Thursday, March 31, 2016

- Use your words

I remember the first time I heard a Kindergarten teacher tell an out-of-control child to "use your words."

My reaction was something along the lines of "well of course, what a great idea."

Which still holds true today, as I managed to pull off an 11th hour finish to the March patches ...

Patches 87-91

including a green calendar (for spring or St. Pat's, take your pick)  ...

Patch #91

I looked back on the rest of the month and realized the blank patches meant nothing to me. So I scrolled back to the original posts and thought, "You know, I could use some words."

And really, it didn't take all that long to do. Soon the completed month was flying in the breezeway ...


Rather than show you all the additions here, I'm going to re-visit the original posts and add updated images. With thanks to Dee Mallon for this post about back-filling journals that inspired my turnaround today.

For now, I'll leave you with these brave cactus flowers (twice the diameter of the arms that support them) ...


and the hackberry that we had given up for lost only a week ago ...


Hope springs eternal ... and yes, I'm going back to daily patches and posts.

Wednesday, March 30, 2016

- Vintage composting

Retrospective (4/29/2016)

Patch #90: vintage embroidered handkerchief ...


Original Post 

I haven't disappeared exactly, but I find myself in need of some fallow time. So, the daily posts have been put aside for now. And while I still intend to make a patch for each day, the idea of presenting them as series rather than individual pieces is forming in my mind.

So, I'm reading ...


and considering how I might repurpose my small collection of vintage handkerchiefs among other things.

Tuesday, March 29, 2016

- Holding patch

Retrospective (4/29/2016)

Patch #89: a small patch to mark a simple day of play with G ...


Monday, March 28, 2016

- Revival

Retrospective (4/29/2016)

We were sure the tree was a goner, since the other hackberry was already in full leaf. The branches were bare, barren ... no swelling of leaf buds could be seen.

Looking online, we discovered hackberries to be only somewhat tolerant of flooding. This poor thing had gotten its feet wet not once, but twice in 2015. Time to call in the arborist, we decided.

But we were wrong. Literally overnight the tree pushed out a few hopeful leaves. And then more and more, until it was clear it not only survived, but was thriving.

In full leaf (4/29/2016)

And so this is Patch #88: a tree stitch study that never got used from the Kitchen Towel series ...


Sunday, March 27, 2016

- Easter remembered

Retrospective (written 4/29/2016)

When I was growing up, solid color Easter eggs were frowned upon. Rather, we were taught by my father to hold eggs partially submerged in dye, our fingers trembling at the effort to keep a purchase whilst avoiding contact with the solution of Chick Chick powder (my mom always bought two packages to make the colors darker), vinegar and boiling water.

Layers of color were added one over the other, taking care not to mix orange and purple or green and pink lest we end up with muddy eggs. Plaids and stripes, rainbows and spots, were objects of praise. Blurred lines and inadvertent fingerprints were subject to disapproving looks. Is it any wonder I bit my nails until I was almost 40?

My mom polished the finished eggs with paper towels and a thin coating of Crisco to make them glossy, then they were left out on the dining room table to be hidden overnight by the Easter rabbit. Only then were the eggs put in the fridge to be eaten over the course of the following week. I don't recall any of us getting food poisoning as a result, but then again, if ever we did have tummy trouble it was most likely blamed on too much chocolate rather than improperly stored eggs.

I haven't dyed eggs for many years now, although I'll never say "never again." Anything can happen. But this is all by way of explaining why: in my mind Easter is pastel stripes and plaids.

Patch #87: thrift store shirting


Saturday, March 26, 2016

- Four or more

Retrospective (4/29/2016)

The original post for this patch was a confusing mash-up of days, now sorted into a more comprehensible chronological order on the actual dates for which they were made. However, the original post has been retained below as many of the comments on this date relate to it.

Patch #86
, reflected my reconnection with Dee Mallon's Hearts for Charleston project for which I agreed to make some labels for the back of the quilt.

