Sunday Serenity - Hanging On by Threads

My Quilter's Tote on the table at the Clark County Fair sporting it's blue ribbon. 

I almost broke the blogging ice in August for this.  Instead I started working on crochet WIP that had been put on ice while I focused on this project since June 2012 when I began it as my Secret Santa gift for my sister-in-law.  I only eased the ban for gift-giving occasions until mid 2014 when work on this hit a major snag when my first attempt to assemble the panels created a puddle not a bag.  What use is a tote that must be held open for you while you load it?

So work essentially stopped on this while I noodled on the engineering problem, worked out possible solutions and gathered materials to try them, failed, noodled some more...rinse, repeat.  I still have only partially solved it.  I had to stuff the bag with packing air pillows for the fair display as I ran out of time to implement my full solution.

Since the day I dropped this off at the fairgrounds August 1st, I've started several new projects and gotten several more off the hook.  I'll post about them as soon as I get the photos prepped.

I'm also going to be joining two CAL (Crochet Alongs) this fall.  One is already in progress and the other starts this coming week.

I also started loom knitting in September and have plans to learn to knit.  I've been watching video tutorials on it and no longer feel intimidated.

I've been hanging onto my sanity with my crochet hook since I got my craft table unburied from three feet of detritus in March.  At my counselor's suggestion I began to work on this in earnest with an eye to entering it in the Cowlitz County fair in July.  It was to be an exercise in goal setting and self-promotion and finishing a major WIP.  I missed the deadline for the Cowlitz County fair by several hours.  My sister suggested I look up the reqs for the other county fairs in the area and Clark County was both the next up and the closest.

The ribbon is a Premium Blue and I've no idea what that means in the scheme of things.

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Retrieving the Words

Source: via Kris Jurski on Inspired to Reality

Sounding Central Truth
by Joy Renee

What do you mean by denying a
Truth that is right before your eyes?
Just because a neighbor neighs a lie
And it seems easier to agree than to
Say the emperor has no clothes?
It is the naked truth that we must see
And we must say what we have seen.
We must retrieve the words from that
Place where they reside, where they
Are not yet hide-bound, where they
Abound in unsounded musings. And
Tell it from the crazy place where truth is.
Write it from the dark place where light burns
So hot it consumes itself. Where the weight
Of reality draws real things into the
Hole of no escape--the Event Horizon--
Where abide the convent of Graces
Hidden from those who know their places,
Who scorn play for duty, who know they are
Safe only where none can accuse them
Of abusing their faces by exposure
To pleasure and beauty. Beware of
Safety if you mean to defy the
Word of the herd and speak from the place
Where none worship the face. Decry the
Lie that others live by and live to
Conspire with Creation’s desire for
Passion and wonder. Embrace the All.
Consummate the meaning.
Sing the secret from your center.

(c) 1998-2018 Joy Renee

I posted this poem previously with an explanation of its history, inspiration and personal meanings so I won't repeat it here tho I encourage anyone interested to check it out as it might enhance the experience of reading the poem and it will add to the understanding of what this poem means to me in the context of today and going forward.

I am re-posting the poem as the intro to this post which I hope will be the first in a return to regular blogging after over two years of sparse posting.  I'm allowing the poem to stand in as both declaration of intent to 'retrieve the words' and hints as to why I have for so long been avoiding 'the place where they reside'.

To be slightly more explicit:

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