Looking for White in Cloth

Well I went into my studio, straight to the drawer that I was sure held some White.  The thing is, among the stack of old white(ish) pillowcases, were some memory fabrics that indeed had white...but bursts of color too.  So, I have three thoughts about this:

1. I may be pulled towards these color bursts, because it is Spring here and flowers & trees are bursting with color, the green is becoming almost fluorescent!  Things are sharp, bright...alive!
2. My birthday is coming up.  I'm a Spring baby, so I really embrace this time of year.  You can read my birth story here (if you like)
3. Many of these fabrics hold stories from my past, my younger self.  They hold color too, spring bursting color!

Here is a group photo of the white finds so far.  Not included are some very old pillowcases.  They belonged to family members, long gone, and are soft to the touch...but tough to the needle!
The white you see in the middle is an old shower curtain.  It's fairly white and has great texture.  Top right: an old pillowcase, mine from high school.  I loved this sheet set.  It was white with pale spring flowers.  The flowers are just about gone now, but their memory remains.  Circling clockwise: part of a child's pillowcase that came with two little embroidered lambs on it.  It is very old (maybe the 1940's).  It has that super soft feel of old cotton.  Next to that is a bottom section from a Mexican dress I wore all through high school.  It started off ankle length, but at some point I shortened it to just below the knee.  I still have the dress too :)  Next to that: a scrap of the bird fabric that my sister once used to make a shirt.  You can read more about it here.  I love this fabric, which is why it is stored with these other fabrics of history.  There is not a lot of white showing, but I'm still considering it.  The last thing you'll notice is a package of cloth diapers.  These are the remains from the days when I would add satin pre-made blanket binding to cloth diapers as gifts for the newborns of friends/family!  I think I made one for the lovely Danielle you've met here!!  I do have two other 'cloth' diapers that belonged to my daughter.  But, that is a story for another day!

 The two photos below show scraps from an old chenille bedspread I used when I was first married.  It cost 25 cents at a yard sale and had almost ALL of it's chenille when I bought it.  I used it til most of white chenille had fallen apart (funny it was the White that fell out and the colors that stayed!  Ha!)  Then I cut it apart, saving the colorful motifs.

I don't know which, if any of these I will use for my What If-ing?  Right now I like the idea of using the stark white diapers as a part of something!   They are certainly the most white, even with the blue stamp 'Dundee'!   I also have more of the dotted grippy feet-pajama's bottom of the sole fabric.  I used it for the Soar feather, which you can read about here.  The photo makes it look yellowish, but it is the lighting...it is really very white.  I may or may not use that fabric too.  It is rather stiff as intended for use on the sole of the foot.  Lastly, I have a bit of cheese cloth around, which is, of course, super thin and fine.  I am beginning to feel like Goldilocks!!
So there you have the up to the minute news of White over here!

Oh, and one more thing...
There is lots of color around here too.  Especially in the spring flowers I mentioned at the beginning of this post.
Something interesting to me is that when I loaded these photos, I not only saw color, but I saw how, when coming from behind, the sun seems to remove some color.  At least that's how it appears to me.  Can you see how much white is in the photos below?  The term is usually fade to black...but here it is fade to white!  Mmmm...

Light dancing on the tips of the petals and freckling the leaves, showing as white in places.

I've loaded so many pictures this weekend, using Picasa.  After loading them I usually resize them using 'Creative Kit'.  It's been taking a really long time to load them all.  This is OK for now because I dedicated this weekend to getting some of the blog stuff off my mind and posted.  But, it is why I've not been posting a lot lately...that time factor.
Anyway, this is part of the message that comes up while a picture is loading:

"We noticed Picnik is loading slowly. It’s possible waiting

may solve this issue."

It makes me smile every time!  Imagine how much less stressful our world would be if gentle humor was sprinkled throughout!!

OK then...one more quick post and I'm off to sew...

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

Seeing Wings

Tonight while eating dinner, I have been watching Winged Planet on the Discovery channel.  You can find it here.

