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wish You were here

so many just seemingly small things,   ………….  if You were here, i could show you

001
the piece across the top:           this, from Deb Lacativa.  it is so beautyFull that i can't photograph it's full beauty.   as i am nearing finishing the stitching on the circle,  i find myself eyeing this piece of cloth.    how will i stitch it to retain it's integrity as is but also meld it into the cloth as a whole???

002
that place from 4 to 6 oclock….all it wanted was a piece of the Glow from the top…perfect.

003
 and late in the evening is the good time for the Kantha stitching around the edges.  to strengthen it for the many fingers that will touch. 

 
 

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34 responses to “wish You were here”

  1. jude Avatar
    jude

    nothing like strengthening an edge….hold the fort, i will be back in a few days….

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  2. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    For goodness sake, such lovely detail. i do love a windy, open circle. Jude, picking up on all the implication and metaphor of edge strength as she retreats to higher ground a tasty footnote to your post.

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  3. deanna7trees Avatar
    deanna7trees

    the ripples from the stitching make me think ocean. it’s looking great.

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  4. Vicky Avatar
    Vicky

    oh the edgy ripples…lovely-ness. and you managed to get them going in different directions! the ripples that is.
    i would probably use a same color thread in the top piece and outline stitch a few areas, with a single thread, say. maybe make a path through it, show you were there but treading very lightly….

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  5. handstories Avatar
    handstories

    better and better & deeper. those squiggly edges- children will WANT to touch those. and the added glow makes my favorite spot just wonderfuler.
    how about the invisible baste? is there a backing cloth?

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  6. Eva Ucgatwork Avatar
    Eva Ucgatwork

    Hi Grace,
    What is “Kantha”-stitching???
    Best wishes,
    eva

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  7. Jacqui Avatar
    Jacqui

    Grace
    Thank you for leaving two such lovely comments on my blog and the sew blog. You are inspiration to me.
    Kindest Regards
    JACqui

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  8. margaret johnson Avatar
    margaret johnson

    hi Grace, your cloth is looking lucsious, and coming together nicely. i really love the way you are stitching the edges. my piece has come to a standstill, as things so often do with me, i have learnt to be patient. your cloth has some lovely detail looking at it closely. warm wishes from Marg. ox

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  9. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    i just said to Eva on previous post that i wish we could
    all just show up and help you hang all your cloths in the
    highest branches of the trees, up by where Lil Buddha
    will watch from…
    if you stay there, maybe a tree fort would be in order??

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  10. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    yes. edges. edges are always the proof of the pudding.
    i ordered the zoe keating CD today. THANK YOU SO MUCH!
    i will now have my soundtrack for all the Next.

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  11. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    oh those ripples. me too.

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  12. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Vicky…yes. me too, about the top.
    it’s all a single thread that i use. i’ve tried using
    two, but it just isn’t IT. one. and it’s hard to do
    a split back stitch with one. i miss a lot. practice
    makes perfect, right?…deanna said that.
    and i smile, you, the Path Woman, yes. treading very
    lightly.

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  13. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    wonderfuler. smile.
    there is LOTS of invisible baste involved here but i am
    trying to learn what else i can do with stitching. such
    a Teaching Cloth, again. as they all are.
    no. no backing. it needs to be very very light, for
    when the children pass through it….this will occur
    literally. and no backing too, because i think all the
    stitching needs to show. all the tracks on the back, for
    how the front came to be.
    Life is like that. we can reach certain places and they
    are beautiful places, but the work that it took to get
    there is tangled and well……work.

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  14. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Eva……Kantha is a very very old stitch…it you
    google it you will see.
    i learned of kantha from Jude, from even before any of
    her classes, looking at Coma, really. and i was swept
    away by it.
    it’s very very simple, how Jude uses it….
    just stitches…repetative, back and forth. even. top
    bottom
    if you want the ripples to go horizontally, you do the
    stitches vertically and vice versa. the texture it creates
    is total magic.
    i did MILES of kantha on the Daughter Cloth, MILES.
    and it adds weight.

