. It gave me more of a perspective of where I am now. I think people should just know who I am, but how could they? I have been so many different people. That is one of the things that make me crazy. How young people I work with think I don't know anything. If they could see the experiences that make me.....

So I woke up to a better day and glad of where I have been. Also glad I am not there anymore.

So off to work..

Indigo Continued

I have been working on this little piece. It has turned out to be fun to work on. I love the little squares and trying to ravel the edges. There is some shot silk and an ikat piece that I love. I have used Jude's ideas to inspire me. (In other words, I copied)

I wanted to have my own symbol. I like Jude's feathers and would like to do that, but I wanted something of my own. I did the little weaving in the corner with thread. I think that will be my symbol for my fabrics.

I will quilt a lot more on this, but wanted to post the progress.

I am inspired by so many blogs I am reading. Grace's work is so exceptional. I love seeing what she does. I don't know how to put in her website, but it is called windthread.

This blogging process is so difficult for me. I want it to look different with pictures in

different places, guess I'm going to have to break down and ask for help from my granddaughter.

I read in on of Grace's blog that she questioned why she was doing this and for whom. I feel the same way. I think now that I've started it makes me feel like I am contributing to something. I'm not sure what it is or why, but it is part of the stitching. You stitch then you put it on the blog. For me...

Indigo

This is my next cloth. It is indigo and really soft thin fabric. The color is so much nicer that this, but I find it hard to get the correct color with my camera. I have quilted it around each square to hold it in place and it has such a nice quality about it now. I am now at that place of "what's next"?

This is where I always lose confidence. What will it become? It is where I start admiring Jude so much for knowing what to do. I go back and look at the videos and the posts to the class and I just kind of think about it all the time. One of my thoughts is to embroidery X's on it.. we will see what happens.

I'm off to make an apple cake, I found my grandma's recipe.. yummm.