- Oh drought!

As if it wasn't already obvious from my weather patches ...

we are officially droughted ...

the fifth driest beginning-of-the-year on record. It's ironic considering how many flood and rainfall records we set in 2015. The good news is, it's actually drizzling right now, so I'm taking a chance on a blue patch for today in hopes that there will be measurable rainfall.

Going out on the floodplain yesterday felt like walking on the moon ...

Even so, there were small patches of green to be found ...

with splashes of color ...

purple prairie verbena ...

the subject of today's patch ...

But tempting as it was to create an appliqué from this picture, the color and form looked too similar to the goldeneye phlox. 

So I decided to pull back to a wider view. Starting with a base of lichen-dyed muslin, I basted on a shred of sheer cotton skirting, then "glued" on small dots of purple cotton with liquid starch ...

After stitching the the spots down (which was quite challenging, so I'm not recommending this method quite yet), I washed out the starch, snipped the edges, and roughed up the raw edges with a lint roller ...

Patch #51

With any luck the long-touted El Niño will bring much-needed rain ... and with it, more wildflowers.

P.S. While putting in basting stitches I folded Land of Flood and Drought into a series of pockets just to see if the resulting form might work as a handbag/purse ...

and I think "yes, it would." So, another project to get started.