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  15. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    JACqui…i love your place. and it occured to me that
    you would like a circle cloth..your world is a circle.
    i am so happy that you appeared and i am looking foward
    to what’s next …………

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  16. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    i will be asking some questions of self and all about
    the detail. it is still so experimental for me……..
    thanks, Margaret, for coming here and yes. patience.
    especially with your cloth. it will require lots of
    listening, i think.
    thanks again for coming…xoxo

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  17. Drucilla Pettibone Avatar
    Drucilla Pettibone

    hi grace, i’m so glad you mentioned katha. somehow i had not put together that’s what it is. it inspired me too to look back over coma on flickr and jude’s blog. so much there. this helps me move forward. xxoo

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  18. stitchinglife2 Avatar
    stitchinglife2

    So delightful to see your tiny, strong stitches.

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  19. jude Avatar
    jude

    well, maybe we will build a tree house if we have nothing else. left… shutting down now, rain has begun… staying put. jeep gassed up, extra cash on hand, a bathtub filled with water, wood for the stove, peanut butter, tuna fish, sake, kitty litter, candles, needle and thread and some new blue cloth…hunkered down. see ya later.

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  20. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    later, gator

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  21. manya Avatar
    manya

    we are here, watching, fingers crossed, anything that works, hugs and all

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  22. Vicky Avatar
    Vicky

    ho…me…Path Woman….i like that.

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  23. Nancy Avatar
    Nancy

    Grace, this is such a good comment and so true. Depending on planned use and stitching skill of the maker. I’ve started paying more attention to the backs. Maybe I’ll post them on my blog.

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  24. Jacqui Avatar
    Jacqui

    Grace..
    ..a womb is also a circle…a place of birth and letting go and rebirth as you already know. I wake up in my house with its curved walls and oval windows, and I feel like I’m waking up in a womb. A place to be nurtured and feel creative.
    Kindest Regards

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  25. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    yes. fingers crossed.
    it is amazing how intense the feeling is…how important
    that home on Long Island has become for me.
    thinking about that a lot, all day today, SunDay.

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  26. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    yes, you. Path Woman.

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  27. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    nancy…well, my skill is not great, but i think that is
    ok. if it were for a different purpose, i probably would
    put a backing, an other side on it. but for this, what
    is more important to me is its translucency. needs
    that. and so, we are going to need to look at that map
    of the other side. this in itself is a good thing, i’m
    thinking

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  28. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    when i first “set out”…as in leaving my other life to
    find one that made more sense, it was my intention to
    build a yurt on my friends land in Oregon. had studied
    them and also, they were relatively common there.
    writing this, i realize that it still pulls to me. who
    knows…maybe in this next chapter ahead????
    for me, everything is a circle, even squares.

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  29. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    dru
    so much there. oh yes there is.
    Coma for me, is everything.
    am on my way to your blog right after this.
    xoxo

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  30. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    Karen, tiny and strong. well, yes…that they are.
    but ever since the “beginning” of cloth looking, i have
    i guess thought of you as the master of perfect stitch,
    which you are, that’s just a fact*
    and for a while i wondered if i could ever possibly
    achieve just a glimmer of that, but now, it’s quite
    great, because i know i won’t, but it no longer matters
    to me. tiny and strong is good enough.
    *margaret johnson too

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  31. nance Avatar
    nance

    all last week in between , i kept thinking about going through and what this will mean to the children.

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  32. grace Forrest Maestas Avatar
    grace Forrest Maestas

    yes. when it’s finished, i will write more.
    the original request for it was for just a cloth that
    would be used when a child was “finished”. when they
    were ready to go on, no longer come to work with Wendy.
    so…a finishing cloth.
    but then, a very small comment one of the children made
    when working with the Window Hanger, that is that big
    woven circle..?…. about…”can i go through there?”
    and instantly, i saw this cloth as being how it has become.
    not the details, but as a literal cloth that can be
    passed through.
    so…i don’t know. but i will make it and send it. the
    children will let Wendy know if it is right.

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  33. sandra Avatar
    sandra

    hi Grace,
    Will you be troubled by the hurricane Irene? I hope not, but if so I pray you’ll be safe.
    I see a butterfly in your cloth (top right).

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  34. nance Avatar
    nance

    i really respect those visions. important to give them a voice.
    this might be like the crossing over ceremony we did in brownies.

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