Noticing markings. On fabric, on walls. Patterns and textures. Patterns of behavior and thoughts that give texture to the hours of these days. A week of images to upload. For tracking. Noticing. Clarification. And noting still the amorphous images that have my attention during these middle days of January. Noticing movement. Inside and out. Movement, yes, and also a certain lightness. Visible on the morning horizon. Palpable with each precious breath.
So…still tracking shadows
and noticing this. A turnip from last year’s garden…
and this cloth–paralleling somehow the turnip. A coming out of the hallowed space of winter, into the light again, 
Finishing stitches on a piece started when I don’t recall
And yes, I ironed. Ironed what I feel are priceless vegetable dyed scraps so small that some would not hold 7 beans. Two perhaps. But they’re magical to me. Their markings. Patterns formed randomly– unreplicatable. And then layered around a found object. A sample of fine stitching so different from my own,
Finally, because I do have commercial fabric that never makes it to my cloth, and because I really am geared, in a certain way, towards function–but really because I was gifted a Bernette (sp) that needed to be tried out–these have started to emerge…another use for cloth. Use full.
For Holding:
following thread 
I just love your baskets, I seem to remember you put these together on the sewing machine. Can you do this on any old machine, I can’t get a cording foot for mine, any suggestions?
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Hi Debbie. Well, actually I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a cording foot. I just stuff the cord under the regular zipper foot and have at it. Not crazy about the way machine stitching looks though–and considering assembling these by hand–still I wanted to see how the new machine worked and it was a good excuse to force myself to read the directions for the machine. Something I almost never do. Still have to say I love my 30 year old Singer. Glad you like the baskets!
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What amazing baskets Patricia and what a superb way to use those wild, colorful commercial cloths that to me, seem to jolt the senses. Used in this way, coiled, the colors meld and flow..
Your cloth, with the ironed bits of your beautiful subtle dyed pieces against the center of the found piece has all the colors that speak to me and what I get from this cloth is a sense of overlapped centering. This is hard to explain, but what I mean is that each piece, connects to thoughts of coming together, of the beginning of balance, of that long exhale that says, at last, now begins….
I iron all of my dyed cloths because to me, it brings out further the markings but also there is the added bonus of that unique smell that comes from the communion of cloth, foraged treasures, wrapped tightly together, blessed by the sun( I rarely put my bundles to steam or on heat other than the sun.) Using my iron , the sensation is one of creating cloth potpourri!
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“overlapped centering”–i do think i understand that idea. how everything and all things constantly move towards wholeness, integration, oneness even. and these many little pieces seemed to welcome each other immediately–with a certain acceptance and recognition.
and yes–the smell of organic. ah, that was an extra perk when ironing these little pieces, these little treasures that i hold close and value over almost all others. except Hope of course!
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good to see all your making in the light of the new space
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yes, this new space has opened up certain things. provides room. not just physic al but another kind as well. it’s clear and open and i’m grateful–so grateful. at first i wondered where my one spot would be. i thought in terms of one spot because before, that was all i had. one little crowded spot. but i’m finding that there are many here. i can choose and that is such an indulgence of sorts. maybe my mind set has just shifted. maybe all along i had more choices but boxed myself in. well, so be it–times and places and needs and thoughts have changed. and so it goes….
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I echo Marti in loving your dyed cloths … the one in the middle reads like pteroglyphs, a wonderful meld of recognizable and cryptic signs … the found turnip is unexpected whimsy … and the synergy of the found needlework with the dyed scraps speaks to the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.
Wonderful inspiration to start my day … thank you!
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thank you Liz–and yes, of everything from yesterday, i think i love the turnip absolutely the MOST. and so you know, really appreciate the rust tutorial you’re providing us!
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These are absolutely beautiful – your for holding art. Are they are sale?????
We still on for Friday about noon? Any thing we can bring?
love, ee
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your fine selves. just bring your fine selves.
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had to look up bernette…the baskets….what a great idea for that cloth! could you make
rugs that way too?
all three of Your cloths…YES, and then the found piece…looking close up, i love the
border stitching, the looseness of it…love that VERY much and wonder how it’s achieved
Happy for a Post here!!!!!!!
Love,
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yes, i could have explained. bernette is the baby bernina which apparently is the cadillac of sewing machines. i wouldn’t know though. learned on a singer treadle and have had several over the many years. bernette is German. the instructions are funny. they say “push” when they mean “pull” so i find myself just looking at the pictures and trying to cipher. but zigzag and straight stitch are all i need so now that the bobbin filling and threading is figured out, i’m good to go. and i will say this about bernette–she hums. a sound like butter. my singer sounds like a freight train even though i periodically oil every moving part. but i love its sound–understand it. this is good.
i think it would be very simple to make a rug using this technique. the bowl happens when the base is raised perpendicular to the surface. maybe i’ll take pictures of the process and you will see better how it could be. and if i remember correctly, you have an old hand crank beauty? so zig zag would be a matter of shifting the cloth with each stitch i think. trying to visualize this.
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“A sound like butter” … oh, I so love this!!!
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The turnip and the cloth definitely echo each other…how beautiful. And the deer in the flaming forest….and the baskets….it looks like you have emerged from the moving and illness cocoon and are now spreading your wings. Yay!
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hi Dana! yes–lots of movement. the interesting thing is noticing the very little bit of resistance as i move towards these basket holding vessels. i think perhaps it’s the age old tension between the dreamer and the pragmatist.
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I own two very old berninas and live them to death. I would call them mercedes rather than cadillacs (and ines that use diesel fuel!) because of a certain boxiness that i associate with utility rather than luxury. Anyway your cloths with the dyed fibers are truly lovely and i can see why thw commercial prints dont get incorporated. So thw baskets are a wonderful way to use up that cloth. (Leaving typos. Sorry. On my phone).
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LOVE them. That typo felt important to correct altho i like the meaning of “living them”.
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