This one just kept talking to me.
The Freedom to Be
It pulled me from a hole I keep falling into.
Read about moss, very interesting. I loved this... "Mosses are highly resilient, utilizing a natural "antifreeze" to survive, and can continue to photosynthesize in the filtered light beneath a blanket of snow".
I am caught in a kind of looking inward that has had me frozen in time. Trapped in the past without newness.
This became a Secret Garden Cabin. Cobbled around love. The seed.
Winter is back... of course, it's March. After a warm week, the snow seems new. Fresh.
There will be a little shop update tomorrow late in the day, probably around 6PM EST, just to clear some space for newness and because the new moon date is not working for me this month. And I need some time to plant some new seeds.
Moss…..the color…your cabin…want to rest there too!
Isn’t it so inviting???💚
Offering deep thanks for your (seemingly) calm, keen curiosity. For me, keeping, and sharing, curiosity is a sort of antidote to much that ails me. Your voice, lexicon, creations in so many languages and “levels” nourish me on my way to seeing… I hear your longing, and smile to read that you shall follow Joy 💕
seemingly calm, I have to laugh. I have a secret garden of anxieties…
A star portal … for the sunburst woman walking the freedom trail in her black and white striped stockings. She is SO full of energy!
Thank you for sharing, for being here, for speaking your unfolding truth. I’d love to visit each woman gathered here for a cup of morning tea and a chat. Rich family you’ve gathered around you. ❤️
Always amazed at the gathering here.
You ARE sharing newness, Jude, not “the same old thing.” Each piece of the beautiful needlework you create and share with us reflects a unique imagination. Each piece with its clever title(s) inspires a story. It might trigger a memory, bring about a different interpretation of a story I’ve read, or maybe even inspire an original story my own mind produces based on the colors and the elements you chose to include in the piece and the title you gave it. In any case, just looking at your work inspires enjoyable thoughts. It makes me wonder what would occur if you were to create a series of related pieces that told a story you wanted to tell, imaginary or based on observations of reality. In other words, a story made up of images created on fabric with needle and thread, perhaps connected side by side like a quilt, fastened on one side like a fabric book, or even put together as a piece of clothing. You’d create a whole new medium, where the resulting “work” would be jointly created by you with your idea, your needlework images that tell the story you wanted to tell, and the title you choose. The person enjoying your work, would have to interpret the story using their imagination and knowledge as they looked at the images. So the story would be different for each person who sees the piece.
Alice, thank you for your kindness here,
The joy of newness is always there when I am creating. Still I sense there is something different that needs to emerge. Maybe I am impatient. Or afraid of the changes.
Relevance- let me tell you a little story: I came to you via friends who were into the stitching arts. I, someone who was not all that thrilled with needle and thread, but who loved to forage and naturally dye cloth, set a tentative foot in the community that you created and was accepted. One of the first pieces that I ever stitched was a feather for your Magic Feather project. It took courage for me to send you an email about whether or not you could accept my rusty dyed feather, my idea of a red-tailed hawk.offering. Your kind and gracious reply, happily accepting my feather, is why you will always be relevant Jude. There is no higher praise for relevance in that you have kept on going, kept on sharing the wealth of your knowledge, teaching, encouraging, expanding this community from all over the world, giving so much more than tutorials on cloth… You are unique, one of a kind, and will always be relevant.
Now then, I’ve sat with this deeply moving post and deeply felt comments for a while now, soaking in wisdom and caring. . I look at your title, The Freedom to Be and I flash back to long ago, Marlo Thoma’s Free to be You and Me. Free to be ourselves perhaps took a step back for some of us as we became wives and mothers but over the years, we have lived our lives the best we can, with authenticity, with courage, with humor, taking our creativity, in whatever form that emerged, to the forefront, sharing life stories, teaching, supporting, rising up when we were needed. I am speaking of myself here, a woman who at 78 has looked back at her life and wondered, has it been enough and finding that yes it has and continues to be For me, joy is in the journey, in the process of creating, living, in knowing that I hold to what matters most. The rest is all chatter and frankly, noise,,
Your comments went straight to my heart. I concur absolutely!!!