Note the nine lines running across the middle

If you haven't read about it, or if it's been a while, I commend it to your attention.

Original post

Today I have a four-fer for ya ...

Patches 83-86

Wednesday's partially orange patch was made for G with the addition of railroad tracks ...


Trains are among his favorite toys, and I love that he sings I've been workin' on the railroad as often as The eyes of Texas ... except when he's belting out The star spangled banner.

Sadly, one short week after learning of our friend's cancer diagnosis, she was gone ...

Her obituary and picture are here

Liz was Don's other half at work, where they served the Stonehouse Elementary family as principal (Liz) and assistant principal (Don) for several years (not to mention many other professional collaborations over twenty-some years). They were a perfect team and Liz's passing shook us both deeply.

But even as we tried to make sense of it all, spring continued to come to Texas.  Wildflowers multiplied overnight, and if they were bothered by the frosty mornings (very unusual for this time of year), it didn't show. So this time around, it was the four-nerve daisies that caught my eye ...


and recalling Mo's pointers on evening primrose, I tried to pay a bit more attention to details. I even traced a flower directly onto cloth ...


leaving a perfect ring of pollen to mark the center. Then I tried my best to replicate the four veins in each petal, the central Fibonacci spiral and the disk flowers surrounding it ...


But capturing the reality of the color, even using my brightest floss, was beyond my reach.

Today's patch reflects my reconnection with Dee Mallon's Hearts for Charleston project ...

Note the nine lines running across the middle

which is nearing completion. If you haven't read about it, or if it's been a while, I commend it to your attention.

And then I went back to add stitches here ...

Patches 65 and 66

putting folds into the pink "napkin" as a reminder of our after-dinner play with G where we challenge each other to make squares and rectangles, plus the addition of the word "spring" to remind me of why I chose to use green one week before the official beginning of the season.

I also decided to answer Grace's question in stitches ...

Patch #80

Then, as the sun slipped slowly into the clouded west, I stitched on a cloudy gray patch for today, even though the sun did manage to break through every so often. So ends the last full week of March weather patches ...


Hard to believe that April is only 5 days away.

Friday, March 25, 2016

- Bitterweed by another name

Retrospective (4/29/2016, originally posted on 3/26/2016)

Wildflowers multiplied overnight, and if they were bothered by the frosty mornings (very unusual for late March), it didn't show. So this time around, it was the four-nerve daisies that caught my eye ...


and recalling Mo's pointers on evening primrose, I tried to pay a bit more attention to details. I even traced a flower directly onto cloth ...



leaving a perfect ring of pollen to mark the center. Then I tried my best to replicate the four veins in each petal, the central Fibonacci spiral and the disk flowers surrounding it ...

Patch #85

But capturing the reality of the color, even using my brightest floss, was beyond my reach.

Thursday, March 24, 2016

- RIP redux

Retrospective (4/29/2016, originally posted 3/26/2016)

We lost a dear friend on March 24, but I wasn't able to bring myself to post about it until two days later. In the end, I removed the first patch and replaced it with a simpler one:

Patch #84


Nonetheless, the original post on the 26th generated some very thoughtful condolences, so it remains there.

Wednesday, March 23, 2016

- Laying new tracks

Retrospective (4/29/2016 originally posted 3/26/2016)

My first attempt at stitching train tracks left me less than wildly enthusiastic, so the patch pictured in the original post on March 26 has been replaced by this ...

Patch #83

I even managed to take a process shot the second time around ...


What hasn't changed is G's ongoing enthusiasm for playing with his train sets, so this is probably not the last time trains will make an appearance here ...


Tuesday, March 22, 2016

- Three in a row

After a day full of shopping and errands yesterday, I once again had some catching up to do ...

Patches 80-82

Sunday revisited ...


a late-night myopic view of Monday's waxing gibbous moon (courtesy of Deb Lacativa) ...


and the green grass growin' all around and around ....

