10 Minute Drill #22 ~ White Weaving

While exploring the desert and surrounding San Diego county...I treated myself to a beautiful weaving by Beryl E.M. Warnes. I debated...left and then walked back in to purchase!  That's how art should be...something that moves you.  Something that for sure you will think about later, and for a long time.  I didn't want that regret.  So, now I'm enjoying this one at my home.

I couldn't help but think of Jude, who loves the woven and speaks in White and Deanna, who manipulates cheesecloth, works in white and embraces lace...and Saskia & Grace who hang cloth in windows to see the light shine through.  And all of the other fellow What Iffers? who have been exploring White along with me!
If you'd like to check out more about Ms. Warnes...you can do so here:
http://weaverslink.com/fiber-artists/beryl-warnes/

She is busy preparing for the local "Fiber Dance" and making saddle blankets and woven clothing!

Here is a link for anyone interested: fiber dance festival

This is the weaving in her shop...really caught my eye!

close up...holes

In the breeze on the apricot tree

No shadows this time

A river runs through it

A light touch of bling adds so much!

On the Mama Rose Bush

 I, of course, realize that I've just shown you several photos of the One Same Weaving...

but each photo holds the light, shadows and fibers in such an interesting way, 

that I couldn't resist!

Thanks for humoring me!

I plan to hang this in a window so I can always see the light dance through it.

Beryl did tell me that she made it as a window piece and I think she got it just right!

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

 

'What Ifing?' with Found White

Folding laundry at work 

I come across a cleaning rag, warm from the dryer.

Worn and White

Thin and Light

And faded colors

Perfect

I have to say that I just love the little oval of sky at the top!

A perfect backing for the Desert Sunset cloth

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

Before & After #3

Before & After #3: Story in cloth

BEFORE

Fabric is true White-White, bad lighting gives the yellowed tint.

This is the white fabric I mentioned.  

I found it neatly put away in a Zip-lock bag, the remnants of an earlier project with young children.  I have no recall of what that project was, nor do I recall what medium was used to paint the smaller squares.  Therefore, I have no idea what will happen to it when I wash it.

However, I could care less!

So, this white and lightly colored fabric (cotton) became an experience in just doing.  Maybe not as much What Ifing as just going!

There were 4 white blocks and a stack of small white with color applied squares.

Work with what you have Nancy.

Don't over-think it...just stitch.

AFTER

First sewn block.  Small colored one centered on larger White one.

Glue stitch, a square and an X.

Second white block sewn.  A 9 patch.

I merely cut up the smaller squares to create the 9 patch.  

I did not look at placement according to color.  I just randomly pinned them down.

No over-thinking = no stress!

Third block visits the desert!  I finished this one on our road trip.

One little square, 5 smaller squares.  Again, cut & randomly placed.

No worries about the coloration and how one square fades into another.

Just sewn.

Doesn't it blend nicely with the desert sunset?!

While waiting for the night sky, I had some fun with these three blocks.  Pinned together, they hung against the twilight sky.  They shone in the dark.  They waved in the breeze.

The next day, while visiting the Santa Ysabel General Store, I spied an amazing spool (10.5 yards) of velvet trim.  I had to have it!

There were several color choices, which were all appealing, but I chose the dusty green.  It looks more grayish in the pictures, but it's green.  It came on a beautiful wooden spool that smells like cedar!!

I was not sure what I'd do with it, but I kept the spirit of no plan-going in mind.

By the next day, block number 4 was complete.

4 smaller squares, spaced out and stitched.

Again, no color planning.

I didn't even look too carefully at the spacing.

Just pinned and sewed.

Can you see the California Yucca plant to the left of the cloth, right under my arm?

They were blooming and expired like crazy...all over the place!

AFTER-AFTER

I cut and placed 4 snippets of the velvet trim in the middle of each smaller square.

No big meaning, just wanted to use it.

4 little dusty green rectangles.

I had wanted the stitches to hold it on to hide, by using a matching color of floss, but I didn't have one with me.  Then I thought of using an earthy color.

But...when I picked up a needle to use, it had a bit of magenta-pink on it.

It looked so nice against the green.  So spring-like.

As I stitched with it on the drive home, we passed a wildflower that was the perfect match for this pink!!  How's that for confirmation of choice?!  Ha!

I wasn't too sure if I liked the look of the trim once sewn.

It is so much darker and heavier.

But in the spirit of random doing, I'm leaving it.

I'm even adding some to the other 3 blocks.

That's the all the plans I have so far: Sew on trim.

I don't know what I will do with the 4 blocks past that.

No over-thinking allowed.

Place, pin & stitch!

That's enough.

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

The Third Block

This is the third block.  The last one for this moment.  I may do more...or not.  I have no idea what I will do with them next, so I'm going to set them aside and work with other White etc.
If you have a suggestion, please share in the comments, as I love reading all of the creative ideas everyone has!

This one is called: What if the clouds were made of rainbow colors?

And here are all 3 together...

These What Ifs remind me of the great children's book If.
A game of the imagination.  A wondering game.