Thank you Marti.
And thank YOU Jude Hill!!
Thank you for the story flash back. Perhaps it is where we put ourselves and knowing where we belong. Too big is too confusing. I feel fine right here with all of you.
There is the never-ending joy in sharing story. when you know who is listening. I get lost “out there”.
🙏🏼
Thank you for your honesty and for who you are, dear Jude. I have been presented with the same questions lately – 78 and maybe no longer relevant? – so I resonated. I send a big hug for your big questing heart, and thanks for all you have planted so far….
I have been moved recently to stitch patchwork ‘mended hearts’ with gold kintsugi-inspired seams. I will think of you as I do them.
When I feel ‘past it’ I look at a meme i have had by me for years. ” When people see me they’re not going to say ‘look at that sweet old lady’. They will say “What on earth is she up to now?!’ ”
It is not what we do so much that matters, but where we dare to go, leaving the known and making the map as we travel. We, the elder women trail makers, have planted many seeds that have grown.
We’ve still got seeds a-plenty.
Much love to you and all who are on this trail in these strange times. We are needed more than ever. Always unfolding in new ways.
Bless us all with wise mourning, still connection, perennial recovery, renewed curiosity and joy.
We’ve seen a lot of things eh?
Really appreciate this!
I think I’ll be ruminating on your post and the comments here all the rest of the day. Why? Because what you say IS relevant. Maybe not to everyone, or right now, but for me, and maybe most who follow you, it definitely is. My first reaction to your not finding that gathering all your old material was helpful to you was “Oh no! There’s so much I haven’t yet seen.” Of course I want it all! But on second thought, I’ll learn from what IS there, and I’m always learning something here, even if it’s not about stitching.
When I think about it, boredom for me isn’t as much about what (new or old), as much as about how and why. I get bored when I’m doing something because I “should” or because someone else want me to do it, or even “just” because it needs to be done. Sometimes, I guess, we just need to deal with the boredom. The thing that helps most is simply deleting the “should” and focusing on the “why,” especially for those things that don’t actually even have a “should” of any kind attached to them. For me “should” and habit (I’ve always done this, done it this way, enjoyed this) and sometimes even plans, need a deep “why?” and even sometimes a “still?” to make room for new ideas.
Like Nancy, though for different reasons, I’m not really sure who I am right now. I’m at a busy intersection with no signs and no crosswalks in my life and, although I’m more focused on “what” next than on relevancy, it definitely feels integrated with what you are saying.
The gathering is not the issue really, it’s the format of the presentation. I have everything and I need to let it be useful in my present goings.
Could it be the sheer chaos of the amount of information available out there. with no relevancy to what is actually needed in the moment? I am simply overwhelmed I think.
Jude, such a thought provoking post. I love getting your posts, your words and pictures open up new worlds to me. I ‘kinda get’ the desire for newness and leaving some of the old behind. Newness is exciting, the search for it not quite so. For me it always brings uncertainty. I look forward to seeing where these thoughts lead. Your work is inspiring as are your words.
uncertainty has become a kind of food for me. But then safety has its comfort level. How ever it happens I have to follow the joy.
At this age I never thought I would be deconstructing beliefs and wandering like a crazy quilt from thing to thing.. yet there is newness in the old. Like a traveler with a short leg, I continue to circle back but the territory is unfamiliar. Am I lost? No- think I’m just on a different path. If not- does it take matter?
old is more about repetition but old as a beginning might take you someplace else.
I listen to you talk about what drives you and excites you. I hear you saying that you are not relevant not NEW. I understand that thought that there are a lot of slow stitching videos. You are unique. You present in a very thoughtful way. Your vision of how you see things and put them together is actually very unique to anyone else. I am late to the game, but thankful that I have found you in your videos.
