- 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.

- Hooked on appliqué

I confess that I began this yesterday, when I spotted the first Goldeneye on the floodplain ...

Patch #50

One of my goals with the daily patch project is to document the approximate first appearance of our wildflowers. I was caught without my iPhone camera, so this patch was crafted using an image printed from the Wildflower Center's online guide ...

As you might imagine, I was happy beyond words to see how well Deb Lacativa's cloth worked, so I drew the image outline with a Pitt pen ...

then appliquéd it to a gray green linen, mindful of the statement about color from the Arts & Crafts Textiles book by Ann Wallace ...

I won't necessarily do future flower patches as precisely as this, since abstracting forms sounds like a fun challenge. Maybe I'll even do one back-to-front ...

'cause I do love b-sides

Addendum: 

After mending J's jeans last week, I  decided I should probably look to my own. Not only were they shredding above the patched knees, but there was a mysterious spot of something that resisted all attempts at laundering ...

Glue maybe? Whatever it is has an annoying look and feel to it ... well worth covering over.

Anyway, I realized how far I've come as I quickly stitched on patches ...

confident that two threads here, one thread there, and a combination of back and running stitches would do the trick.

- Stickley speaking

Last June we visited friends in Richmond, Virginia who have a 100-year old Craftsman bungalow. With its modern day Stickley furnishings and period details, I was smitten.Then Martha and Gary came to visit us this fall, during which time they rued missing the changing of the ginkgo leaves in their neighborhood.Ever since, I've found myself trolling through Pinterest looking at Arts and Crafts textiles, particularly those depicting ginkgo leaves. Today I finally tried my hand at a Stickley-inspired appliqué ...

Patch #49

which I hope to use as a jumping-off point for the Texas cottonwood leaf to the left (among other things). Rather than the coarse linen backing and heavy chain stitch outline recommended by Stickley, I used a fine linen/cotton thrifted table cloth for the background and a sheer thrifted cotton skirt for the appliqué ...

I was hoping this book would provide practical details ...

but in the end, it was Stickley himself who provided the guidance I needed in his book Craftsman Fabrics and Needlework. I copied, scaled up and printed the image of a ginkgo leaf table runner, cut out one leaf, and traced lightly around it onto the cotton using a Pitt pen ...

The image pixelated, but that wasn't a problem

After cutting it out, I pinned it to the linen/cotton patch ...

and stitched it down, followed by an outline worked in Jude's split backstitch with a single strand of floss (which she aptly calls "splitting hairs") ...

I'm very happy with the end result, front ...

and back ...

and am now considering how to render this beautiful cottonwood leaf souvenir from last year's trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico ...

P.S. I also updated Patch #39 ...

which was far more fun than I had on February 8th.

- A week's worth

Today's patch was the color of warmth as we thawed out from our week in St Louis ...

Patch #48

Just after we left, Melissa's refrigerator died so they had to pitch all their food, even though temperatures outside were low enough to do the job. Irony abounds.

As promised, I revised the patches made during the trip, with half of the famed arch appearing with our arrival ...

bracketed by the other half of the arch upon our departure ...

In between there is blue jean mending on Patch #43 ...

Melissa's kitchen towel saying added to Patch #44 (which I still need to document more fully) ...

and the complete do-over on Melissa's birthday Patch #45 ...

After which I wondered how my random patch lengths for February were adding up compared to the last seventeen January patches. Amazingly, the difference was less than half an inch. 

Who needs rulers?

- No place like home

We left sub-freezing temperatures and gray skies in St Louis and returned to 80 degrees and blue skies in Austin ...

Patch #47 (far right, revised 2/17/2016)

I'm looking forward to stitching the February patches to bring them up to date. The embellishments promise to be a way of reliving a wonderful week with our grandsons (not to mention their mom and dad).

- Anchors aweigh

For the first time in 45 days, I'm really not happy with a patch. So today's patch will remain unattached until yesterday's patch can be redone (when we get back to Texas since I don't have enough fuchsia linen left) ...

Patch #46

I chose green because we're already talking about when we're heading back to St Louis ... most likely in April to do a good Spring pruning.

And here's a quick look at the reveal for Melissa's kitchen towel ...

I cropped the initial photo lest she never speak to me again. After which we tucked in to birthday eats.

Dinner was lasagna with homemade sauce and pasta. Dessert was strawberry trifle with candles ...

and ginger snap cookies ...

A fuller accounting of the towel will follow soon, but with only hours left of our time in St Louis, there are more important things to tend to. Off I go ...

- Now and then

I grabbed a few bits of linen to bring with me to St Louis, but managed to leave the Valentine's pink at home. No matter. It turns out that today's patch was destined to be this color ...

Patch #45 (replaced 2/17/2016)

since Melissa's pre-birthday night on the town was spent in this jacket ...

Which turned out to be a pretty close match (although it's not as apparent here since one picture is day lit and the other is not).

So Happy Birthday, Valentine ...

Meliss, 15 months old (Easter 1987)

May every day of your birthday season bring you this much happiness!

- Lucky 13

I finished Melissa's birthday gift on deadline, just as Don predicted ...

Patch #44 (revised 2/17/2016)

so today's patch was made from the same blue/green/gray linen as her birthday gift and will be stitched later (as most of the February patches will be since I've been preoccupied with the birthday project.)

Since we're in St Louis, I arranged the first thirteen patches of the month in an arch over the weather weeks, which are really starting to add up ...

Birthday cookies (hearts, race cars, planes and trains) have been baked and decorated with expert assistance from 3 year old Jackson ...

and a sponge cake awaits assembly into a strawberry trifle, long Melissa's birthday cake of choice. You can read more about it and get a glimpse of Meliss here:  http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2009/08/just-trifle.html

- Patch pose

J saw me taking a picture and he wanted in on the action ...

Patch #43 (far right ... revised 2/17/2016)

Today's patch is indigo-dyed linen that I used to mend the hole in his jeans from the inside ...

out ...

As is often the case, the other knee was just a bit thin, so I added some reinforcing stitch, backed with a little more linen ...

Now, let's get back to having fun ...

- Southwest goes north

Continuing the simple patch theme, today's red patch completes the Southwest (Airlines) triad ...

Patch #42 (far right)

And I came up with a solution to the Texas versus St Louis weather conundrum ...

a sunny, dry day in Texas with a snow note for STL. Since I left my trusty Pitt pen at home, I cadged one of J's colored pencils to guide my stitches ... thanks buddy!

On the menu tonight: homemade meatballs, homemade pasta, homemade bread. The sauce I'm leaving to Aldi (food store) since they have caramelized onion on special this week. Guess I'd better get cracking.