homeward bound beneath a friendly moon

“tragedy doesn’t necessarily change us.
 more often, i think, it just brings out
more of who we are - or were - all along “
-nora roberts  

my dear friends, i know i haven’t been actively posting of late - indeed it’s been so very long that some of you may have forgotten you even followed in the first place - but life rather shook me off my feet a while and i had to set my blog aside, and then of course the longer i left it at rest, the harder it was to summon up the energy to begin again. 

i always thought that i’d come back to it one day. it was here, waiting safe, and appreciated by any of those who still stumbled across it. i had more ideas to share, and no less love for my work. i've made some false starts. perhaps this will be yet another. my hope, however, is that i will be able to fan the spark into a healthy flame once again!

this project roll (pictured above) is my latest endeavour. i started with annie downs’ pattern, “homeward bound”. but i had other ideas for construction, design, and ornament. lol. i always do, don’t i?

i quilted it with decorative stitches from one of my younger vintage machines and carried my bunny under the moon theme to the inside work area, never being one for leaving cloth plain. i also bound the work mat instead of using ricrac. 

it makes for a wonderfully convenient way to transport appliqué and embroidery projects in progress! my modification of using a pool noodle, rather than the called for mailing tube, makes the core a handy pin cushion, too.

with my latest project safely rolled up inside, i’m ready and able to carry it anywhere, even if it’s only from the sewing room to the living room while sheltering in place!

namasté

my lovely bones

"these were the lovely bones

that had grown around my absence..."

- alice sebold

so much of my time has been wrapped up in music of late. exploring this new (to me) world of cigar box guitars and their link to depression era delta blues. so much so that it felt almost foreign to my fingers to pick up a needle and thread and begin chanting upon cloth once again. almost. but memories have a way of ebbing back into place once we are receptive to them again...

oh so long ago (there's a blog entry somewhere about it, but i haven't taken the time to hunt it down) i mentioned having this enormous collection of vintage linens. pillow cases. dresser scarves. chair leaves. candle mats. kitchen linens. i had been contemplating using them somehow in a new interpretation of a crazy quilt. perhaps there is a predominantly white crazy quilt or two out there somewhere. i'm quite certain that a quick google search would probably spit back an endless flow of images (google seems to be good at that). but i don't want to contaminate my idea with someone else's so i will resist the urge to investigate further. instead, i simply acknowledge the old axiom that there are no new ideas is most likely true and forge on ahead nonetheless.

this is the beginning of my first block for what will become a large shelter cloth. it will span generations of expression in that it will be comprised of the daily toil of countless stitchers from unknown generations, cobbled together by my own vision. i'm calling it (for the moment at least) my lovely bones and will be infusing it with tangent images and design. as many of you know, bones have long been one of my own personal symbols of great meaning and endless whispering... i will be dispensing with "traditional" crazy quilting techniques (with the exception of embellished seams) and utilizing contemporary boro, or slow cloth, techniques. building layers of cloth fragments one upon another until the shelter cloth is of the size and weight desired. allowing the layers of time to provide its own density and warmth.

for now, however, i must get my head back under the steam cloth for i can not breathe (how dare this cold strike me down in the hour of my inspiration!).

namaste'