I guess I feel we are all unique, but perhaps not always able to let that part of us come forward. I guess I understand that too, it’s scary.
jude, i’ve never in my 72 years experienced a more insightful revealer of the creative process. not even close. your transparency is real ‘n deeply appreciated, as is this community of ragmates. this garden, watered ‘n seeded by your curious thoughts. we are your offspring, jude. forever grateful. totally agree with valerianna. u r at a whole new THRESHOLD! step on thru’, girlfriend! think i feel a happy dance comin’ on! hey, ha!
I feel like I am at a star shaped portal.
this is such a good good conversation. Thank you, Jude. Thank you everyone. I will continue to think about it all…..
so much to consider…
Hi Jude. Such great questions you pose. I appreciate some of the more raw revelations you make about it all. People’s comments here are just wonderful and a real indication of the value you offer this community (regardless of what others are doing).
Having said that, I can relate to the discomfort you express about the online world, how overrun it’s become, how systematically toxic, how vulnerable to AI incursions and U-turns. It’s discomforting too that to avail ourselves of places like Instagram, we have to support the billionaires who are at least partially responsible for the “enshitification” of the internet.
I often wonder what it would feel like to just — walk away. I hear that in your words today too.
As far as you making more personal revelations or admissions and observations, I’m here for it. I’ve always admired how much emotion and process you’ve managed to share WITHOUT making more personal admissions, but even so, I love the vulnerable Jude. Because I’m vulnerable. We’re all vulnerable.
Yes, Dee, Enshitification might have been the title of my next post. Was just talking to my son about that. The strategy of creating useful tools that make us all complicit in this awful get rich-er scheme for those in control. We all talk about it but few of us walk away. It’s hard to look at it that way.
I plan to expose the more vulnerable me I think, there is newness in that if it’s real. I’ll need a password on this site I think. Who knows who is reading anymore. Can we escape?
It is really snowing right now. the newness has expired. 😂
Hi Jude,
I’m 76 and noticed about a year ago that I was getting bored with my art practice. I’ve also played the piano since childhood and was feeling bored with that, and that my best days as a pianist were behind. I was beginning to accept that this just how we feel at our age. Quite by accident I came across an orchestral harp about 6 months ago and loved the sound. So now I’m studying the harp as a beginner. Frustrating, but also delightful to be trying something new and getting better at it. Sometimes starting a new pursuit can be stimulating and exciting, even when we’re too old to start something new. I’m still doing the old things, but the call of the harp is what excites me each day.
Yes, the challenge is invigorating…looking for that again, to be in learning mode.
Jude ., keep looking a new path will reveal itself . That being said ,it is a great personal joy to me to have you here ! I love that you are so great as a teacher but also great as a human and sharing the ups and downs makes us all closer and keeps us all connected . Lord knows the world could certainly use more human connection !!
No kidding, everything seems so engineered toward “success”, let’s keep it real.
Interesting to hear your thoughts around newness. I think what separates what you share online from others doing similar things is your deep thought process and your lexicon of symbols, and, that you share those. To me, this makes your work far more interesting than much of what saturates the web. I often think about this a bit myself as there sure are a ton of artists working in watercolor, but I recognize that I have a private mythology that informs my work, and I hope that infuses the paintings somehow, and makes it a bit different from traditional watercolors. Well, I know that I don’t work in the same way as traditional watercolorists, so that is clearly different. Years ago, I reached a point where I became really bored with my work, and started playing, experimenting, and exploring different watercolor processes for an extended period of time. Suddenly, I felt inspired again, because the process of making the work challenged me and it seemed like there was a lot more possibility and surprise. I also changed my subject a bit from high ridge tops with distant trees, to being in the deep forest. That was crucial as there was literally much more detail to work with. So I wonder if it’s less about what you’re offering online and more about what you need from the process of making? Like, YOU need newness, and something in how you make your work needs to shift? I mean, do you still enjoy the process or are you finding yourself bored? In my experience, these moments of boredom, where I’m dissatisfied and wondering what the hell I’m doing, often end up being a threshold to a whole, new vision opening up, and I’m hooked and inspired again. When I made the big shift from ridge tops to deep forest, two things happened that were important in the process. The first was that my mother died, and the almost color-field paintings I was doing, with abstracted indications of distant trees weren’t emotional enough for me, and I felt I needed deep, dark, and mysterious. Secondly, I was struck by the work of an artist I came upon whose work played a lot with extreme bleeding and experimentation just in the way I was playing with, and his work gave me a vision of where I wanted to go in my work. Anyway, some thoughts… now, off to bring in wood and chop kindling as we’re back to winter.
