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Circle back. Begin Again. What’s past is prologue.

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She says it's her last go round.  Jude Hill.  Spirit Cloth. 

i tried to remember when i found her.  It was from a link in an article in Cloth Paper Scissors Magazine,  which i read online late one night….the words Spirit     Cloth  .   I remember typing it in.  The blog opening before my eyes.  I remember how it FELT to see what i was seeing.  The total disbelief that it could be true.  But it was.

Yesterday,  i couldn't remember when that was.  I'm like that.  Life is a big picture. All my old papers and notes are over in the storage unit.  I still have no access to the old Picasa.  What to do?

Ask Marti.

Marti has never failed.  She remembers Every Thing.  and Lo and Behold,  she emailed me the link to the first post of 6/9/2010 in the…..Archives! on the Windthread Sidebar.

Where i wrote:  "it seems so long ago.  This is what i was compelled to do after finding Spirit Cloth/Jude Hill last November.  This next week the workshop begins.  I will never be the same again".

i will never be the same again.  I knew it.  Felt it.  and it has proven true.  

and i looked at this Cloth,  the first, really,  and i hardly remembered.  Looking at it today,  i think it's probably the BEST Cloth i have ever made.  I said that to Marti and how i didn't know what had become of it.  And she said…you gave it to Alyssia.  It's on the blog.

When Alyssia and Emrie arrived this morning after dropping Julian at school,  i showed her the pic and said…..do you remember this Cloth?  She smiled and said,  "Yes.  It's on my wall."

A lot has happened since April,  2010.  A Lot.  And maybe it really IS Jude's last online Teaching.  What i know is that i want to take a Deep Breath.  Slow Down.  Begin Again.

 

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37 responses to “Circle back. Begin Again. What’s past is prologue.”

  1. Liz A Avatar
    Liz A

    I found Jude in 2014 … so much later than many. Took her Spirit Cloth 101 work-on-your-own … but it was Considering Weave where I met you … and the cloth you made then, Underlying Order, hangs over our stone hearth to this day.
    Time has flown by since then … I do hope it will slow down as we gather and create together yet again,

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  2. Hazel Avatar
    Hazel

    2009, a magazine, too. Seeing her dot stitchings, thinking, “I Need to know more.” & like you typing in the website, not knowing what a blog was… reading quietly for a while, being too afraid to sign up for her first class… and then the patchwork beasts and things began. Remember when my blog was in a mysterious language and how you and I, two non-tech people solved it?! Ha & Love.

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  3. kathy dorfer Avatar
    kathy dorfer

    my friend lynne hoppe turned me on to jude .
    maybe 7 or 8 yrs ago . she opened a door
    that i thought was closed . i will always
    be thankful for her .so glad i got to
    know all of you XOXO

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  4. Kim Avatar
    Kim

    Life changing…yes. I also came across Jude in a magazine. From there I found you. You were taking her class and you posted a picture of your cloth with the beautyFull moth. So I kept looking to see more cloth but what I found was so much more. When you spoke of Alz B my mother was experiencing dementia. When the old cowboy was dying I was losing my mother. When you moved to California I was also making a big move. I am inspired by the way you just keep going no matter what comes your way. Life changing!

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  5. Michelle Slater Avatar
    Michelle Slater

    I first met Jude because of my long association with R. Nemo Hill, her brother the Poet. I think at one of his performances in a lower East side Garden maybe ten or more years ago(?) time escapes me since it’s so damn fluid. Then I visited Nemo when he and Julio lived out on the island with Mother Edna and the garden there was astounding. So was Edna Hill. Finally I met Jude on line and WOW. I joined in the Magic Feather Cloth project to make my first ever patch….well, you know, it is a life sustaining connection for me, and almost every one she gathers in. We are SO fortunate.

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  6. Linda Avatar
    Linda

    I don’t know how I figured it out. I think a friend told me to google spirit cloth. I think 2011. I remember making my first 9 patch and emailing Jude and telling her. She answered right back. I thought a celebrity had emailed me. It was life changing and continues to be. What a ride we got on. Way back then there was a small piece from her on her blog for sale. I jumped right in and bought it. It is on my wall in the weaving room and one of my pieces right below it. One of your pieces is right next to it. All connected.

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  7. jude Avatar
    jude

    In all of this looking back I was shocked at how long it’s been, how the years melted into each other, how many friend were made. I’ve enjoyed the journey backwards… the warmth it is filling me with.

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  8. Deb G Avatar
    Deb G

    I was shocked too. Grace inspired me to look back at my earliest posts, look at back at yours. So much growth and change and yet not too.

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  9. Deb G Avatar
    Deb G

    The “not” refers to change that is…there was so much consistency in some things. My brain is just waking up.

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  10. Deb G Avatar
    Deb G

    As I mentioned in response to Jude you inspired me to look back too. I can’t remember how I first found her blog, via a link before magazine articles. I do remember what I first fell in love with and how glorious I thought it was (and still think) and how hesitant I was to leave a comment but did anyway. So glad I did, I have learned so much from Jude and the community. 🙂

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  11. Beth Avatar
    Beth

    Love this thread. For me 2012, a magic feather on facebook. I was making a feather just as Jude said no more feathers. Started with 101 on my own and then What if diaries in 2013. Grace you caught me with your calling the crows cloth shortly before you decided to blog everyday. You both and the other you-me-us have transformed my life, given me kindred family.

