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What do i like and Why

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Finished.  will stitch the sleeve in the back so it can hang on a twig., but Finished.  and i look at what i did,  thinking What do i like?  and Why?    this  is about stitches.  i still am learning about stitching.  

i put stitches in the Earth.  just so many.  only so many.  and i suppose if i were a REAL clothmaker i would put more.  but the reality for me is that i don't really like too many.  i LOVE Jude's invisible baste.   Invisible baste lets me make the collage.  lets me put the scraps where they go among other scraps and uhhhh,  blend them.   Invisible baste is really very much enough for this,  for telling the story i want to tell.  but i always feel like i need more stitches to make it ummm,  legitimate.

but i'm thinking about that with this one.    What do i want to put to tell the Story and what would i feel compelled to put to be a legitimate clothmaker?  if i were to buy one of my cloths,  receive it in the mail,  would i be disappointed because of it's lack of quilting stitch?  so….thinking about this.

but it is Finished.  Will go into the little shop.   it turns out that CROW is a Spirit Bird.  originally, i'd thought him to be like Her.   He's not.  he is made of Earth and the cloth puts him there…a Bird made of Earth,  but he is a Spirit.   She,  she is like me.    and they Rise together above an Earth that can make anything at all happen.

 

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i like them all.  they all have variations on a theme…same Story

 

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the first of the Native Plum planted.  seems to be feeling just OK with it all.

this is for Martine,  who watches over me.   Martine  at   ateliercolore.blogspot.nl

 

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21 responses to “What do i like and Why”

  1. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    The plum blossoms for Martine, I looked at everything and the 4th photo, square of blue with the round orange orb, the sun, healing rays, illuminating, comforting in its warmth, reaching out to all of us who need comfort, speaks to me of Martine, respecting her courage, her love. A simple little square of cloth, deeply moving.

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  2. Micael Kemp Avatar
    Micael Kemp

    As someone who has purchased one of your cloths, I would say don’t worry about quilting. Disappointed is about the last word I would use to describe my response to your work. It has its own exquisite coherence and beauty just as it is.

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  3. Michelle in NYC Avatar
    Michelle in NYC

    Oh Grace…you are ‘cookin’ on a high flame!
    Wonderful variants every one!
    Exquisite Plum Blossom and dedication.
    Authentic is better than any one’s idea of “legitimate” in my book, and you’ve never been anything less than authentic. That’s why, I’m guessing, so many love and respect you.

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  4. Marti Avatar
    Marti

    Came back this morning because I had been troubled by something here last night. What troubled me and then I realized that it was your words when you said, “…if I were a REAL clothmaker…”
    QUE??????????? WHAT????????????
    You and cloth are one and it doesn’t get any more REAL than this. Now you know and I think those who read my comments here know that I am not very well versed in stitching so when I look at a cloth work, I don’t look at technique because technique doesn’t creep into my marrow, doesn’t tug at my heart, doesn’t give me a sense of the inner and outer person who creates a cloth. What does do that is the vision that was created on the cloth, the story that comes to me from looking SO
    in that sense mi querida grace, you are MORE than a REAL cloth maker because story is everything from my perspective.

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  5. patricia Avatar
    patricia

    These four comments above…well, they say it all. every thing about you. and your cloth. it doesn’t get more real than this. and i absolutely love the crow spirit cloth–and am really intrigued with where you are with the weaving. authentic. REAL. heartfelt. and just so, so out-of and of this world.

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  6. beth Avatar
    beth

    This woven piece could be the ultimate flannel board. Changing from week to week, season to season.
    I did not come into spirit cloth from a traditional quilting background. There is a quilting group that meets near where I live and they are Very rigid and traditional. They would be appalled by raw edges. In a lot of ways I think that not coming from that kind of background has given me more freedom to not worry about doing things in a standard way. I’m very happy to have that freedom.

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  7. KAMFreeman Avatar
    KAMFreeman

    A cloth maker, that is who Grace is to me. My lifetime of learning, mastering, teaching, making with focus on the “correct how-to” is a history story that sits me down each day….to read, to see and learn about freedom in cloth making…always delighted to be swept into the harp of music you create from your spirit as it listens to the cloth as the story unfolds and comes to life on the cloth….. as others have said well, you are without a doubt a cloth maker……and I am in love with all that I see come from your spirit, through your hands to the cloth.

