Dicentra

Just finding ways to ground a heart.

Inspired today by this beautiful dicentra in the garden. It grows so fast. It poked through the soil only two weeks ago and is over a foot tall now with scores of expanding hearts.
But there are still left overs from winter. I picked this amazing seed head on a walk:

And then a lonely heart waits:

Slow Cloth Persuits - the road continues...

This piece has emerged into what I see as "The Road To St. Mawes".  It's a little village near the sea on The Roseland Peninsular of Cornwall which we visit more than once a year in the area that I would love to live one day in the future. We have become very familiar with it over the past 14 years and I hope to make it my home eventually.

I am now having the pleasure of stitching this slow cloth to give the texture to the patchwork fields and found these wooden beads a lovely addition.

You could say that my life over the next ten years could be said to be the road to St. Mawes. Hopefully as colourful as this cloth.

Our hearts must lie with those people of Haiti who are suffering the effects of the earthquake there.
This little stitched heart has magic around it (a gift from Jude of Spirit Cloth). It is magic used sparingly.

The snow melted here today but this snowy scene was from my window earlier in the week. I have noticed how the weather influences what I want to stitch. Snowy, cold and bright with sun makes me want to play with pale linens, pale pinks and greys. Muted colours.

Cloudy grey days of winter with slushy snow make me crave the richer gem-like colours. It's strange isn't it?

...and this is what happens in my dreams at night when fabric and the scenes of my day merge ... often it keeps me awake ... sometimes it soothes ... occasionally it inspires

Old Sweethearts - Reworking in a Slow Cloth

I have been thinking about our hearts and their similarity to quilt making and fabric selecting.
Hearts need carefully selected mates and must blend together well...they may get raggedy sometimes but can be mended with a little care and attention. To keep two hearts together needs patience and coaxing.
Sometimes two hearts are not fitting together like they used to and this needs perspective, some work, a little teasing and easing...and a sense of humour.

Sometimes a heart is patched and then cut again and then eventually re-attached and renewed. These old sweethearts are from a frayed and torn quilt piece from Cornwall which I am reworking into a slow beating cloth and allowing to fray, or sometimes couching for more definition.
It is a heart transplant.


There is a fabulous discussion going on at the moment on Jude Hill's Blog - Spiritcloth - (see sidebar) regarding Slow Cloth and hand work. It is a real community uprising!

... meanwhile this shot was on the school run where the temperature dropped to -16.5 degrees.