Love this response!
😊 🧡
😊
Well said !!!!
🙂
Yes, exactly. Sometime we forget that we do this for ourselves first, and I do need newness. And sometimes it is hard to get out of oldness. Not the age kind but that is there too. Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts. I did a big kindling thing yesterday.
Yes, I remember a professor in graduate school who often reminded us that if other people are in the studio with us (in our minds), we needed to banish them – no critics, no supporters, and no friends. It was good advice, for sure.
I’ve alot of ideas running around my head right now after listening to your audio clip. The most top of mind is that you’re you. No one else talks like you, you have a unique aesthetic, no one else creates posts like this, obvious but I had to say it. Another thing I was thinking is that you have a wider audience, so anything you have said before probably is worth repeating, I know as a newer follower I’ve learned so much from you. But I think what really resonates with me is the need for excitement in work and reinventing and wondering what I am doing (almost every day) is really difficult to deal with, and just hearing you articulate that feeling is valuable to me. I think you are a great teacher and I hope you continue to share what you know because it has definitely changed my life for the better and I wish I had only started doing my work sooner. I know your purpose or what excites you will eventually reveal itself to you, at least that is what I’m hoping for myself. Keep us in the loop with this dialog, its very important.
It’s become more important for me to express some of the downsides of how it’s going because, as we all know, it’s not all rosy, right? The holes we fall in are places to consider.
Perfect !! lots of love……
❤️
You have to do what brings you joy! I love what you have done and it gives me ideas and takes me on adventures. Please make yourself happy and excited to be doing again. 💕
That is the key. The joy.
i think those greenishnesses are grand. you’ve done relaly good work here, you know. new and more than relevant, thought provoking, barrier smashing even. i lkie that.
Hey you…
You feel how you feel, and I feel very differently about you and your role in this community. You are still roots, branches, and fruit to me. I am always grateful to you for the spirit of going, whatever shape that takes.. Love to you.
It’s snowing here in Seattle today.
I am not a confident person, although most folks might not know that, why not share those moments I said to myself. Cracks in self image have come along with new wrinkles…
I totally get it and appreciate you sharing it.♥️
Me too!❤️
Yes, winter has returned here in Michigan too, I t does bring a feeling of looking inward to me too, at the same time, worrying for the future. It makes me sad to read your feelings about your work seeming so much like the others who have jumped on the bandwagon, calling their work “slow-stitch”. You should know that the ones I have seen are not a bit like yours, which I always find exciting, and what you share about your new life in your round house in the woods. You are the original, and your work always brings new ways of doing. Your older work is always interesting to see and study, but your new is always original. You have so much yet to share, and I’m here to see where it leads……(Hugs) Anita.
Thanks for such reassuring words. The path will open up I am sure, a passage to a more comfortable zone.
Jude~ The greens of the Secret Garden are so soothing. Funny how I look for and appreciate soothing more and more.
If your online life-work stays…yes that will be great for there will always be newcomers who “just discover” you along the way.
Reviewing and reworking and trapped in the past, I can understand how this is not that helpful. I’ve been letting go of the last bits of my teaching self. Not sure who I am now, but I am not that ECE professional at the moment.
I think a lot of us feel not relevant these days. haha
May you move forward with ease. xo
There is a seriously negative environment isn’t there? I’m usually good at getting through it. This little greening piece has me reconsidering a secret garden approach to the grow quilt.
PS Or their will always be “old-comers” who are spiraling around and seeing things with new eyes.
ha, old-comers… love that.
She’s lovely … a “woman of substance,”
I like the greening 🌱
Maybe she’s blooming?
Your Secret Garden Cabin draws me in, much like a sun-dappled shade Garden does. Beautiful, peaceful, full of promises…
I’m resting there.
I’m there with you.