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  12. Mo Crow Avatar
    Mo Crow

    (((Grace))) love this cloth from your raft in the desert, you and all the magic cloth crew Jude has gathered over the years are such an inspiration!

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  13. joanne Avatar
    joanne

    I don’t remember how I found you, Grace and Jude. But I found you both and that is all that matters. I read Jude’s classes into the night, somedays. I have worked on pages for an entire Winter of White (snow and cloth) and now find they are called Sanity. And as I have told Jude–I find her voice to be a true meditation for me. I listen and tranquillity fills me.
    This will be my first actual class, in real Time.

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  14. dee Avatar
    dee

    The only reason I can pinpoint when I discovered Jude is because I was reading the cloth paper scissors article (or was it artful blogging?) in the waiting room of the ICU where my sister lay in a medically induced coma. That was late 2009, early 2010. So Jude’s final class becomes another kind of book end for me. (PS I need a Marti, too!) I’m so glad you found the quilt pictured and that it is hung, being enjoyed.

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  15. Tina Avatar
    Tina

    Although I have not gotten through all the comments I’m not at all surprised at the outpouring of love all the way around. Each one of you have given me gifts beyond anything I could have imagined .. my heart is filled with joyous gratitude.

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  16. Michelle Slater Avatar
    Michelle Slater

    I’m back on Thursday with a poem I meant to send you when you were talking about how things have their own language and you were hearing it:
    Speaking Tree
    by Joy Harjo, 1951
    I had a beautiful dream I was dancing with a tree.
    —Sandra Cisneros
    Some things on this earth are unspeakable:
    Genealogy of the broken—
    A shy wind threading leaves after a massacre,
    Or the smell of coffee and no one there—
    Some humans say trees are not sentient beings,
    But they do not understand poetry—
    Nor can they hear the singing of trees when they are fed by
    Wind, or water music—
    Or hear their cries of anguish when they are broken and bereft—
    Now I am a woman longing to be a tree, planted in a moist, dark earth
    Between sunrise and sunset—
    I cannot walk through all realms—
    I carry a yearning I cannot bear alone in the dark—
    What shall I do with all this heartache?
    The deepest-rooted dream of a tree is to walk
    Even just a little ways, from the place next to the doorway—
    To the edge of the river of life, and drink—
    I have heard trees talking, long after the sun has gone down:
    Imagine what would it be like to dance close together
    In this land of water and knowledge. . .
    To drink deep what is undrinkable.

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  17. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    am looking so so forward to working Together

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  18. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    it’s great, isn’t it? How we had courage and learned.
    Both the Cloth and the tech things….it makes me SMILE,
    BIG.
    i remember seeing things you posted in the forum and
    thinking…YES….HER!

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  19. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Are We great or What??????? How it goes on and on and
    the thread pulses and we stay so Connected….
    LOVE and LOVE

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  20. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Kim…WE. WE keep going…you did too. I love hearing
    these things…about the synchronicity of timing …..
    Thank you SO MUCH for telling these things…
    I will look forward to working through this class with
    you….will look forward to hearing more of how it goes
    for you…
    Love and Love

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  21. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    We are. SO.
    and how you make that world of the East Coast so REAL
    that is such a gift for me
    How you make your way through the days…
    Well…just YOU.
    Love, Michelle,

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  22. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Together…
    over so many years.
    Just BeautyFULL

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  23. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i wasn’t expecting to go back in time, but the
    pleasure of it is wonder Full….warm and reassuring
    about how life can be

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  24. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    the steadfastness of Us All

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  25. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    family. Sisters. We Are.

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  26. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    are we Great????? YES!

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  27. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    it’s going to be just GRAND…and i so look forward
    to going along WITH you

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  28. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    I have told Marti that. Her gift is invaluable.

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  29. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    and it’s WE, Tina…you give so much

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  30. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i need to spend time with these words, Michelle

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  31. Judy Martin Avatar
    Judy Martin

    Kim, your words resonate with me. xo

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  32. Judy Martin Avatar
    Judy Martin

    Michelle, what Grace says below, I agree with. Not only has the spirit cloth blog changed lives, more than we know probably, it has also introduced women to each other in a soul way. Even though I don’t participate often in conversations, I feel I know you and Grace and many others because of your openness in the comments section of the blog xo

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  33. Judy Martin Avatar
    Judy Martin

    YES we are. You are xo

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  34. Deb Avatar
    Deb

    I forget what I was looking for at the time, but this is where I found her:
    https://spiritcloth.typepad.com/spirit_cloth/2007/02/quilt_story_upd.html
    We have been rolling along a long time.

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  35. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    yes…i feel like if i were to arrive somehow at any of
    our doorsteps and say…it’s me, grace, i would
    be welcomed “home”.
    just like a Sister. How amazing is That!?

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  36. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    i think the Time just ahead will be so FULL, so
    FulFILLing…looking back, going forward
    again and again, i think how Lucky i was/am

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  37. grace Forrest Avatar
    grace Forrest

    Beauty FULL link…

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