Constellation
15 Replies
Tag Archives: rabbit
Blue Moon and Rabbit
I continued my experimentation with layering sheers, removing color with bleach, and using the ‘wrong’ sides of fabrics to achieve a more subtle palette.
The hand stitching is pretty dense and although I wished I had not used any ‘regular’ sewing cotton thread (even a single strand of cotton embroidery floss tugs better), I mostly like it.
The light is definitely changing in these parts.
narrative quilting and viewing
The rabbit in the quilt really does visit our yard, even when eight of us are having BBQ and salad at the table under one of the catalpa trees.
And the results of my indigo ventures are evident – nearly all of the blue fabric in this piece were dipped in the five gallon bucket out back. Some were bleached as well. I have fallen in love with the color of indigo, and more surprisingly, with the metallic smell it imparts to cloth.
I have been stitching to a boxed DVD set from library called, “Why Quilts Matter” (more on that another time) and in the evenings to Showtime’s series: The Tudors. Both K & I loved Hilary Mantel’s ‘Wolf Hollow’ and are psyched that its sequel now resides on our kindles… I’ll probably save that read for winter (and it may consume most of the winter!). ‘The Art of Fielding’ is a perfect tale for the end of summer, and some compensation for not sleeping until 2:30.
This week I watched ‘In the Electric Mist‘ twice. It is a post-Katrina murder thriller set in Louisiana. It stars Tommy Lee Jones and is based on a book by James Lee Burke. My sister turned me on to James Lee Burke. They are good reads all on their own, but are particularly interesting to me because I am currently obsessed with southern landscapes. I especially wanted to see one of his books on film to confirm what I found disappointing in the wonderful new movie, ‘Beasts of the Southern Wild’ – and that is, that ITS landscapes were repetitive and washed out instead of marvelously tangled and varied and intensely blue and green. (The relationships and characters of the ‘Beasts’ film more than made up for my disappointment about the scenery).
Today I include my viewing notes because it has struck me recently that perhaps I stitch in order to sit and watch one narrative after another on the screen, and not the other way around! Has anyone else ever had this slightly disturbing epiphany?
the house is open
The house is open, and hot, and airless, but still it is preferable to the AC.
Another year, I fed acetate through the inkjet & made copies of a collage featuring fingers pressing into dough from a food magazine. Back then I was thinking about craft and money, wondering about it. I am still wondering about it. There were stars from an antique map of the constellations and fires from Providence, but you can’t really see them now.
I like the photographed, ink stitches lining up with the thread stitches.
I can’t keep my blog up to date with the work that I am doing. I guess that is a good thing, but it has a way of feeling heavy, too.
After quoting the bible yesterday, I was wondering if I ought to express my protests about homophobia in this country, just in case people got the wrong idea.
others’ words
How much human suffering, mine and others’, comes back to our ambivalence about being here, our uncertainty about committing fully to a human life, to living awake with what is within and around us!
The Call, Discovering Why You are Here
by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
To live in this world
you must be able to do three things:
to love what is mortal;
to hold it
against your bones knowing
your own life depends on it,
and, when the time comes to let it go,
to let it go.
Mary Oliver, from ‘In Blackwater Woods’
What you can plan is too small
for you to live.
David Whyte, from ‘What to Remember When Waking’
And if we are truly not trying to get anywhere, but simply allow ourselves to be here in this moment as it is, we can stumble easily upon an ancient stillness…
Jon Kabat-Zinn, ‘Wherever You Go There You Are’
A community is a well to drink from, a place to nourish our spirits and find the strength we need to ride life’s ups and downs. It’s also a place to discover what we have to give.
Gabrielle Roth, ‘Sweat Your Prayers’
Have you ever felt that if you were to really ‘expand your borders’, God would have to accelerate your already busy life? You are not alone in the assumption. But you should know that God has entirely different ways of enlarging your influence and impact.
Bruce Wilkerson daily calendar based on ‘The Prayer of Jabez’
And now the ‘Prayer of Jabez’ itself, from 1 Chronicles 4:10:
Oh, that You would bless me indeed,
and enlarge my territory,
that Your hand would be with me,
and that You would keep me from evil.