- Considering Weave: Grace Forrest's Underlying Order

I've alluded to Jude Hill's class Considering Weave quite frequently over the past several months ... but one of the coolest parts of her online study was the opportunity to meet other kindred spirits.

There were at least 80 people in the class (not everyone posted to the open forum) and of those, 50 had their own blogs. It was overwhelming just keeping up with Jude's posts and all the forum posts ... but then some of those promised even more details on individual blogs ... and one of those was Grace.

Grace from New Mexico hooked me early with her blog Windthread (see the KINDRED SPIRITS link to the right). And the posts that stuck in my mind related to a cloth she started on July 4th and ended on July 11 ... the time it took her to create "Underlying Order."

I also noticed how incredibly generous she was about commenting on others' work in the online class forum and she became a role model as I learned how to fit in with a well-established community of textile artists.

Throughout the summer I read and read ... trying to absorb all the new ideas and possibilities ... virtually abandoning my own blog. However, as the class wound down I began to follow other blogs ... and was delighted to find that some in turn were following mine.

So it was that Grace and I began an exchange of posts and comments on compost. Recalling her woven cloth from the summer, I looked back at the original posts, one of which mentioned putting it in her online shop. Against all odds it was still available and I laughed out loud when I read the title: Underlying Order. 

"Like compost," I thought. 

I sent Grace an email asking how to buy Underlying Order,  setting in motion its journey to my hearth ...

There is nothing like seeing a cloth in person ... to touch it, peer at the stitches, turn it over, discover the finest details ... like the incredible hand-dyed backing cloth that inspired me to take the copper pot out of my hearth (just visible on the lower left edge of the first photo) and fill it with cloth, tea, acorns and windfall lichen (when I really did have other things to do) ...

But the very best was seeing, as if for the first time, the diamond ... 

not just on Underlying Order, but on the mug that sits by my chair every morning as the sun shines in ...

Kismet