Joy-full

I have been too long away. With too many things rattling around in my head, I ended up putting none of it down.

But today's mail call gave me the nudge I needed to get back in gear. A whimsical box ...

holding treasure: tapestry, handspun, and a cunning little vessel ...

Look closely and you'll read Deb Sposa's name scribed into the foot ...

It's a wonderful keepsake from someone I very much admire. And if you don't already do so, please read Deb's blog to see why 

https://artisun.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-gift-for-liz.html

And so, finally finding myself online again, I figured I might as well give you a peek at my recent patchplay ...

wonky improvs on the traditional log cabin design made from P's outgrown baby clothes.

Some of the clothing was so sheer that I decided to piece strips together ...

before cutting them into perpendicular strips to provide a little more stability ...

I interspersed the pieced strips with brand new, solid cotton quilting cloth (gasp). That was a first for me as I usually work with thrift store linen clothing, but P's clothes were all cotton and I sensed the need for a consistent fiber content and weight to stabilize the eventual whole. 

Besides which, there was no way those tiny baby clothes were going to stretch far enough for another first: a "true" quilt. By which I mean a pieced top and a backing with a third layer sandwiched in the middle, all stitched together into a bed covering of some sort. Something I've never done before. To which end I purchased a double weave cotton gauze to use in place of batting ...

Because I've never followed recipes exactly, so why start now?

New-ness

I've finally taken the plunge. Inspired by the gift of Natalie Goldberg's Living Color, I'm playing with watercolors for the first time in a looooong time ...

Not that I didn't have a few irons in the fire already. Such as the cloth and print versions of Moon Myth which stalled when it became abundantly clear that they wouldn't be completed in time for Christmas ...

Fortunately, I did manage to get some gift-making done on deadline. Like this handtowel I found at a local gallery ...

and embellished with stitch ...

And me being me, I also launched a new project taking P's outgrown baby clothes ...

and stitching them into squares for a someday blanket ...

Best of all was the grandkid Christmas project. Rather than the traditional gingerbread houses, our St Louis grandkids requested a train. I upped the ante by making chocolate springerle cookies instead, which made the house smell like a brownie factory ...

The boys each assembled a box car and decorated to their hearts' content ...

Then they filled each box car with the excess candies ...

earning me kudos from the moms, who were more than happy that all that sugar wasn't actually consumed ... ha!

So here's hoping your holidays have been as happily spent ... and that we all find much to celebrate (and maybe even complete) in the new year ahead.

Chocolate Train

I started with this recipe (with thanks to Gail):

https://chocolatechocolateandmore.com/chocolate-springerle-cookies/

which was the basis of the locomotive and the caboose.

But since I'm inherently incapable of actually following recipes, here's what I ended up using to make the boxcars:

1/2 lb butter

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 Tbs. instant espresso powder

1 cup cocoa

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

Soften butter (either let it sit out for an hour or, if you're incapable of waiting like me, nuke for 20-30 seconds at 20% power in the microwave). Cream butter and sugar until well-blended. 

Beat eggs and vanilla in a small bowl and add espresso powder to dissolve the granules. In addition to making the dough darker in color, the espresso makes the dough taste more chocolate-y. Beat egg mixture into butter and sugar mixture. 

Stir in cocoa and baking powder, then stir in flour and salt. Form dough into a large disk, put in a plastic bag and refrigerate for an hour.

Roll out in sections to 1/4" thickness (I use 1/4" wooden trim to make it even) and cut into 5" wide rectangles. After cutting pieces (see below), put on parchment lined cookie sheets and bake 13-15 minutes at 375. Cool for 5-10 minutes before transferring to wire racks. If possible, make the cookies a day or two ahead (so they'll be less apt to break).

Each boxcar (and the caboose if you want one) needs three 2 1/2" x 5" rectangles for the bottom and sides, and two 2 1/2" squares for the front and back. Optional: extra rectangles and/or squares can be made for rooftops.

The locomotive needs three 2 1/2 x 5" rectangles and one 2 1/2" square to form the cab (optional: cut out windows), two 2 1/2" squares and six 2 1/2" circles for the front engine, and some little triangles for the cow-catcher.

Make a bunch of 1" circles with the remaining scraps for wheels and connectors between the cars. And two larger circles for the wheels on the locomotive cab.

"Glue" everything together with premade or homemade icing (I prefer the taste of homemade, but it was much easier giving the kids premade icing to use). My icing consisted of 2 Tbs. melted butter, 1/4 cup milk, a splash of vanilla, and enough confectioners sugar to make a stiff-but-still-sticky "glue."