Patch #82
with fingers crossed that Wednesday morning's lunar eclipse won't be clouded over ...

Monday, March 21, 2016

- Squint

Retrospective (4/29/2016, originally posted 3/22/2016)

You've really gotta squint to see this, but I promise you there is a gibbous moon in this linen damask dyed by Deb Lacativa ...

Patch #81

Sunday, March 20, 2016

- An artful day

 Retrospective (4/29/2016)


Patch #80 (revised with green split backstitch)
 Original Post

The Wildflower Center had an art show this weekend, so we met up with some friends for brunch this morning, then headed over.

Folk artist George Boutwell was actually the lure that got us there, as he captures quintessential Texas scenes ... and we did walk away with a copy of his 2009 calendar featuring Texas honky tonks.

However, the coup of the day came in making the acquaintance of Sue Foss, who makes clothing with shibori, batik, and indigo dyed cloth. She kindly told me about the Austin Fiber Artists who meet monthly just a few miles from our daughter's house. I've marked my calendar for the next meeting.

Better yet, I not only made the acquaintance of fiber and mixed media artist Jan Pomeroy (who also had a past connection to Austin Fiber Artists), I walked away with this delightful piece ...


that I pulled out of its frame as soon as we got home. I have commissioned a more suitable housing from Don, then I'll figure out where to put it on our rapidly diminishing wall space.

Last, but not least, I had a thoroughly enjoyable conversation with metal artist Laura Sturtz, whose copper "quilts" and "weaving" speak to a kindred aesthetic differentiated only by medium.

As we walked out, Don turned in his tracks, stopping in front of a plant we have long called "Spanish dagger." Wrong! 


Now we know: thorn-crested agave is what we've got, in abundance! Then again, it could be the  thorncrest century plant, which might actually be the same thing. I'm so confused.

Returning home, I went out to see what might have come up since my last picture walk and was rewarded with this lovely sight ...



Close up

I do believe you'll be seeing another patch of blue-eyed grass soon!

Saturday, March 19, 2016

- Mark madness

Yesterday's riff on runes was ever so much fun ... ending in a patch that was totally random and unplanned. Not being willing to let go of the feeling, I looked for more marks and found them in some of my "dye" trials with metal ...

Sadly, I learned early on how tough it is to get a needle through rusted cloth. Tugging a needle through today's small patch cured me of going back to the rust stash anytime soon. But oh, I do love those marks!

Fortunately, I was able to add a measure from the rain gauge to this week's weather patches ...


I've also created enough 1.5" square patches to enable a little playing around ...




I have no idea where I'm headed, but I sure am having fun getting there ...


Addendum: Some of these patches ended up as bases for the Peace Pin Project (4/1/18)

Friday, March 18, 2016

- What does it all mean?

Yesterday we got confidential news that a dear friend's cancer had returned and spread. Today the news is out in the open, but my heart remains heavy.

I turned to my Kindred Spirits, finding a thread running from tree graffiti at Tanglewood Threads to glyphs at Paper Ponderings to runes at Tales from the Birdhut

I couldn't help but think of J.R.R. Tolkien's writings, replete with elves and dwarfs (dwarves?), hobbits and wizards ... all with their own languages. Once upon a time, I even re-imagined this in stitch ...


dated 1973, when I was seventeen ...

and never quite completed (see tree on the left)

So today I stitched a galaxy ...

Patch #78

with no other message than this: it's not always clear what the meaning of life might be ... we just have to keep going.

One last thing, to end on a hopeful note. Every so often I look at the stats for the blog, which include the top referring sites. Today I saw a new URL and found my way to Bluebonnet Girl Weaving. The seventeen year old who still lives inside me found a new Kindred Spirit and takes heart that some things change for the better.

Thursday, March 17, 2016

- A private patch ...

We got confidential news that a dear friend's cancer had returned and spread. With dark clouds overhead and in my heart, all I could think was ...

Patch #77