the day of the elder coat

so i've reimagined my elder cloth, or at least a portion of it, as an elder coat.  

it's been so easy.  which makes me feel i'm on the right track.  i had taken the old quilt top and backed it with muslin with the idea of it being the middle part of the elder cloth.  but it was a great rectangle, and it seemed perfectly formed for cutting an opening and a neck.  and then i added some elderberry-dyed patches to reinforce the shoulders, and then a binding around the neck.  and the cross-stitch i put on the inside, so that it doesn't take over the design, but still it's there for us.  

jude's boro 2 class is quite amazing for inspiration of this sort and in general.  and helping me to think through how i want to dress and why.  this coat is so very jude as someone said, but i'll take that as a big YES and figure it can be me, too.  i can feel elderberry in it so fully, and i'll treasure it regardless of whether it's altogether representative of my style.  maybe it's my emerging style, or maybe it's just a mule-coat, my heirloom.

it's not even close to done yet.  lots of patching and mending left to do with the old cloth and basic stitching to hold everything down.  but i can already wear it, which is oh so satisfying.  and the ideas are flowing.  i think next i'll bundle dye with some rusty old horseshoes, then look at embroidering some sort of a mane and maybe a tail down the back.  and her brand of course.  and lots of other symbols and bits of memories in all the patches. 

and another thing

So while I was at the Carolina FiberFest, I spent some time with Carol Leigh Brack-Kaiser.  I first met her last year at SAFF and saw her demo the continuous strand weaving method.  I've been noodling on it ever since, trying hard to resist weaving, as yet another thing to be obsessed with ... but on seeing her again and having the same extreme MUST sort of response, I splurged on a travel-size triangle loom.  Carol Leigh and her husband Denny were so generous with their time and knowledge.  Here is the result of my first weaving, all with handspun I had lying around...  I was so surprised how little yarn it took and how quickly it worked up.  

**Narcissa among the hydrangeas.

In some ways it seems random to get into weaving right now, but also inevitable.  And it is fitting in so well with some of the issues raised in Jude's Boro 2 class on clothing construction.  To actually make cloth and with my own handspun in this new way, it feels like it's filling some huge gap in my fibery repertoire and understanding...

elder stitching on a rainy day

did some magic diarying this morning.  finally did some work on my elder cloth.  even with the wonderful distractions from nancy's destash - all those studio mags!!  i'm back to a version of the original design, but with the dyed woven wool blanket on each side and the small quilt that i'm thinking of as a saddle blanket in the center.  since the small quilt has been deconstructed, i think i'm saving it's precious tattered interior for another project and using the stronger part that i had originally planned for this cloth.  that meant re-backing the existing piecing it with the invisible baste on muslin.  and also adding a beautifully dyed fabric from arlee.

i've a long way to go yet with mending, connecting and embellishing, and there are lots of elements of confusion to me right now.  how to join the thick woven cloths with the cotton center and getting the weights just right.  how to back the center without backing the sides.  how to bind the whole thing.  what sort of stitch design i want.  but it feels just right, like it's the journey i'm needing and meant to take... one about family and elders and piecing together our stories somehow around and through elderberry, who i thought of with most every stitch.  funny that i still haven't taken scissors to cloth to make this quilt, unless you count cutting threads.

in the spirit of jude's boro 2 class, i give you this much-loved apron..

she needs some care and i'll give it. she tears a bit more with each wearing. i'm embracing what i use (although i would prefer to always be dressed as ms. havisham) (although perhaps using and mending could eventually produce the same result!) i've been longing to work more with clothing and recently made an alabama chanin dress that turned out wonderfully well (her patterns are brilliant)... martha beck, in her book "Finding Your Way in a Wild New World" (first spied in India's book stack), refers to those of us searching for new/old ways as "menders" or "wayfinders." i'm trying to hold this idea gently as i find it so powerful and comforting... and clothing myself in it is just the way.

Cindy:s Core

I feel so lucky to have Cindy:s Core sitting here next to me as I stitch. This piece of Cindy:s is going to be featured at the upcoming show at the Hotel Hadley Studios, see the flyer below.

I couldn:t resist photographing Core to show it off here, and for when I have to send it back.. all this heart-full and intricate art work done by our Cindy of Handstories...

i left my home in georgia

i think the new home studio is going to be productive.
i did more work yesterday than i have in ages.

this is a hard piece for me, my old homeplace.
i could hardly bear to leave it.
i still can't think about it without hurting.
so i'm stitching it.
and the cloth takes it, and holds it and keeps it.

this is just the beginning, and with bits of cloth from cindy and nancy.

ps...i'm going to new hampshire in august to study with india!

cottoning

this is a small piece i've been thinking on for a while. i'm playing around with scraps right now and may start stitching this weekend. this isn't how i expected this creature to go... but as i was playing, i realized i've become a little freer, a little more adventurous with my piecing. and i thought i was just listening to jude and nothing was taking hold... but when i was working i could feel her influence, giving me permission to cut a little here, try a little something ... so good to be shifting and working differently! thank you, jude in my head!

i've been drawn to old cotton batting pulled from quilt scraps as applique.. i think these pieces are flattened enough that they'll be secure after they are stitched. i've also been carding them into fiber and spinning them. those bits are just so soft and comforting, and they haven't seen the light in such a long time.

i've been thinking a lot about the difference - if there is one - between being an artist and an artisan. i have called myself a fiber artist for the last while, and that was partly aspirational. i also love everything conjured by the word artisan. i just don't like the sound of 'fiber artisan' and i never hear it used. i'm wondering too if maybe these terms have different meanings or inflections when it comes to fiber work. i think a friend told me that artisan in french has a different connotation, something like 'worker' - you-hoo - did i remember that right?

i'm also inspired by the recuperation of the word "craft" but i tend not to use it, especially locally, since i think it can still play into those old boundaries between art & craft... some people still take it as "just" craft. i applied for an "emerging artists" grant yesterday and i had to check the "craft" category. they had painting, sculpture, photography, dance, some other categories... and craft. strange that they lumped all fiber work into that. i'm still vaguely annoyed by it. i think that since they were describing everything in terms of medium, it should have been "fiber" or "textile".

the more i think about all this, the more ambivalent i feel about calling myself an artist... because i'm fine with doing work just because i like it, or because i want to. it doesn't have to Mean. although sometimes it does. it is important to me to be good at what i do though, to be or become technically proficient at it. so what does that make me?

embroiderbear for sasha

i'm really happy with how this guy turned out. i hope the recipient loves him too. i wanted him to look a bit like a balancing circus bear or carnival bear... but still somewhat realistic and wild. he's on a vintage embroidered runner, and his body is an applique of part of an old quilt that someone else cut up (i can never classify an old quilt as a 'cutter'! i have a hard enough time even cutting the scraps.) so he's an applique' of patchwork. i guess i'm leading up to making a patchwork beast, where the patches and seams define the boundaries of the animal... i love that idea, but one step at a time.