What If? ~ White

So here are two of the three ideas for this first What If?

I pulled out white fabrics, but wasn't feeling it.

I fooled around with photos...making them go all white and all.

You can go back in the posts if you want to see that stuff.

Anyway, this was the first idea that came to me...one I wanted to stitch.  

I'm trying real hard to DO something this time in Jude's class.  

Usually I read, watch, listen...and stitch very little.

I've still stitched Very Little!  These two small cloths have just enough stitch to hold the sun & moon on.  We'll see where they go from here.

 I have a third idea that I hope to get to soon.

My time is extremely limited these days.

The first one is the sun on the left.  Something Jude said very early on sparked the idea.

What if I makes something that is Very Typically one color...and instead I make it White?

So we get: What if the Sky was Yellow and the Sun was White?

The second one, the moon goes like this:

What if the Night Sky was White and the Moon was Filled with Stars?

The white is an old pillow case that once belonged to my great aunt.

And, yes Jude is absolutely right in the fact that they are very hard to sew through.

But it is the White I had, so I muscled through!!!

One of her recent posts included the idea of how we hang on to things, honor them to excess...never using them for fear of ruining them.

I can see myself in this idea.

After I make the third idea in this set, I plan to use cloth which I keep on an honoring-treasuring-memory filled pedestal!

Enough is enough!

Lastly, today is the last day of March and I did indeed clean out/up by having at least one thing leave my house every day!  I've recorded all of it on my calendar.

I will continue to clean out...but not record it any more.

I've loved the feelings of getting rid of ~ letting go!

So good, so freeing.

To recap:

January 2013- Wrote a Small Stone everyday.

February 2013: Was sick almost every day.  Yep, I'm counting that as my monthly did it!!

March 2013: At least one thing leaves the house every day.

April 2013...

STAY TUNED!


PS I forgot to add this book idea...remembered through asking What If?
c.l.o.u.d.s.
If you can read a copy...do!  It is filled with imagination and colorful delight!

 

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

Listening

Listening to music is always a joy for me.

Today, while sewing a sun, I listened to some old tunes inspired in part by Saskia's recent posts involving 9 patch music and screaming in the car.  The later inspired me to dig out some of my mom's old records while searching for the artist Dory Previn.

This led me to You Tube with a fistful of names to search and listen to.  This all makes me really wish I still had a turntable.  I could get lost in favorite music from my days gone by.

Below are the albums that inspired and afternoon of listening pleasure.

All of them belonged to my mom, but I don't have any strong memories of listening to them back then.  I remember all of the theater albums, hence my love of musicals.  I remember the folk songs, embedding themselves into my core.  I remember the music of the current times (Joni Mitchell, Peter, Paul and Mary and so on).

Dory Previn was among those 1970's singer songwriters I listened to.

But the others I don't really recall.

However, I do feel a very deep connection to this music.

Not explainable, just there.

What music to you deeply connect to?

Who turned you on to it?

Who did you share it with?

*I'll share the sun when I get a bit farther along with it.

Have a nice week...filled with song!

Starting Top Right: Marian Anderson 'Spirituals', Odetta 'Sings Folk Songs', Dory Previn 'On My Way to Where?, Barbara Dane 'Trouble in Mind', Leadbelly 'Rock Island Line', and Mahalia Jackson 'The World's Greatest Gospel Singer'

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

Log Happy

This is my log that sits out back.  It sits where the grapefruit tree used to be.

There is a pipe there that I don't want to drive over, so we marked the spot.  

Now that I look at it sitting on the grapefruit tree stump...it seems a kind of memorial...one chopped tree to another (even if it was placed there for a more practical reason!).

This log has a long history with me.  I've had it since a camping trip in the mountains in the very early 1990's when my ex brought it home with us.  It sat on our porch for years as the perfect place to set your glass of iced tea.

Eventually the bark fell off.  You can see what I did with it here.

One day, when the grapefruit tree was still there, I came home and noticed that the little log was not between the two old timey metal lawn chairs.  Where did it go I wondered?

Low and behold I spied it over the chain link fence near my neighbor's woodpile.  My guy went around and fetched it up for me.  A few days later...it was gone again.  

"What's going on?" I exclaimed!!

So my guy went around and fetched it up again, where it sat waiting near the neighbors woodpile.  

Finally I asked the son of the neighbor who shares the duplex with me.  

Yes.

You guessed it.  

For some unknown reason, he had thrown it over the fence.

