waiting for the man standing in the snow...

the holidays have been creeping around the corners of my awareness. these years past they have been a time of great sorrow and heartfelt pain. so, usually, like a sleeping lion, i allow them to sleep whenever possible. but, for some reason, they will not sleep this year. little piles of old cloth would congregate. and whisper. the din grew so great that i simply had to begin needle chanting them into existence. and so, this small cloth has begun manifesting beneath my busy fingers. there are miles to go before he has whispered his story into my ears. but he seems content with this start. a beard. a 'stache. a nose and crinkly eyes i think are next. perhaps a potted tree in his mittened hands will follow. from there, it would be any body's guess what he will require of me!

meanwhile...

i managed to pull out the "better camera" for those of you requesting more detailed pictures of the tiny nine patches that have been manifesting during my daily needle chanting sessions to clear my mind and kick start my creative energy.  it has been a struggle, attempting to stitch so large! 24+ stitches to the inch is just ginormous when compared to what i'm used to hand stitching lo these many years ago of miniature bearmaking and heirloom sewing. there are a host of inner muses screeching at me for allowing...no, intending...the stitches to show. for choosing variegated threads to heighten the effect. to not-so-blind stitch the seams, allowing the little dots to blatantly reside along either side of them. for allowing one of jude hill's magic fringes to grace the edge of one of the tiny squares. you'd almost swear the muses were harpies indeed! but i have stopped my ears with cotton wool to their cries and continued on... i am quite enjoying the added texture and visual interest created thereby! a little math scratched on a scrap of paper has informed me that i will need 480 of these little nine patches to create the queen sized bedcloth they aspire to be. which turns out to be 4,320 little squares of recycled and repurposed cloth! best not to think of it these terms, joe, lest you become quite overwhelmed and abandon all hope!

namaste'

squares here and there...

"a round man cannot

be expected to fit in

a square hole

right away.

he must have time

to modify his shape."

- mark twaine

busy week here in montana. classes. tests. needle chanting. square making. nine patching. snow removal. unexpected shifts. i did, however, manage to needle a couple nine patches together using some of my repurposed bits of cloth from old clothing. i blame jude hill for my technique on this project! using her modified english piecing method...and even tossing in some magic fringe on one of the squares by reversing half of the seam so the torn edge can reside whimsically on the face of the patch. i am also using her added technique of blind stitching down the opened seam allowances to add more texture and dimension to the cloth. unfortunately, this particular photo is not clear enough to see the tiny little row of dots this leaves behind. these little squares are finishing at 1 1/2 inches, and everything is being hand stitched, so this is not a project that will progress swiftly (my attachment is that this manifest into a queen sized quilt at some point)! but it has been immensely calming to be able to sit and mindlessly (more or less) needle chant these little bits together...

namaste'