My kids and I used to creatively answer the questions from this book.  One of the questions was "If you came downstairs to find a unicorn in the kitchen one morning, what would you do?"  We pulled that question out of the jar so many times it became a running joke between the three of us!  These open-ended questions (which I had written on small slips of paper to be pulled for discussion during family dinner) are a wonderful way for children to learn to think creatively about problem solving, among other things.

In the end, isn't this a skill needed in today's world?

Don't we need to look at things in an open-ended manner to solve problems, issues, concerns we couldn't have dreamed up years ago?

This is the way teachers work with young children.

This is the way we work with our art/cloth/whatever.

This What Ifing we're doing with Jude seems to be more than just a way to work with cloth.  More than particular techniques and skill sets.

Instead, it is a way to look at life.

*Note: Check out some of the other titles suggested, linked on these pages.  These children's books can be an inspiration to our own creative outlets.

The Important Book has always been a favorite of mine.  And I noticed: Imagine a Night (Day, Place), which were not familiar to me.
Every time I go to Amazon, I get sucked in for a long time looking at all of the wonderful books out there!


I have the pedestal fabrics to consider and I found some plain white blocks from an old 'with children' quilt project.  There was also some that looked like it had been watercolored.

Mmmmm.....

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

Light & Dark & Lines

Morning Sky

Over at Jude's, a lot of Whispering White has been going on.

I listen to #7 - Light & Dark before heading off to work.

Low and behold, the sky is filled with lines...and light and dark.

And all of it is whispering above me!

That's it for me today.

I'm stitching on the third 6X6ish white block.  It will complete the current idea for What Iffing ~ White.  I actually have a few more ideas, but I will let them sit for a while.

I'll post #3 when done.

Note to Jude:

You have no idea how your teachings stick in my head as I travel back and forth, as I work with young children...as I go about my days.  I thought I'd share this image as a sample.

There could be hundreds of them!

Thank you for sharing yourself with myself and all of the others.

Much appreciated.

Grateful.

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

Happy Birthday to Me! 2013

I'm celebrating in White this year...in honor of the 

Whispering White of Jude's What If? class!

The top photo is Little Nancy, in white (or what is only remembered as white due to black & white photography of days gone by).  Photos are resting on an old napkin, presumably crocheted by a family member, maybe my grandmother.  I have 12 of them - all now naturally dyed, except this one.

As I mentioned around blogland, I wear very little white these days.  But, in my teen years, I loved it!  It helps that I was very tan in those days, so white looked great!  Once I had children and began working with young children, I decided white wasn't my color any more.  I wish I had the white shirt in the middle pic...it was so sheer with embroidered flowers at the top.  It would be great to cut up for stitching projects!  Haha
Wait!  Now that I think about it...I DO have the tank top on the left!

So, if you were here last year, you may remember the 5 Things game I played to celebrate me...and all of my dear readers!  If you were not here, you can find that birthday post, which includes my birth story, right here.

It's been a full year since Mo asked me to share the photo in the Beach Boys pamphlet.  Gee whiz...what does that say about me?!  All year I've meant to post them.  I finally took pictures months ago and now, finally here they are!

Beach Boys circa 1975

Left-hand page, middle picture on the right...the band member's children come on stage to sing.

We, of course, thought this was the coolest thing ever!

Can you guess which gal is me?  Hint: I'm sitting on a young man's shoulders.

Yep!  There I am!  Boy was I ever surprised to see myself!

I think it's quite timely that I was wearing my favorite off-white overalls!  Nancy in White!

So, now for the game...

5 Things I Bet You Never Knew About Me!

1. As a preteen, I wore moccasins almost exclusively, almost daily!  They always ended up with holes, as did my socks, which drove my mom crazy!  I would wear them again in a heartbeat if I had a pair.  But, the authentic kind or as close to authentic as you can get...NOT those new trendy ones sold in the department stores.
2. In high school I wrote horrible poetry that I thought was great...or at least very good!  I knew the truth when I was finally brave enough to share it with a very good friend...an older and wiser friend.  Her 'I don't know what to say' facial response and lack of verbal praise said a lot!!!  Partial sample: "...What would you do if you really weren't you? If you were a figment of somebody's dream..."  Maybe one of my first What If's?!!  I still remember that feeling of thinking what if the world wasn't what we thought it was?  Sort of a Twilight Zone kind of thing!
3. I don't do mornings.  I dearly wish I did.  I am envious of those who greet the dawn.  Now that I am aging, I don't do late nights so well either! (((sigh)))
4. I love the sound of a wood screen door banging shut.  I don't know why, as it is not a sound I grew up with (as you can see above in my first day of Kindergarten picture, we had metal screen doors, or none at all).  To me it rings of children happily running in and out during summertime play...of home.
5. I like almost any kind of music except opera and rap!  I have to be able to hear the words so I can sing along.  I love to sing along in the car...when I'm alone :)

The gang hanging out on the stadium grass.

What great memories of a fun day listening to the music of Pure Prairie League, Jessie Collin Young and The Beach Boys!

Photos by NAE @pomegranatetrail ©2013

Beautiful old birthday card from my mom, that I found a few days ago, while cleaning in March.  Hi Mom!

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

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