Tuesday 13 November 2012

~ The Tilly Keepers ~

Continuing from last post.....

I am now playing with the moons...

The cyanotype feather in the centre is Tilly supported by her keepers and flying free

The moons were quite a challenge with many different blues tried, but not quite right, until I finally found this piece hiding in my shed. The white moon was initially on a blue background, but it looked wrong. I wonder if the grey, which is a piece of silk I dyed with black beans, works because this is the colour of sky we are so accustomed to here!
 The two moons, one of them blue, are included as she died in August and it was a blue~moon month.
It is nearly finished now. The leaves represent the four of us, with the two (young) green ones being Tilly and Our Boy, and the two (older) brown ones, me and My Man. 


The hills she sees from where she rests.
I included the heart for the white heart~marking she had on her forehead,  and because she lives on in ours.
I have loved working on this. It has kept me close to Tilly during these months of missing her.

It has also made me realise just how much I have learnt, and continue to learn, from Jude. Not only techniques of stitching and composition, which I treasure, but the gifts of stretching my thinking, looking with new eyes ~ deeper into thingsencouraging the confidence to tell my stories in the medium of cloth.

17 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. yes, and I have to keep reminding myself that it really is always so.

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  2. Beautiful cloth, Helen. I love the heart on Tilly's forehead. November blessings to you.

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  3. sweet Tilly, forever in your heart, and in that perfect white heart--what a loving remembrance for you, your son, your man

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    1. Yes, she has a big Tilly-section in my heart...thank you Ali.

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  4. this is how love is. never ending and taking new
    forms from the love we knew
    so tender, this.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Grace....I love your words here.

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  5. This is the Most beautiful of memory holders. Funny this was the first time I'd really noticed her forehead heart, and then you spoke of it. The many stitches in it feel Important to me for some reason. Maybe marking all the time spent together, or the many times thought of Little Tilly since...at any rate they seem to add a weight to the cloth, a grounding of sorts.
    (((hugs))) to you.

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    Replies
    1. That's exactly it Nancy....both the times we had and the memories now....beautifully put, thank you.

      (((hugs back)))

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  6. Replies
    1. Thank you Dean...it has helped. Love to you and Fleur-Ange.

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    2. oh hey....have you clicked on the link to Jude's blog up there in my post? You will see that they had smiling, rescuing angels from Ontario arrive to give them back their power after the storm.

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  7. what a beautiful cloth and what a beautiful remembrance and what a beautiful dog! I really love how the stitches integrate the many pieces together, binding disparate parts, the way love does.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Dee...I love 'binding disparate parts, the way love does.' Yes.

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  8. this Tilly spirit cloth holds so much love, care and connection. the stitches in the moons especially touch me.

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  9. I like it, textury and cozy. The colors are muted
    as if faded by the Sun.

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