first steps and snow-covered neighbors

a flurry of snowflakes has been falling on the neighbors in the pasture next door...

and not unlike this poor soul, a flurry of ideas have been swirling around in my head.  i've spent the better part of the day today wandering around with a lost look upon my face, digging about in my studio, scribbling down ideas on whatever scraps of paper that came to hand, fretting over the general state of my fabric collection...

oh my wurd!  that fabric collection....

let's just say that i am first and foremost a "collector".  sad, but true.  cricket cages, chairs, buddhas, stoneware, lacemaking bobbins, vintage stitcheries, fabrics of every type and description, threads of any size, color, age and dimension, boxes (oh, do i LOVE boxes!), ithyphallic art of indigenous peoples, beads, malas, antique ivory coast masks, looms, spinning wheels, treen, antique tree ornaments, dias de las muertos paraphernalia, handwoven rugs, baskets, bats....and the list goes on!  it's a sickness, i know...but one that knows no cure...happily, at any rate!

but my mind is leading my fingers down bunny trails...so back to the topic at hand...the chaos that is rampaging through my head...the ideas that are flinging themselves too quickly against the fabric of my reality.  until i reorganize my gargantuan stash of fabrics (modern, vintage and repurposed), i must start with something simple.

liking the long cloth format that Jude has been working in so much lately, and needing to start somewhere, i've dug into the top layer or two of quilting fabrics (for the blues), and a few recycled ones (for the whites: an old jacquard napkin, some yardage from an old curtain, and an interesting bit with a little color that came from who knows where).  start with the long cloth format....a snowy foreground receding into a wintery night sky...

there's a lot of texture going on in the snow... i decided it needed some motion, too, so slanted and overlapped the torn strips and then basted them down onto a cotton strip about 12 inches wide and 17 inches long.  there are a lot of stray thread clusters (some a result of laundering, others from the nature of the weave when torn) that i look forward to playing with as i begin stitching these together.

my creative muse began screaming that this is too near to what i've been digesting from so many wondrous blogs over the past few days (many of which can already be found linked in the side bar, more to follow soon).  perhaps...but one must start somewhere!  where i go from here with this cloth will set it apart, however.  at least, considering that there truly are no "original" ideas anymore, i can't think of ever seeing anything quite like what i am proposing to do with it.  i know...you are now wondering what it is that i'm conceiving...and you may think me cruel or mischievous for refraining to share these thoughts at this time...but i think it's not ready yet to say "hello"...

it's getting late here now...nearly 1:00 a.m.  the snow has stopped.  the saint is asleep at my feet, dreaming of rawhide chews and kitty kibble treats (not from me...the cat finds it terribly amusing to plink a single bit of kibble onto the floor for the the saint to devour...though how she can even taste such a teensy little morsel on her gigantic tongue is beyond me) and i think i'm going to stoke the fire, retire to my rocker and do some stitching on this long cloth for a while before heading off to bed.

perhaps tomorrow the dreams this little cloth is entertaining will coalesce and present themselves for your inspeciton....

namaste'