hexies on my mind

sometimes you just want your hexie papers to be as pretty as the fabrics you are stitching with them...

namasté

kantha commencement

here you can see the slightly different coloring of the jean piece that i have slipped inside the frazzled cuff. i started working the kantha stitches in a hand-dyed indigo cotton thread, but it just disappeared into the denim and hated to waste the thread for something that wouldn't be visible. so i started over in some heavy vintage cotton thread instead. i'm really liking this so far. 


i thought about changing direction with the stitching and creating a pattern, but decided i'd rather keep this one simple. besides, i want to add some more boro patches to it as well and don't want it to start looking too messy. most likely won't be a "plain" boro patch either... i'm thinking skull shaped or something else different and unexpected at the ankle in more contrasting denim on one leg. perhaps a bone or something else on the other? or a simple geometric?


i'm off to a good start. slow going since denim is so thick...and two layers of denim thicker still...but going nonetheless! i could kiss whomever invented thimbles!


namaste'

persevering gently...

"go on working

freely and furiously

and you will

make progress."

-paul gauguin

last week i slashed three of my finger tips with a sharp knife at work. it is amazing how many nerve endings reside in such small spaces! it also boggles the mind how much we use these small spaces in nearly everything we do...

i'm only just today getting back to thread chanting and cloth making. the first to make her whispers heard was this odd little plumed owl-creature, llorona. a secret keeper. like some, my secrets haunt me. so i whisper them to llorona to ease my burden. many whisper their secrets upon the winds for llorona to hear. to keep. her wings are burdened with so many secrets. so many sorrows. she can no longer fly from the weight of them. but she continues to listen. to keep. to dream...

there is still much work to be done on llorona, but she wanted to put in an appearance to help me not think about the snow that is falling outside...

namaste'

through the background of night

long days spent working with dementia patients. quietly dark nights filled with the silences made by an empty house. it is the needle chanting that keeps me going. the occasional snort of the saint asleep at my feet. the purr of the dreaming cat in my lap. the soft crackle of the logs burning in the hearth. the silent voices of cloth and thread whispering through the background of night.


namaste'

thread chanting

in keeping with being gentle, i've been quietly thread chanting this little peacock based on a vintage pattern found in an old sewing box. most of it is kantha stitch, though they did not call it such. my mind has been wandering around other designs and images that could translate nicely into kantha stitch. perhaps this will be a new direction for quiet moments when my fingers are not in the mood to be needle chanting 4,320 inch and a half squares into a bed cloth...

namaste'

a quiet morning musing...

i still can't seem to shake this fog that overhangs everything i do. there seems to be a ray or two of sunlight valiantly aspiring to pierce the haze. the gentle warmth is greatly appreciated as i turn my chilled creative cheek into its glow. in an attempt to nurture this gift, i delved into my scrap basket and gathered a small offering of sleeves, pockets and other bits, then began to cut little 1 1/2 inch squares from them.

my idea is to begin a little mindful needle chanting. nothing grand. tiny squares, chanted into something more. the intention is much like sitting (in a buddhist sense) and simply allowing what it will become to unfold. being human and therefore possessing of selfness, there is a quiet attachment lurking that it will, one day, manifest itself as a bed cloth. but i can't think that far into the future. i shall only choose two squares and begin needling them together...

yes. yes. i know this will appear to be "yet another project." and when i have so many others already left unfinished. but there are times, and this is most certainly one of them, when the creative mind simply will not come to heel. in those moments, it is difficult to concentrate. focus. create. my intention here is to find something ultimately creative, that requires no creative thought in the moment, to distract the mind from the lingering ennui and, hopefully, shake loose the imprisoned creativity languishing in the bottom of some dark place.

in the meantime, i have one more photo of my other needling to share with you...

this photo is not as clear as previous ones, but shows the coloring of the blue fu lion. my skin was still a little tender, so we did not work on the background much this time around. i think this one will rest and heal for at least a month this time before we continue...

but now, some mindful needle chanting for an hour or two before i head into town for a bit...

namaste'

unbearable ennui

"ennui is the echo in us

of time tearing itself apart."

-emile m. cioran

perhaps it is the onset of the holiday season. a season that has not been a favorite these past several years. can i be so shallow as to lose interest in the holidays simply because i am alone? is it because my family lives so far away? or because i still live in the same house, the same town, that holds so many broken dreams and the sad memories of yet another failed romance? because the holidays are filled with families celebrating life together? because they are filled with loved ones displaying affection? and yet, i know these things are all aspects that will rise and fall away. change. have nothing to do with my inner sense of peace. and yet, this blanket of ennui wraps tightly about my heart and soul. dulls colors and cheer.

a little thread chanting is in order...and my grand start on the dia de los muertos cloth has been neglected of late.

namaste'