I've watched courting dances and lessons in the water for little ones, imprinted on a man, not their mother.  And I've watched them fly...seen the sky, from a birds-eye view!  Wow!
I am so fascinated by the old theory...ya know if you buy a new VW Bug...then you see VW Bugs e v e r y w h e r e you look!!!  Along with all of the winged exploration Jude has been doing over at Spirit Cloth, I have been noticing 'wings' everywhere!  Today alone while I went to one store to pick something up, I saw butterflies on stationary/office products, pillows, on the rear window of a parked car, and even in an age marking on the asphalt!  Then I got home and turned on the TV to 'Winged Planet'!

I love when this happens!

What have you been noticing on your daily travels?

And 'Winged Planet'...Reminding me of the Magic Feather Project that Jude has been pulling together, with the donations of stitched feathers (&stones) from many in the world wide community!
So, as I begin my day with the screams of the hawk and close the day tonight as the crows called to one another on their way towards home, I basked in the cries and imagine feathers and wings.  Feeling grateful for the many ways we can soar.

Feathers, Pow Wow 2010

Flight over Sedona, AZ, 2009

Blogger is not cooperating with me adding any more old photos.
Rats!
Well, imagine great shots of the Monarchs that visit California and hang out for a while :)
Or imagine any winged creature of your own and tell us about it in the comments!

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2012

Three Feathers & One Spoon

These are the last feathers that have been sent off to Jude for her Magic Feather Project.   In a way it makes me kind of sad.  I've had so much fun making them, executing some of the many ideas that have been flying through my head.  Now it seems as if I'm out of time.  

So, what do I do with the leftover ideas?  lol

The funny thing is that one of these little feathers is the first one I started, but I kept putting it aside.  Either I didn't feel the flow or it was prempted by some other idea or some other procrastination.  With the end of the year deadline coming up, I figured to give it another try and WaLa...it spoke to me in this little gathering of 3!

 If you are a super quick stitcher, and can get a feather into the mail fast...

join in by sending her a feather!

This is a favorite scrap of fabric I've had for 40+ years, so I saved back a tiny bit for me too.  I have always been charmed by these little birds.  There is something so happy about them.  The fabric came from a shirt my sister made herself, back in the day.  It had 'butterfly' sleeves and was cropped right up under the breasts, tying in the middle (if that makes sense).  Does anyone remember that 1970's style?  Haha.  I can't believe how much skin we used to show!  I loved that shirt and was so amazed by the fact that she could actually sew something not too embarrassing to wear!  lol   Unlike the gold peasant blouse I made as a 7th grade sewing class requirement!!!

The backing is an old square of blue flannel from my patchwork baby quilt making days.  At that time I made a variety of patterns and sizes of squares, all with ties in the corners or middle of a square.  I always used and/or backed my baby quilts in flannel for extra softness.  I don't know why I placed them together here as I did (on angles), 

but oh well.  

I do hope it is useful for Jude.

On the back, you can see my thread loops from trying to hurry to finish it up in time. I don't like when the back is messy.  I hope Jude backs this, so little fingers are safe!  :)

Jude thank you for the opportunity to participate in such a worthwhile project.  I've appreciated this for so many reasons.

 I look forward to watching what happens next!

While I've used free moments to stitch feathers, my guy has used his free time to create beautiful wood spoons.  This one was a birthday gift for our neighbor.  I wish you could feel the smoothness and the gentle way it fits right in your hand.  Lovely!

As the year winds down, I hope you enjoy a sense of calm and creativity.


Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2011

Soar Feather

 
This feather is a demonstration of respect.

Respect for each one of us, wherever we are - in the world - in our own journey...wherever we are...things are as they should be.

