The details of the Post-Hurricane Helene member project were sent to Local Cloth members in an email. I captured this information in the screenshots below.
Our Handwork Circle at Local Cloth decided to approach this as a group. We discussed it during our online Zoom gathering today. We volunteered several ideas and identified felt as a possible medium. Several of us have nice collections of felt in different colors.
At the bottom of each 2” × 6” piece, we felt that browns would be especially relevant to the project. The water that filled our studio in the wake of Hurricane Helene was filled with brown sludge from the French Broad River. Above the sludge-colored water in our pieces, however, colorful objects — including flowers and other scenes along Depot Street — might provide a brighter aspect that mirrors our recovery. That is where we are thus far.
The pieces must be delivered by September 1, 2026, so that is our deadline. Since this is a group project, we want to link our 2” × 6” pieces together in a chain and submit them that way.
There are two ways to submit:
Enter it in the Waterline project book in Local Cloth’s cozy corner.
Submit it online:
Update — May 2, 2026, on the Handwork Circle’s Planned Contributions
The Handwork Circle contribution, we decided, will consist of joined individual pieces unified by a heartbeat motif: the tracing of a heart monitor. We discussed ideas for designing the 2” × 6” strips that will be arranged horizontally 11 feet up the wall. The earlier idea of requiring brown and other shared colors for everyone to use was ultimately discarded.
We were inspired by the Tapestry Interest Group’s installation at the Local Cloth Studio.
Chatting with Susan Gaire About the Tapestry Interest Group at Local Cloth
Ceil volunteered to create and distribute paper templates after designing the heartbeat line digitally. At present, we feel participants should have the freedom to choose their own colors, with one proviso: the contrast between the heartbeat line and the background must remain strong.
Because we are also working on Collaborative Project #3, whose theme is before, during, and after Hurricane Helene, the heartbeat trace will progress from normal rhythm, to fibrillation, and then gradually recover to normal again.
I will send out a request for participation to everyone who has attended the Handwork Circle during the past year to ensure that all who wish to be involved are informed.
Ceil’s work:
