remembering a friend

 two circles for WAS: WAS

in your new garden home may there be many more

soundless sunday

a touch of summer in the air so i though i'd stitch up a little piece to reflect that (this is still a WIP) but with the warm weather i thought my cloth needed to show a little bit of a green petticoat as well:

Now
catching up on a few fascicles that i have completed...

The first set is fascicle 3

 Back Cover (left) contains the daily journal log that i keep: weather, words, and the table of contents.  Front Covers (right) are the days worked.

The second set is fascicle 4 (I think my favorite to date)

 This one took a while to complete but it was the one that i think i lingered over because i liked watching the stitches form.

 I placed a few beads on this following.  My sister sent them to me to try to work with and since I had never used beads before this was an experiment.  I can see them being used but it would have to have intention and purpose to make them work, i think.  Still - it was an interesting thought.

I'm still playing with the negative versus positive page lay-outs and on fascicle five I tried doing that as full page spreads, so the cover is the negative and the center-fold is the positive.

Now I'm awaiting the coming bounty of green fresh oak leaves...over night as by magic.

We've had almost 5 days now in and around 80.  To be honest too warm too soon.  The garden NEEDS attention and probably go straight to sowing beans and forget the peas! No spinach either but I grow sorrel so that makes up for the spinach.  I've got a few tulips and daffodils open and the forsythia as well is in color.
Hope your gardens are growing and stitches flowing.

few words for wednesday

The Ides are almost here:

Ides of March cloth

I promised myself that my Ideas of March would be done by the 15th and so it is.

Details of the cloth:

center detail

center leaf detail

Most of the stitching is running stitch and the back split stitch.

I have to post my last fascicle pieces, 3-5. I'll work on that this week. Maybe do a silent Sunday post of nothing but images.   I've prepared a few other cloths for the coming month and working of a little gifting project for a birthday.  But my other pressing need is:

Here today, boro tomorrow!

Yes, I haven't patched a pair of jeans since the 60's! "Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end..."


I have to get better at posting...I am going to get better. Even though it's time to get the gardening going for 2012 I will, I will. 


and in conclusion to remind us all:

Caesar:
Who is it in the press that calls on me?
I hear a tongue shriller than all the music
Cry "Caesar!" Speak, Caesar is turn'd to hear.

Soothsayer:
Beware the ides of March.

Caesar:
What man is that?

Brutus:
A soothsayer bids you beware the ides of March.

Julius Caesar Act 1, scene 2, 15–19 


And as Spring is here I bid you all to celebrate Lupercalia as well.  It is the festival of purification.  It is named for the she wolf that nursed Romulus and Remus. Young men would run through the street sans clothing and women would have their palms slapped (unclear if by the naked young fellows) to either ensure a safe delivery if pregnant or become pregnant if barren. Oh how simple those Arcadian days! 


Cheers and thank you for partaking in celebrating the Ides...

arriving with march

Emily Dickinson said, Dear March - Come In
So I invite you as well.  I've been gone a bit, I know.  But, I've been stitching away. I have finished fascicles 4 and 5. Only thirty-five more to go!  I will compose a separate blog for that but today I'm welcoming March. 

March cloth

Dear March - Come in - 

How glad I am -
I hoped for you before -
Put down your Hat - 
You must have walked -
How out of Breath you are - 
Dear March, how are you, and the Rest -
Did you leave Nature well - 
Oh March, Come right upstairs with me -
I have so much to tell -

and telling in the details:

detail

The cloth was first woven, ala cloth to cloth, and then stitched. The words on the cloth are there for me.  They are: 8th full moon, 3/14 pi day, 15th Ides, 2012, daffodils, after the Greek god of war, 31 days, Marze, Lentmont, 21 Spring and Ostara. Ostara is a Saxon/Germanic/pagan goddess that brings Spring. The swirls on the cloth are those March winds that have been blowing around. 

Ostara (1884) by Johannes Gehrts. The goddess flies through the heavens surrounded by Roman-inspired putti, beams of light, and animals. Germanic people look up at the goddess from the realm below.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ostara

 
Another day remembered on the cloth is 11:00 am, March 11, 2008.  That is for my dad.  
I got your Letter, and the Birds - 
The Maples never knew that you were coming -
I declare - how Red their Faces grew -         
But March, forgive me - 
And all those Hills you left for me to Hue - 
There was no Purple suitable - 
You took it all with you - 

I also am going to do a Ides of March cloth - seems to me each month has an Ides but we only remember March's... Still a WIP but even so:

The cloth is dyed with the indigo carmine and acorn.  It was folded during the dye process hence the lines.   

