Search Results for: meditation tree

I’m off to Bellydance Class, but just wanted to post a picture of what my Meditation Tree poster will look like.

It’s will be the same size as my other posters, 11×17″ and will be $30 including shipping.  Brad at A&M Printers is already working on it.

I hope to have it in a couple of weeks if not sooner.

I’m as close as I can get to my Meditation Tree.  So close I can barely see her.

So, when I finished sewing the backing and tacking with some beads around the Earth Energy Spiral, I rolled out my yoga mat and sat in front of my Tree.

I found myself looking first at the tree then what was happening beneath the tree.   As if two different things were going on.  The spiral an interior grounded space. The Tree reaching up to the heights of the sky.

I felt the spiral at the base of my belly and in my root chakra.

When I looked a the tree I thought of the Turkey Vulture I watched yesterday while walking in the back pasture.  It circled low and wide to the ground, and slowly spiraled up into the bright cloudless sky, the circles getting smaller and smaller till it vanished from sight.    In many cultures, because they fly so high,  Vultures are seen with spiritual beings who touch the heavens.

A reminder of our higher selves.

We could never fly so high without good grounding

Soon my Meditation Tree will be on her way to her new home.  Joye who bought it wrote “I have the perfect wall that I purposely left blank for something special when I moved into my apartment in December. The wall is across from my recliner where I sit to meditate.”

How could I doubt that I made my Meditation Tree just for her.

It’s the backing.  Not as exciting as the front, but it still needs to be done.  That’s what I worked on today after mailing out my Potholders and a couple of small Meditation Trees.

It always takes me longer to do the backings than I think it will.  I forget what’s involved.  Making the sleeve for a rod to go through at the top for hanging, hemming the sides so it’s “square” and of course all the sewing.

I always hand sew the backings.

The old fabrics I use are so inconsistent they’d never work on my sewing machine.  But I also like what the edges look like when I hand sew them.  It’s more organic, like a free-hand pencil line.  Not one made with a ruler.

I used a piece of old linen table cloth for the backing.  They work well.  Tomorrow after I finish sewing it on I’ll  see if I need to do some tacking to hold it together.   Each piece is different, but sometime when there is something heavy like the tree in this piece, it needs a bit of shoring up.

I’ll post a photo of it all done tomorrow. My Meditation Tree is sold.

I was going to give my Meditation Tree more time.  Let it be over the weekend and come back fresh on Monday.  But that didn’t happen.  When I went into my studio, I knew what I needed to do.

So I took out the paint and my brush and worked on the space about the tree.   I smiled when I took a step back and looked at it.

It was just what I hoped for.

Is there anything else to be done?  I’ll leave that for Monday when I get into my studio and see my tree as if for the first time. I’ll need that space to be sure.

I do plan on finishing my Meditation Tree next week.  It’s still needs a backing to finish off the rough edges.  It will be about 24″x40″ when it is done and is $350. + shipping.

I sewed down the spiral on my Meditation Tree today.   In the center I placed a small mirror.  I tried some beads, and shells, but the little mirror brought a whole other layer to the piece.

I also painted the old hand quilting coming off the spiral.  Just the straight lines making layers under the tree.

Next I’ll work on the space above the tree top.

I just got the spiral looking the way I want it to.  A gradual spiraling in (After many attempts I realized I had to start from the outside and work my way to the center not the other way around) the lines getting closer as the spiral got smaller.

I pinned it on to the back and began basting the silk stands down when my phone rang.  Something is wrong with Jon’s iPhone.  Bad enough that we need to go to the Apple store in Albany  an hour from the farm to get it fixed.

That leaves me an  hour to get my work done.  Because I know when we get  back it will be late and I’m going to be too tired to do much of anything.

So the basting and finish sewing of my earth energy spiral will have to wait.

But I’m glad I got the work done on my Meditation Tree that I did today.  It feels like it’s all falling into place.

I finished sewing on my flower tassels.  They helped give shape to the tree top, then I did more painting on the  old hand quilted stitches to bring out the patterns they create in the branches and around the trunk of the tree.

I know now that I’ll be doing more painting above and below the tree too.

I’ll be looking forward to working on it again tomorrow.

The sewed some of the flowers on my Meditation Tree today.   Little tassels like flowers on a sugar maple before the leaves are full.  I made mine from embroidery thread. There are still more to do, but I figured out how to tie them and cut them to size.

Flowers full of potential, because meditation is a practice, not a destination.

How I struggled with my Meditation Tree yesterday.

I tied strips of fabric into knots and sewed them on.  I was halfway done, and it wasn’t right.  The knots were heavy and dense.  The weight of them daunting.

I only felt better when at the end of the day, I cut all my stitches and the leaves fell to my studio floor.

But what to do instead kept me up last night. I finally fell asleep with the help of a relaxation meditation from the Calm App.

It helped me to keep a clear mind even when I woke in the morning and went to my studio.

It didn’t take me long to see that my tree wanted branches not leaves. I pinned on the fabric and on the first try it was just the right size and created just the right shape.

I spent the day sewing the branches down.

When I was done I pulled out the strips of silk that I’ll use for the earth energy spiral.  I pinned it under the tree, but I’m still playing with the size and placement.

I have a feeling that once that is sewn down, I have a better idea of what to do next around the branches of the tree.

That’s the hand stitched quilting on the back of my Meditation Tree that I am painting in the photo above.  The paint will bleed through the stitches onto the front of the piece.  The paint is a suggestion,  spotty and inconsistent.  But the pattern of the hand stitching is undeniable.

The paint adds color and deepens the texture of the backing.

But before I started painting, I experimented with making leaves for the tree.

I figured this out, with the fabric and all while I lay awake one night, not able to sleep.  I was a bit surprised that I liked the way it looked when I actually tied the fabric in knots and sewed a few on.

Often when I come up with an idea in the night it doesn’t work in the daylight.

You can see the paint beginning to seep through to the front of the quilt in the photo above. Much of it will probably be covered up by the leaves, but it will still add another layer to the piece.

I still have lots more leaves to knot and sew on. I’m thinking of adding some beads or buttons to the tree top too, but I’ll see how that works as I go.

I did find the perfect fabric for the Earth Energy Spiral.  A ball of strips of silk tied together.  It is made of colors similar to the  variegated thread I used on my small Meditation Tree wall hangings.