I don't know how long it will take me to empty these baskets.
I don't have to worry about it. It is not that kind of going. When I get there, well, who knows? I'm not there, I am here.
This the cloth that became temple like a while back. Oddly just held together by pins. Now transforming. Using more pins. Forever I guess. Until it's enough.
Each loose patch is like a loose page. There are thoughts and stories. I am dreaming about a loose patch party. Sometimes I gather folks in my dreams. I am not shy in my dreams.
Look at this one...
I think I should refer to all these special bits as Loose Touched Patches. Some dyed, some stitched, some woven, some just leftover from life or changing my mind...touched by my going. They carry my story. Altered by my touch. They are stray/ loose scraps of self. I think I am in the process of separating these bits of self from that which is "just cloth" here. They are all I need to continue.
I suppose all this will move forward in the background now... quietly. UntiI have more to say.
Oh! I love hearing your Ragmates say that they talk to their fabric scraps. I do too. I never seem to get anything much written in my journal but I have a verbal journal going all the time with my scrap baskets. When people ask me « how do you know to create such lovely works? » I tell them that the scraps tell me what they want to be!
Thank you Jude and all your Mates for so many years of sharing your lives of « making »! I never miss a post.
Valerie
That’s a lot of posts!!! 🙃
This is such a comfort to me. I spend as much time sorting through and rearranging things as I do anything else. 🙂 It’s about the transformation…
I’m nodding my head, yes, I get it…
I love your statement of – Altered by my touch. So true in so many ways. Thank you Jude.
touch is so big isn’t it? how that changes things…
We seldom notice the impact we have on other people. A stray comment. An off hand remark. We don’t give it another thought. But, someone else does. You have that impact, Jude. You make us thoughtful. You help us pay attention. You are a blessing.
If I can inspire thought I am happy. Thank you.
The patchwork/pathway of friends: I’m a solitary woman although I do have a spouse of many years and a wonderful family that we see less these days since covid but stay in touch regularly, especially with my twin teenage grand kids. My husband and I are quiet people but the thing is, I never feel lonely. Books, discovering, reading and commenting on blogs, my spontaneous dancing when the mood invites, and over the past 13 years, my cloth work, all serve to make up my days: Some might find it strange, that I hold conversations with my dyed cloth scraps but this is a ritual that started from the first time I foraged for dye materials, plunked them in a pot, along with recycled white cloth, added heat or solar power and chanted the whole experience into a conversation. Every stitched cloth that I have on my walls, all of the scraps that I have in my reed basket are touchstones to finding spirit and friendships and they all have led me to this community…
I never reply to these comments-
But your share spoke right to my heart….
I feel much the same.
I love to hear you speak to the dyed scraps…
Maybe I more so listen!
Quiet people too…happy to go long stretches at home-
Dyeing fabric, stitching , making pots of soup.
Wishing you peace. 🙏
not strange at all Marti, I talk right out loud to the cloth. all theses scraps are good company.
You introduced me to squares (“the component system”) and it made a huge difference to me. I don’t have to conceive of a whole piece, I just have to stitch a pile of squares. And then at some point, have fun putting them together, to see what they might become. Weaving strips also works this way. Your temple is monumental!
there has always been comfort in just the possibilities for me.
May I come to your gathering, Jude? I think I am already there, in fact, in your temple. I’m feeling reverent…
here we are…
I have conversations with many people….all in my head.
When i meet somebody i often am unsure what i said and what was a conversation in my head.
I’ve always liked that robe in those earthtones, my favourite color. Have so much dyed cloth waiting ……..
my interactions with people, more often than not, seem to morph into mystery.
don’t let that cloth wait too long, it wants to hug you.
❤️
Oh yes, I have gatherings in my mind as well….and then, I walk alone. 😅
But yesterday I had a friend sit at my table, we stitched felt trees.
It was a lovely time. 💚
I am in awe of all your loose patches🤩🙌
Small gathering are the best.
I think really I spend most of my time on loose.😂
Ha ha! Works for me!
(Small, loose)
It was a robe once upon a time
Looks like the start of a story cloth robe 💙