Imagining being able to capture each moment as important.
How fleeting it has all become.
Awakened at 3AM by a mouse trying to chew its way out of a trap. Thinking... that could be me. Digitally altering an old drawing from 1968, thinking...image is infinite. Stitching a moon cropped by my mind's window. Thinking. Finding words.
Words can create image or change how I see.
This one began like this, as I tried to crop the shape in my mind to fit into the square on one of the loose dyed patches. I like how the white square gave me the opportunity to leave spaces of white, for the moon but especially along the left edge. That is something worth reconsidering.
I used the Split Backstitch to fill the background using two strands of indigo dyed thread that was dyed to almost match the indigo dyed cloth. I like how the texture defines the square. Then I look and see not a cropped moon but one that simply fits to what became a window. Nothing lost. And then the center of a nine patch. And actually what came to mind is...a nine patch is a window to me.
I forgot how much I love this lamp. With its windows that make moons. I changed things around and last night I remembered.
I love this lamp.
ooooooooh! this lampshade! reminds me of cutting paper snowflakes. and yes to changing what surrounds us! instead of “going away”, we can bring an imagined destination into view with cloth ‘n paper. like entering a story book… x
Beautiful post. Gives me to think about things.
Great to hear!👋
Your pocket cloths hold a lot of light.
Some pockets are dark …
A calm spot in the darkness 💙🌛
we need that
I like your moony face. He looks like he’s getting ready to say something important. And I love that lamp, especially the shade.
…maybe something wordless.
The shade is great, yes, I forgot about this lamp in the move… it wasn’t in the kind of spot that makes it magic.
Beautiful moon, beautiful lamp . . . light in the darkness!
Remembering is a lot like that…
Shifting things around is good for the soul: I tend to take down my minimalist holiday decorations before the end of the year. This morning, I looked at the cloths that I had put up on our living room walls, simple naturally dyed landscape collages and felt the need for the first time, to switch them around. Went outside to greet the day, a cold 21 degrees outside but no snow, came back in and the living room looked new…that is the joy of moving things around. The large Kokopelli cloth is now above the couch and a cloth that I made when I spent a weekend with grace in Polvadera, New Mexico is now on the wall, nearest the window and my plants. It has many shades of green and is comprised of cotton and wool pieces. It is what I call my wonder cloth because most of the strips of cloth were dyed with foraged items from grace’s land. I even embellished the cloth, the only one that I have done so, with a few olive green beads and a few jasper beads.
As I thought of the New Year, healing was front and center so to that end, I placedd Nancy’s special medicine bag with a feather that my husband had brought me a few years ago, tucked inside the wee bag is a green stone from my granddaughter and beside the feather, peeking out of the bag is a tiny moss covered branch from my grandson when we all had a vacation in Colorado… the familiarity and comfort of this is such a gift…
Equally a gift is the idea of community. How many of us who come here have done so for many years in connection and solidarity but community can also be an instant moment in time. such was my experience this past Wednesday in a grocery store. I didn’t feel like doing self check, so I stood in line for a checker and since I had a loaded cart, I let several people go ahead of me and one couple in particular said,” HO HO HO!, the Christmas spirit lives on…..but there was a grinch like thing also because the person in front of me was returning some items, (I didn’t know you could return food items) and it was taking a very long time, about 10 minutes to resolve. In that time, about 5 people in line and I started talking and it was a very interesting and good conversation about the holidays, about the joy of grandchildren and about the dismal state of the world and here, regarding the forthcoming election…it was so good to connect, in a brief way, with like0 minded people. We spoke of kindness and civility and how we must never give up. It’s been a long time since I had such a spontaneous conversation and it felt like a nice way to close out the year!
Thank you for sharing Marti.
Everything is a gift in a way, I have begun to look at it that way.
Had a bit of a Home Depot experience like yours, came away with a good feeling
The depth in the eye…the ways you create that…I’ve always loved your faces, the expression. Wonderful.
I think the magic of black and white helps.
“That could be me.” Those words form a bridge of understanding. And compassion.
pretty clear, yes?
An inspiration, and a softening.
❤️
Illumination. 🙂 As I was scrolling down when I first came to the last picture and didn’t see the lamp yet, I thought eyes….
just reaching back to when I was considering windows and yes! eyes.
Amazing how all the stitches brought life and transformation to the whole little cloth!
I have always lived in small homes and loved to seasonly change it up, even if it was just decorative pillows and throws.
I think living with cloth encourages change…
Couldn’t help but feel for the little mouse, how desperate it must have felt. 🥺
( Thank goodness for live trap!)
Love the moons, stitched and lit…
I should move things around, I used to do it all the time!
“Stuck” in my “old” age ….🤦
it’s always like I just moved in here. ha!
my turn to drive the mice… I will get outside to try to find the gateway if it ever stops raining…
The magic of the moon can show up in so many places. Love this moon face. Reminds me of moons in my old Book House story books from long ago.
the moon and a lifetime
That lamp is precious. So is capturing moments/thoughts; sometimes it happens and when it does it’s always precious, like seeing wildlife. I’m cherishing your comment the other day “Maybe community has more to do with willingness to reconsider than with sameness.” I like that, a lot. As always Jude, your comments are like your lamp, shining a light on moments and thoughts. Be well!
everything is actually surprising when you let go
It’s interesting how making just one little change in the arrangement of a room can enliven things. I’m terrible about leaving things just as they are (once everything fits then that’s how it stays) but when doing that the whole area eventually becomes very static. It helps if you can envision the change beforehand especially when moving heavy furniture is involved.
just one little change works to enliven anything, right? I always forget.
Darling lamp, Jude. Moon is perfect.💙
perfectly imperfect