Catching thoughts with Focus
Catching Loose thoughts
So a video. ( link to YouTube version here) Probably I can say that I could spend a lot of my time doing this, handling scrap. I kind of just got lost in it here, so much so that the video is not a good video, focus is not good, but hey, that's what happens when your focus is somewhere else. It's also maybe a little too long, although I might have gone on for what might seem like forever. I did not do what I usually do, that is, focus on the video and presort to make the presentation shorter. Maybe, usually, I would show fabrics I had been more sure would work. But this is really more like the first step. And the truth is, a lot of video needs to be remade and that takes so much time but worse, even, is that re-doing and editing just takes the realness out of the moment. Polishes it and gives the impression that everything always just works out perfectly. NOT. Maybe, I was thinking, maybe I put a lot of time into making it seem like that, without realizing.
Anyway, I pulled a few more and ended up with a tangle of greenish-ness. More of a Loose Palette. A sense of green. Maybe some seem green just because I was using green as a mind filter. If I did it again, it might not be the same. choices.
Color can sometimes just be the embodiment of Mood.
Catching thoughts by looking
They look different like this, don't they? And I just take a bit of time for gazing these days, in between gone and going... Just Being is so related to Just Looking. I'm loving this part more and more. Having no agenda.
catching Thoughts by remembering
So a story has begun. It begins, or has begun, in May, which rhymes with Stray, in a tangle of green, while competing with leaf blowers. And it just so happens that while thinking of a tangle of green, I remembered this. Which takes me back to the original beast in my work. The lion. I used actual words on this one. Which did not start with green but ended up with green. And it was July. " I went out to the garden and became tangled up in green."
I love the video of you “searching for green” and talking to us and yourself. As I run my hands through my own basket of fabric, I’m untangling pieces of cloth and thoughts as well. A Bob Dylan song has been running through my head…”we always did feel the same…we just saw it from a different point of view”…so I’m searching for blues not greens.
I love Bob Dylan, that song, and that green led you to blue, and that you told me that.
I loved the video, not too long at all. I love how every piece is remembered with a story and how you know every kind of fabric. When you mentioned that one was flannel, I was amazed because you couldn’t tell that on the video, on the screen. xo
sometimes you just have to feel it.
Hi Jude and rag-mates, please could I ask about hand sewing needles, I’ve been testing some of my fabrics, with thread, but find the needle too short, but it is classed as a fine hand sewing one. Any advice greatly received xx Thank you.
I use embroidery needles. They have longer eyes. Purchase a pack of assorted sizes. And try to find one that works for you. Depending on what kind of cloth you use, what thickness thread you want to work with, what kind of stitch you take, and how many layers there are…. you might change the needle to suit your needs. It’s good to listen to your needs and have some choices.
Thank you xx
the green wall is just as it should be
a living entity, almost
and I would like to add, having listened to your talks several times now, how much I recognize this issue of starting off in one place and ending up somewhere else; I used to think there must be something wrong with me, for I perceived others to be far more organized
that turned out to be an illusion
so thank you for sharing your thoughts
It’s important to share what’s real, how else will we be able to go forward? Or learn. I’m here to say it the way it really is because i saw it might have seemed otherwise. . It’s a tangle, but it is not useless.
I was really moved as you went through your fabrics and recalled their place in your life. Loved the pace of your video and you sharing your thoughts. I greatly appreciate your relaxed pace of this series. Happy green!
maybe i appreciate the pace as well…
The video was perfect Jude…not long at all. I relished in the lack of ‘polish.’ I found myself digging through those scraps virtually along side you. Catching thoughts…oh, maybe this will work! Hmmm. A bit yellow, but why not? Too much of our world is curated and polished–reality is very different. Or my reality at least. I find comfort in knowing there is something before the ‘polish’ in your process that more closely matches my reality.
that’s where we all really are…
Thinking a lot about being present in the moment…a lot of this is about that for me.
yes it is, i am haunted suddenly by some foolish forgetfulness about that.
i have looked and looked at the enlarged pic, how each scrap can stand alone as a work of art…then when placed
together become a different kind of BeautyFull. The pleasure is endless.
i am wondering if they have already become connected.