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  8. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    (((Grace)))
    Too Many Names by Pablo Neruda
    Mondays are meshed with Tuesdays
    and the week with the whole year.
    Time cannot be cut
    with your weary scissors,
    and all the names of the day
    are washed out by the waters of night.
    No one can claim the name of Pedro,
    nobody is Rosa or Maria,
    all of us are dust or sand,
    all of us are rain under rain.
    They have spoken to me of Venezuelas,
    of Chiles and of Paraguays;
    I have no idea what they are saying.
    I know only the skin of the earth
    and I know it is without a name.
    When I lived amongst the roots
    they pleased me more than flowers did,
    and when I spoke to a stone
    it rang like a bell.
    It is so long, the spring
    which goes on all winter.
    Time lost its shoes.
    A year is four centuries.
    When I sleep every night,
    what am I called or not called?
    And when I wake, who am I
    if I was not while I slept?
    This means to say that scarcely
    have we landed into life
    than we come as if new-born;
    let us not fill our mouths
    with so many faltering names,
    with so many sad formalities,
    with so many pompous letters,
    with so much of yours and mine,
    with so much of signing of papers.
    I have a mind to confuse things,
    unite them, bring them to birth,
    mix them up, undress them,
    until the light of the world
    has the oneness of the ocean,
    a generous, vast wholeness,
    a crepitant fragrance.

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  9. Cynthia Avatar
    Cynthia

    ..oh grace..just back from an unexpected and difficult trip back to the old house and now back to here and i am probably to tired to make sense..but grace..my cloths went with me..i packed next to nothing..but i was sheltered…i had a net to catch me..i was ….they traveled with me as talisman, as comfort…
    and it was amazing to share their beauty with old friends..friends who understand the significance of your cloth to me…and we all could breathe your world and your making of the cloth…
    and now i am back here and ready to rest..but i saw these words and wanted you to know the comfort …among many things…that you have provided not just to know…but to read all the words on these pages and take pleasure in them…this is work done well

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  10. Dana Avatar
    Dana

    Lovely and totally appropriate, Mo. I had to look up “crepitant”…it means crackling. Unexpected and perfect.
    Thanks.

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  11. Dana Avatar
    Dana

    So Crow is the spirit of the Earth taken wing. A lovely elemental mix from an authentic cloth maker, the only really legitimate kind.

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  12. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes. that little orange orb. that’s from Jude. i don’t
    know if she made it?, or if it’s Deb Lacativa? it’s
    stunning, isn’t it.
    and Martine. be~loved Martine. She can show us how to go.
    no matter what at all she does. it’s a Going.

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  13. grace Avatar
    grace

    oh, HEY, Micael…oh, Hey…to you
    coherence
    this is a good good word. coherence. thank you very much
    for this word…
    love

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  14. grace Avatar
    grace

    i want to be both. authentic and legitimate. i guess i do
    want to be both. and i know, today, Friday, its in my own
    mind that i will be able to feel that.

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  15. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes. but technique and skill bring the vision onto and into a cloth

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  16. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes…the Weaving cloth now. i can Turn to it.

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  17. grace Avatar
    grace

    me too. i have no History tied to my leg like a stone.
    So i learn as i go. and i love this also, as you do.
    there is a freedom to it
    and i need to stand INSIDE that freedom

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  18. grace Avatar
    grace

    i’d like to be a GOOD clothmaker.

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  19. grace Avatar
    grace

    oh, Pablo…let me kiss you on your lips….from which
    these words fall like stars

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  20. grace Avatar
    grace

    Cynthia.
    traveled as talisman
    breathe this world
    you are BACK HERE. back to the place only so recently
    called “back here”.
    Oh so GIANT LOVE, you are back. yes. yes.

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  21. grace Avatar
    grace

    yes. the spirit of the Earth taken wing. yes.
    and you know that book, yes? One Hundred Years of Solitude?

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