This feather was also inspired by my love/need of sensory experiences

But mostly it was inspired by a young lady I knew when she was in the second grade many, many years ago.  This young gal was legally blind.  She had very limited peripheral vision, she could see some contrast between light and dark and maybe some shadow shapes, if I remember correctly.  What she lacked in literal sight, she made up for in amazing insight.  This second grader had a special way of seeing the world.
What I remember the most of all was her writing ability.   When working on creative writing assignments she easily pulled the reader in by her use of imaginative plots and thrilling descriptions of action, environments and characters!  To this day I remember the images she painted in my head as I crawled through the narrow opening and into the cave, brimming with multi-colored, glimmering jewels as the exciting culmination of her Leprechaun story.
So, in honor of her soaring creative spirit, I made this feather with a lot of texture and strong contrast of color.

The braille word, stitched with thread beads, below the feather reads: soar...

Yes...may we all soar...

As always, you can drop over to Jude's to check out her Magic Feather Project.  I urge you to let your creativity and generosity of the heart soar by contributing a feather of your own!

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2011

Two New Feathers

Peace, Love, Music & Feathers

Two more feathers for The Magic Feather Project that  

Jude Hill has been creating and organizing.   Everyone is invited to join in!  She has posted all of the information along with tutorials.  

Give it a try...invite a friend!

These two feathers are to honor the importance of music in our lives...and ideas of peaceful coexistence...and all of the good feelings we get from these things.

Oh, and to honor my guy too!

The white backing fabric is from a project that did not work out 

for a group of children I used to work with.

I am happy to be able to use it here.

The tie-dye fabric is a heavy cotton and once belonged to my guy in the form of a pair of pants.  He liked to wear these when recording music in his home studio.  

That was until I took the pants over about 11 years ago!  

I wore them until there was almost nothing left!

On the back you can see the spiral which I added due to the lumps that arose within the peace sign.  I think because I seem to stitch so tightly and still use knots (I can't help myself!) - the surface got very pulled in and bumpy.

But then I had these thoughts:

1. It is really OK.  Perfection is not the best way.
2. It is still pretty and stitched with loving thoughts.  This is where the importance stands!
3. It is not done as it will be added to others in Jude's cloth (If it works for her project).
4. Jude will be adding stitches and she is a Magician!!!  She can make it work!
5. Children won't mind, they may even like these bumps.
6. It really is OK just the way it is! 

Then I tried looking at it through a child's eyes and feeling it with their small hands.  I imagined a worried child pressing his or her fingers into the fabric...pushing down on a bump only to have it pop up somewhere else...doing this again and again.  Maybe lost in thought or maybe having feelings pop up as well.  Small fingers tracing the magic thread peace sign...knowing what that symbol means (it's such a universal symbol)...maybe inviting conversation or reflection or both.

The combination of brighter colors and subdued colors a celebration of the bold and less secure in all of us.  

The textures and symbols inviting us to touch it and think our thoughts.

In the end, I am really glad this feather block holds 

the imperfections it does.

 I've yet to learn how to do Jude's style of fringe, so I added my own style of braids and knots.  I have used this technique on projects in the past, mostly the 'power sticks' I have made for friends and family.  I stitched down the ends to help it remain child friendly for a long time.  I had thought of adding music notes on the right side, under the fringe, but decided to leave it more open for Jude to decide how it will best be used.
Additionally, this one ended up a bit bigger, so I do hope it works out for Jude's needs.

The last step is to let it wait for mailing out in the studio, where there are good vibes and almost always incense burning!

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2011

Mother & Daughter Feathers

I've recently finished these two feathers for Jude's Magic Feather Project.  

They are done in the ragged applique technique.

 

Jude has invited everyone to join in by creating their own unique feather.

These two feathers are to honor my mother, a true 'book person'.

They are to honor the way she raised my sister and me 

to be book people too.  

And how she helped instill a love of books in her grandchildren too. 

My mother was a Junior High English Teacher for 20 years and 

a children's bookseller for another 20 years.

She was books, catalogs and the daily newspaper.

She was song lyrics written by others, rewritten by her.

She was hand written letters and plenty of emails.

She was a curious learner and a superb teacher.

She was language and intelligence and humor.

She was so much more, so much more.

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2011