All of this 💚💚💚
Your video had me smiling in happiness….I’ll be re-watching it, just for the joy it brings….maybe I’ll watch it while also plunging my hands into my precious scraps.
the angle made the basket seem so deep, as I watched it seemed i was reaching deep into the earth.
So nice to have you here. how you just appeared…
That was all so enjoyable…Your video audio production has gotten better and better.
you thinks so? I feel slower but i am enjoying talking more.
I think I’ll take some (more) time out, just for me, to wander thru the green garden to the studio…to dig thru some scraps, to find stories in cloth…which always leads to another idea…which leads to more excavating of little woven dreams. Thank you for the inspiration, Jude!
i’m still looking.
The video is just right as is. Listening to your thoughts has clarified something for me today, that what I’m wanting these days is to make my life smaller so that there’s more room for my self. Thank you for that.
yes, i enjoyed listening to myself again this morning. as if i wasn’t me but maybe a good friend.
When I think “green jude” I think of the tree house piece. One of my favorites. My last name is from the root for the adjective form of green, greenish, naive or sickly according to the dictionary!!! Serendipity do dah!
the tree house quilt. ah yes, so much green. maybe i’ll revisit that today, she was a fine cloth.
names are so filled with story, loved that.
Wow, I was so moved by your recording about why we do the things we do & doing things just for ourselves & really for no other reason than that we love doing it. After many, many years of doing for others, making ends meet, being reliable & responsible etc, it’s taken me a good 4 years of retirement to accept that it’s okay for me to do just be still and work on making stuff just because it makes me happy and is so much part of who I genuinely am. I realize it is a huge luxury that so many never get to enjoy, so I am daily grateful. It’s worth downsizing to be able to not have to sell or “hustle” what I make. So, thank you, Jude, for reaffirming that for me.
i think these things we might do just for us might seem so small we don’t notice, but they are there in some form, waiting to sing out.
wow moved over here too
those thoughts on doing stuff for ourselves resonated deeply
I don’t know if it’s menopauze or whatever (female hysteria, haha only joking) but I am in a phase where I seem to care less and less about what I should be doing….don’t even know whose criteria I am referring to here, but you get my drift…..
however, am drifting towards doing more and more what I WANT TO DO
and that that is ENOUGH
xxx
I can agree with that … doing what you want to do and not what someone else thinks you should be doing. No pressure, just pleasure.
I could watch and listen to you digging through scrap baskets for a long time…
i second that Dakota,my daughter wants to know if you do mediation tapes jude x
if i do, these are it. if you love deeply, sharing it might be that…
ha, be careful what you wish for…
Meditation tapes…haha…she might be onto something! Every time I’ve had one of your videos playing when my husband was in the room he has always said “I really love that woman’s voice.” 😀
I have several bags of scraps, but my favorite group is in a basket labeled “fabrics Jude would love”. As you would guess, these are thin, often old, woven delights. Linen, cotton, silk. Oh how I love to fondle them.
oh ha, there’s a basket out there with my name on it!
There is a special box of fabrics with your name here as well!
My take away…notice what you notice when just being!
Here: “being” w/lovely scraps of fabric!
Don’t try “to do” anything.
Some 25 years ago I bought several bags of silk scraps from a friend who did beautiful colored shibori. While sick this past march I decided to iron them out as preparation for this class. It was like visiting old friends, delightful. Still, I will want to color fabric of my own, as play and experimentation.
I regret giving away so much of my scraps. But not to worry, heh, I have plenty left. I worry that they are not suitable. I worry they are not the right kind or color. I am worrying too much. It will pass.
Ha Today came and I regret nothing. Today I am filled with ideas of things I want to make and do. So I am off to begin. Some cloth some ink. I am cracked open.
The “greens” look like the finds from an archeological dig on display!
Love that wall of beautiful bits!
Mine is full of blues and beiges at the moment, and I like just looking at it too!
my first thought….Jude has a green polka dot print??? hehehehe
I was doing this sorting business yesterday. A have two paper grocery bags of cut off and bits. Now, I get to go back and look for green. Whenever I am lost-I find myself in the scraps. Love the bits pinned to a wall. That would be amazing in a gallery setting.
probably it suit me, just scraps on the wall.