Monday, December 30, 2013

Back, and With Good Fortune

In each of the past two years, I have had a single big year-long project. The hybrid boro yogi/dragon robe which now hangs on the wall in the guest room (formerly my sewing room, until we needed a place for someone to stay).

 
And last year, I undertook to mend a found quilt. And following up on the dragon from 2012, I picked the Year of the Snake as the theme of the 2013 project. That project is still underway, and this is the newest snake made of turquoise silk satin on the winter side of the quilt:


I've been wondering about the next year's project, which would be some kind of cloth for the year of the Horse, if I decided to proceed along in this pattern of having a year's theme. I like this idea, mostly because looking ahead for years and years of projects is somehow cheering; it makes me chuckle. But I don't know what to make of a horse; dragons and snakes already had places in my imagination, but horses don't seem to. Except for the windhorse, which I think of as always a vessel for hope, good wishes and good fortune.

But how to represent 'good fortune', as something you hope for others and that falls upon you unbidden? It struck me this morning, after many morning walks with the dog wondering, that the answer was that cloth, itself, is for me this good fortune. A found cloth is like a blessing for me, good fortune, a bit of good luck, a spur to think and hope. And so are these, two damask table cloths dropped on my porch Christmas morning in a bag, along with a pound of home made cookies. A gift from a neighbour.

 
And so one of these cloths is where I'm going to start on my Year of the Horse cloth, a cloth about celebrating the good fortune of finding cloth, the good fortune of having a neighbour who walks her dog down here to drop off cookies and cloth, the good fortune I wish for this kind of place where we live.
 
And this is the finished little altar cloth I made to commemorate the good will of the bird rescue I wrote about earlier this summer. I guess I was starting on the same path, celebrating good fortune, and so this 2014 cloth will continue that thinking.
 
 

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8 comments:

  1. grace Forrest~MaestasDecember 30, 2013 at 12:54 PM

    the Rescue altar cloth is just beautiful...gentle, safe, the Air of All is Well..
    i will very much look forward to watching the Year of the Good Fortune
    Horse. it will be just SO, as all your work is.
    Thank you for finding cloth along your ways, Wendy. it adds purpose and
    beauty to my life...love....

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  2. DebbieDecember 31, 2013 at 4:25 AM

    The alter cloth is just beautiful, I love what you do. Year of the horse, if you are looking for inspiration for a horse design can I be so bold as to make a suggestion, the White Horse of Uffington in my little country is a beautiful timeless design from pre-historic times.

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    1. GracieJanuary 1, 2014 at 4:50 AM

      Debbie, I sent a reply, and it disappeared- but let me thank you for introducing me to the Uffington Horse. I read the Wiki page, and I am left in awe. I am anxiously avoiding any literal representation of a horse, for reasons I don't quite understand, but your direction here might help me get over that. Thank you, Debbie.

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  3. NancyDecember 31, 2013 at 8:49 PM

    It's wonderful to see the robe like this. And the alter cloth is so warm and soft...it must feel very special to hold. I like your horse of good fortune idea. When I read 'windhorse'...I of course thought prayer flags! May 2014 be a year filled with good fortune and many stitches. (((hugs)))

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    1. GracieJanuary 1, 2014 at 4:46 AM

      Nancy, thank you; and, yes, that is exactly the windhorse I have in my mind. It is the only kind of horse I have any immediate recognition of; excepting, I suppose, thinking about it now, a horse that nearly killed me when I was a toddler. Funny I forgot about that neighbour's horse.... So, yes, Nancy, I think this is going to be a kind of giant prayer flag, full of wishes for good fortune for everyone and every thing. And to the good fortune of living through nearly being killed by a horse! HA! Thank you, Nancy.

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  4. Julie SJanuary 1, 2014 at 12:14 PM

    I fell in love with your cloth collecting when I first found you via Jude. So glad to see you are back communicating and I am looking forward to how this mystery horse takes shape. Signed, not a big snake fan in Pennsylvania.

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  5. Mo CrowJanuary 4, 2014 at 11:01 AM

    a string of prayer flags in the wind is like a horse's mane... there is nothing like that flying feeling of a horses mane in your face as you gallop into the wind of 2014

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