Who knocks? That April -
Lock the Door -
I will not be pursued -
He stayed away a Year to call 
When I am occupied -         
But trifles look so trivial 
As soon as you have come

That blame is just as dear as Praise 
And Praise as mere as Blame -

I also played around a little with weaving.  Jude has been talking about it over at Spirit Cloth here and here.  This brought back memories of when I use to rent a loom...about 35+ years ago when I first moved out on my own.   I would spend my evenings at a place called The Weaving Workshop weaving away.  It gave me great fun to tell people where I worked that I was going out to warp!  Anyway this is what I did.  It's about 3x5 inches. The brown thread is my walnut dyed thread.  The blue is purchased cotton.  

weave experiment

My father made the little "lap loom" if I can call it that, many a many years ago :

dad's touch

I found this a while ago, going through a draw in one of my old room's at my mom's.  It brought back more memories. 

The poems is Emily Dickinson's "Dear March - Come In"

I should be back by week's end with fascicles 4 and 5.  Thank you for welcoming March in with me.  Spring can not be too far away.  Cheers

I'm not that kind of person, but....

February Cloth, 8 1/2 x 11

I am not really into Valentine's Day, hearts and those kind of things but seems my cloth, needle and thread had a different idea...so here is my February cloth. There is still more stitching to be done, along the frame and corners, mostly, but I did want to share this WIP.  If you remember, one of the projects, besides working on my "weekly" fascicles, I am doing  "broadside" editions of monthly cloths.  January's is being redone since I decide the original piece I put together was too "big" for me.  I really am an 81/2 x 11 kind of person.  

This is how the piece was first layed out.  A outline of the "valentine oak" was made and first stitches taken. Text was written to acknowledge some thoughts about February and days of celebration.  My father's birthday and the birthday of a very special friend, Celtic Spring and the etymology of the word, for example. 

Also for some who might like details - a collage of parts of the cloth.  Although the text was added, it really wasn't intended to be a focus for the piece - the stitching over the words, hopefully, accomplishes this text disguise.

I have finished stitching my fourth fascicle.  It needs to get "bound."  So it will be a the "bindery" this week and hopefully I will be placing it on the blog for you to see by week's end.

So for those who celebrate the 14th and have stopped by, wishing you all a day for memory keeping.

continuing

When you aren't working in your sketch book, you are poking around on the internet - reading other people's blog and wondering about all that is said.  When you aren't working on you sketch book or travelling around in the  electronic sphere you are stitching.  One is always stitching....but when you aren't doing any of the above you've got a head-cold and stitching slower.  I had a slight concussion last year so when ever I get head related issues my brain seems to bounce around in it's shell for a bit longer then it should.  I have been stitching away and reading slowly - but in the between/mean time I thought I'd share some gifts that came in the mail from ...Lynne Hoppe...a few things that she saw while sitting under a tree during one of her walks.  

I have been working out some ideas in my sketch books. Here is a sample page. A sketch from 22nd January, 2012.  Inspired by some of the faces that you see when you visit Lynne...I had to see how I could do with some of the tools that she uses - ink, old printed paper, pencil, water color, and her favorite pencils - the Derwent - Inktense.  

I've also been continue to do my TAST - take a stitch Tuesday - last week Herringbon and this week Chevron.  The page is from Fascicle number four - completed. Yes, I now have four completed fascicles - 36 more to go.  Chevron on the left and Herringbone on the right. 


I've also been reading and listen to some poems.  One that I can't get out of my thoughts is by Linda Gregg:
The Weight Linda Gregg Reading The Weight: this link will take you to a page where you can listen to Linda Gregg read.  Her voice is so well suited for reading, especially Weight. 

Two horses were put together in the same paddock. Night and day. In the night and in the day wet from heat and the chill of the wind on it. Muzzle to water, snorting, head swinging and the taste of bay in the shadowed air. The dignity of being. They slept that way, knowing each other always. Withers quivering for a moment, fetlock and the proud rise at the base of the tail, width of back. The volume of them, and each other's weight. Fences were nothing compared to that. People were nothing. They slept standing, their throats curved against the other's rump. They breathed against each other, whinnied and stomped. There are things they did that I do not know. The privacy of them had a river in it. Had our universe in it. And the way its border looks back at us with its light. This was finally their freedom. The freedom an oak tree knows. That is built at night by stars. I hope to be back by the weekend to show my progress on the fascicle project and the other things I've been holding in my hand during the last two weeks - Thank you for stopping by and take care fore now...that cruddy buggy season is out there.

wordless wednesday before it becomes thursday

Me wordless: HA. 

A quick post to show you what I've been up to...still trying to find more oak leaves.  I think I've become addicted to at least finding one each day - even when it snowing.

The following frames are for my second fascicle: cover, 1&2, 3&4, 5&6.

I'm also taking part in two challenges: TAST: Take a Stitch Tuesday and

ALAW: A Letter a Week.  I've put links to these two challenges at the side bar. 

I'll be back to my usual chatty self soon.  Thank you for stopping by.