It belonged to me, here...not to the other neighbor.  It did not belong to him. When it arrived back home and again sat between the chairs...what do you think possessed him to throw it over for a second time?  Ya, I don't know either.

But, he's been that kind of neighbor since he arrived to town.

Anyway, now the little log has stayed put for a long time.  Just yesterday as I walked past it, I noticed the trails, the code, the hieroglyphics, the words in the wood.

this had to have been there, but I hadn't noticed it until Saskia had explored with her on log!

You can see what Saskia has done here.

Interesting, isn't it?  How one becomes aware.

How the stories layer themselves...over each other...over time.

This little log has had so much to share all of these years.

And the story continues...

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

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

White at Work

As most of you know, I've begun a new class with the wonderful Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth.  It is titled "What If?" and looks to be a promising exploration of...well, of everything!  I've been following Jude for years now and although I never stitch even half of the ideas in my head, or really much at all...her blog/classes/style/words/stories..well, just her period, she has enriched my life to no end.  I thank her for that.
Anyway this class began with "White".  As soon as I read/listened/viewed her first ideas around white, I began to notice it everywhere.  At first just the color itself, not any deeper meaning as to what White can symbolize.
So this first post is a collection of White photos from the environment around work.
I hope to be back very soon with cloth White and deeper White, but we'll see!

   This is where I often park.  I hang out in my car to eat lunch, talk to my friend                                                       or stitch on the Mexican Gathering Blanket.

I have noticed the play of shadows against the white wall.

These photos are near another place I typically park (much more shade here!)

 I began to wonder how this area would look altered to White...

 So, I played around with the before and after of photo manipulation.

Then another day, on my daily walk at lunch time, I noticed White in the natural world...

I noticed most of the White did not stand alone, other colors...no matter how slight entered the composition.  Spring has been a great time to be out and about looking for White in nature.  Additionally there were the man-made Whites that are always there...

The rocks made me think of Jude's recent patchwork snow where the earth showed through the white snow.  Here in the land of Sun it is white rocks and earth!  This fell right in with one of my original thoughts of White...what if things that are normally not represented in White, were?

So, I changed the color on a couple more photos to see the world through a white view-finder!

A pine cone in the parking lot appears ghostly!

I've always considered this handmade camera case White...until now!  Of course it is darker with wear :)  I love the way the light plays in these pictures and the contrast of White against the Mexican Gathering Blanket.

Last we have part of my lunch Matzo!  Here is another item that appeared more white before this focus began!  But, again...I can change that!  I see those light filled hole, slits really and I think 'weave it!'  No time to sew my food though this time around.

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

Cups

This is old stuff...from a season past, but still in draft form.  Putting it out there as a part of the March Clean Up/Out!  My talented niece took the photo as I exited my aunts house  "Goodnight all!"  It is one of very few photos I actually like of myself.
Same talented niece taught herself this cups routine.  I just love this gal!!


You may see a few posts strung together here at pomegranate trail, as I clean out old drafts, either in the blogger file or in my head!!  I have some photos of "white" exploration that I took...I've gathered some "white" cloth...
You may hear me say over and over, repetition like in a high school diary, how I am struggling with the time factor right now.  Apologies in advance!    Hope your weekend is wonderful!

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

So Many Books, So Little Time

I've not been an interesting blogger lately.

Too sick.

Too tired.

Too not home.

Too busy trying to get stuff done.

However, that does not mean I have not drafted many posts in my head.  

I have.

I've designed them, strung words together, chosen photos and decided on videos.

And then I've mostly done none of it.

And I really want to.  Really.

I have so many things I want to say and/or share.

Of course, I've been cleaning out in the Big March Clean Up/Out!
Last weekend I did the big bookcase.  This involved removing each book to dust.  It involved wood polishing and making decisions about what would stay and what could go.  More stayed, obviously.
I found doubles of books and I found many I wanted to read or reread.
And I just really wish I had more time for all I want to do.

Getting de-cluttered and clean up is important to me.
I can't think with all of this and I really, really, really
want to be able to focus on the new What If? class with Jude Hill of Spirit Cloth!
She is starting with 'white'...which can certainly represent a blank slate.

I will have to put on blinders to focus on anything in the upheaval going on during the spring cleaning!
I will have to keep my resolve to create with the busy days of a work/commute life.

But, for now, look at the beautiful bookcase!
Many of the books belonged to or were given to me by my mom (or both, hence the doubles!)
Does anything here catch your fancy too?

That is it for today.
I'm glad to post this (one week later).
I'm glad to accomplish something productive.
Now to go in search of white...

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013