And then modify the recipe and directions to your heart's content ... 

Well occupied

Much of what I'm doing these days is gift-related and therefore un-showable. But I did do a little bit of decorating by making a new handtowel for the guest bath ...

and then indulged in some pure and simple stitch therapy with the remaining scraps ...

I have no plan for this, but it was fun.

Likewise, Don's decorating has no purpose beyond the sheer pleasure of gazing ...

with something to see wherever you look, whether up ...

or down ...

My assigned duties are decking the mirror with bells ...

the dry sink with crèches (two sets worth) ...  

and then we trim the tree together by turns ...

Now all we need do is await the arrival of kids and grandkids to make it all the more worthwhile.

Back to it ...

The past two weeks have been all about physical therapy and working on Moon Myth ...

Happily, both have been going well and a final draft of the book (sans front cover), can be read here:
http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/p/moon-myth-final-draft.html
with special thanks to Don for commenting on the (countless) iterations, and to Nancy at Pomegranate Trail for her input.

Beside myself

I hate losing sight of the back of a cloth ...

which is inevitably what happens when one turns to the front ...

making something of it ...

So many stitches, some intentionally visible ...

others not, here because Deb Lacativa's thread slips from light to dark, making Jude Hill's invisible baste true to its name ...

still others becoming hidden when they don't make the final cut.

Then there are the stitches that have been undone ...

No trace left, and no clue yet about what, if anything, will replace them.

Moon rise

Page 9 of Moon Myth is another memory cloth of a golden full moon rising over the trees on Cascade Trail ...

Once again, Deb Lacativa's dyed cloth and threads have a starring role ...

And this time I did a turned-edge reverse appliqué lined with a row of split back stitch worked with two strands of floss, while a single strand of detached back stitch danced around the edges of the dyed cloth marks.

That's better

I'm happier with this version of the waxing quarter moon (aka half moon) for page 7 of Moon Myth ...

Both halves of the black sky are Deb Lacativa dyed damasks, and I love that one trends red while the other trends green ...

The starry field is not-so-invisible basting worked in silk. The moon is cut from the selvage edge of a handwoven placemat.

Of course, this isn't exactly what I had planned. I had auditioned these pieces of cloth ...

and pieced them together ...

then invisibly basted them down with the expectation that I would reverse appliqué to reveal both white and a mottled "dark half" of the moon ...

But then I had second thoughts, confirmed by my in-house consultant, that it might be best to reverse appliqué only the half over the moon. So I unstitched, cut and reworked ...

with the result shown at the beginning of this post. 

Phew. I've almost reached the half-way point with seven out of sixteen pages complete. Now I have more bases to make and more pages to compose. 

I think I can, I think I can ...

Skipping ahead

Page 8 of Moon Myth ...

because I'm still working on pages 6 and 7.

And yes, the clouds are vintage damask dyed by Deb Lacativa ... 

the rain is kantha on repurposed faux ikat worked with a single strand of DMC cotton floss ... the lightning worked in Jude's split backstitch using some of the silk I gathered for the wedding handkerchief project.

Page 5 of Moon Myth

Fiona made a wonderful comment about this story growing along with the moon. Totally unintentional on my part, as the best metaphors usually are.

This two-day old moon is part of another Outer Banks memory ...

Rain stitched with Deb Lacativa's thread in shades of gray (I just ordered more)

with an added bit of story as it was stitched with some of the silk I purchased for the wedding handkerchief project. More on that tomorrow.

Moon Myth continues to grow

Here's how page 4 ended up (for now) ...

Working from this base ...

Then adding strips of cloth, some leftover from the pennant I dream of a world where love is the answer made for Mo's project ...

Speaking of time

This was the original page 2, but it works much better as page 3 ...

With thanks to Deb Lacativa for the variegated grays ...

A new(er) page 2

As I stitched what was supposed to be page 3 of Moon Myth, the story began to rearrange itself. And so page 3 became page 2 ...

As expected, that in turn influenced page 1 ...

The new page 2 owes much to the artistic influence of Hazel Monte at Handstories, being strewn with stars (which is absolutely harder to do than she makes it look) ...

But as I held the cloth in hand, it became clear the the beautifully figured bit of Deb Lacativa cloth was woefully unstable in its reverse appliquéd state. So I added more bits of Deb's cloth and stitched them down with Deb's magical thread, which is currently available here (but going fast) ...

Once again channeling Hazel's modus operandi as best I could, I ended up with a serviceable Mother Earth ...

Thank goodness for Kindred Spirits!