}

Monday 24 September 2012

Trance

I have been gathering my naturally dyed cloth all summer. Old sheeting and pillowcase's have languished in jars with leaves, berries, petals and what not. Some have been boiled, soaked, tied or bundled.

As summer draws to a close and the autumn chill seeps into my bones, I decided it was time. I gathered my fragments of cloth, and finally, they became one.

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It isn't square, it doesn't matter. I will stitch it at night, whilst the babe's sleep, it is large, maybe queen size. Draped over my lap as I stitch it, it will keep me warm. I am a little overwhelmed by it's size. It will take many months and I do not yet know how it will look when it is completed, I think this is, in part, the point.

It has a hole, this excite's me, I wish I had made more holes. I will start with the hole.

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After much consideration, I decided to name it Trance, being as this is what stitching is all about for me.

Trance [trans, trahns] noun, verb

1. a half-conscious state, seemingly between sleeping and waking, in which ability to function voluntarily may be suspended.

2. a dazed or bewildered condition.

3. a state of complete mental absorption or deep musing.

4. an unconscious, cataleptic, or hypnotic condition.

5. Spiritualism . a temporary state in which a medium, with suspension of personal consciousness, is controlled by an intelligence from without and used as a means of communication, as from the dead.

I hope that the pale tones of mother nature, will give way to a rhapsody of colour in stitch, it will need careful balance I think, to keep it all in synch. I am ready to be lost in cloth. Skitchbook at the ready.

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What are you stitching lately? Have you joined in the thread swap yet? Please do!

10 comments:

  1. Ha - the first four describe me perfectly as mother to a fat baby who WILL NOT sleep, day or night, for more than half an hour at the moment. I've yet to work out whether dead people are speaking through me but wouldn't be at all surprised, as I'm making NO sense.

    I love the idea of working on something that enfolds and warms you as it is becoming... I have so many projects on the go at once, it's hard to know what I'm doing most of at any one time - I have just started cutting for a triangle quilt, but am thinking about picking up my handstitched Jacob's Ladder, now I have my own version of the glorious Skitchbook to carry the workings around in :-) (And there's still the C-word to think about too....)

    I love the open-endedness of your blanket, that it is a journey you don't yet know the destination of. And a "rhapsody of colour" - very inspiring! Looking forward to seeing its' progress x

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    1. Get your scraps out and have a go! I am a bit intimidated by it's vastness tbh, and I underestimated how tricky it would be to work on the centre of something so large... but, I dream about this cloth every night, it is still waiting for the first stitch.

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  2. such a beautiful kaleidoscope of color and texture! this is going to be entrancing as your needle dances across its canvas. i can hardly wait to watch the journey as it begins!

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    1. I love how needles have a life of their own in your world Joe, dancing and chanting and whispering. I think I need to listen harder, I haven't stitched upon this cloth yet, I am waiting...

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  3. What fun...I love your creativity! Can't wait to see the finished treasure. xoxo

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  4. Oh wow, this is going to be sooooo beautiful I'm sure. I don't think you need to know how it will look when it's finished - where's the fun in *that*?!
    Stitching wise, I am STILL doing my hexagon charm quilt. I'll probably still be doing it when I'm 100 years old :-)
    ps/ Trance is a very very cool name for this

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  5. I love, love, love this!! The colours are gorgeous and I love the hole too.

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  6. I think thats a peephole, a window to another world

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    1. a sneaky peep hole to magical lands, I like it!

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