Solace

I first saw reference to India Flint’s Solace project on Mo’s blog and instantly knew I wanted to take part.

I contemplated words for several days.  What brings me solace? 

 The main part of the cloth is muslin from an apron that my mother made.  Made and wore.  It bears food stains that remained after many, many washings.  And when retired from daily use, the apron went on to the rag bag to be of further use.  Because that was the way things were done.  Cloth was not thrown away.  After my mother died in 2002, my brothers and I cleaned out her house in preparation to sell it.  My husband and I rented a truck and brought some of her furniture home.  I grabbed the rag bag because we needed some padding between pieces of furniture.  Otherwise, this bag of remnants would probably have been lost in the shuffle.  There was just so much to deal with and think about.  But in such an odd way this bag of old worn out cloth has been one of the greatest treasures rescued from her life. 

So... that apron fragment is the base cloth.  "Earth" is held by the apron’s bottom hem.  The ties are very old cotton twill tape from my grandmother’s sewing basket.  And because I wanted some extra fluttery-ness, I wove in three strips of very thin cloth.  This cloth was given to me by a friend.  It is from a cotton nightgown; so fine, soft, and thin.  It was worn until it was beginning to fall apart.  These thin tails will likely be the first thing to break down as this cloth flies in the wind.

All of these cloths were lightly dyed with black walnuts that grew on our land.  Knowing that India plans to overdye all the flags in indigo, I left the cloth fairly plain.  The colors of my embroidery floss words will likely disappear or transform in the overdye but the imprint, the texture of them will remain.  The intent is firmly anchored by the handling whether they show up or not.  It feels so good to send this cloth with its very personal her-story to join the others in carrying messages on the wind in faraway Australia.  The interconnected web.  Thank you so much India.