- Picturing process

Patch #143 I love you

I was absent on Mother's Day this year, off strolling about New Orleans. So my card, made by Meg and Griffin, was not received until Tuesday ...

Written across the bottom in orange crayon were the letters "NANA" ... and all I could think was how much love and effort went into forming each one.

Having recently revisited a technique I used (and then forgot) on Triangulation (see Index in side bar), I decided to document the process this time lest I forget again.

First I chose the fabrics I wanted to use for my patches and ironed them into 1 3/4" strips (using cover stock cut to size) ...

Next I photocopied the text and cut out the letters. Using a large needle to poke holes in the text, I transferred the marks to linen by going over each hole with water-erasable marker  ...

I cut the patch to size and finger-pressed the ends ...

inserted a bit of harem cloth inside the patch ...

and used Jude Hill's invisible basting stitch (aka glue stitch) to secure the edges ...

The actual stitching, with two strands of floss worked in Jude's split back stitch, gave me the chance to experience the path that G took in forming each letter ...

In the end, I made three patches in our favorite colors ...

orange for G, blue for Don (aka Pop Pop) and green for me. 

N.B. The individual patches can be viewed in the Retrospective posts for 

May 10-12.

- Weaving it all together

First off, thanks to Dana, whose comment inspired today's Patch #142 ...

This needle-woven bit of silk on linen (Montana Joe please note: this may have been Waterlilies variegated silk from Caron) was created during Jude Hill's Considering Weave ... which brought me into contact with many of the Kindred Spirits listed in the right side-bar and began my own journey with "What if?"

In addition to echoing the green needle weaving in yesterday's post, today's patch also recalls the weave in my newest kitchen gadget ...

I'm not at all sure how I lived nearly 60 years without a bamboo steamer, but I'm very much enjoying the belated addition of steamed dumplings to our menu rotation.

I also tackled a couple of Retrospective patches for April 20 and April 29. Since dewberries made appearances on those two dates, I decided to do unripe ...

and ripe versions ...

A quick sketch or two, rendered first in pencil, then white marking pen (which disappears when ironed) ...

led to two very different results ...

both of which made significant use of Newcomb-style darning stitch. 

And of course, it being Saturday, yet another weather-patch week has been completed ...

- Darn it

Patch #141 is a second attempt at darning stitch inspired by our trip to New Orleans to see the Newcomb Collection at Tulane ...

In reading Sally Main's essay in The Arts and Crafts of Newcomb Pottery, I learned that needlework production was similar to pottery production in that each piece began with a watercolor sketch ...

followed by a pointilistic stitch style (which this photo of a photo doesn't capture very well) ...

In doing a take-off on a small segment of this piece, I wanted to replicate the appearance of the backs I viewed at Newcomb. Happily, I succeeded ...

Last, but not least, I found confirmation of my technique in this reprint ...

first published in 1906. In it is this description of darning as a decorative fill ...

which syncs up quite nicely with what I observed. By the way, I did make a first attempt using a coarser linen, which you can see here: http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016/05/laissez-les-bon-temps-rouller.html

- It's a dillo

This excavation appeared in our side yard recently ...

Signs of rooting about in our paths and gardens led us to believe it might have been dug by an armadillo. This morning, I made a confirmed sighting. 

Sigh.

They really are pests and we should probably live-trap and move it. But what if it's a mama dillo?

I dunno.

Anyway, I pulled out my old hunk of roadkill dillo, found a few years ago when picking up trash along the ranch road ...

and immediately thought of Jude's stacked running stitch (which I've been "seeing" in everything lately).  

Patch #140 is what I made of it ...

I rendered both in monotones the better to see just the patterning. Here's the colorized version ...

- Speaking of flowers

Patch #139 Child flower ...

There's a whole new set of wildflowers blooming, including horse mint, so named because of its size, not because of any association with the horsey set ...

When I first spotted it along the roadside, whizzing by at 60 mph as a newbie Texan, I named it "pagoda plant" ...

These days, the yellows still hold sway with the emergence of brown/black eyed Susans ...

helped along by the debut of the sunflower set ...

but the purples are coming into their  own, including new blooms of Texas thistles ...

along with the cone flowers and mealy blue sages at the Wildflower Center ...

not to mention this first appearance by the mountain pinks ...

which made a beautiful yellow dye last year as I recall.

- Progress report

Patch #138 Thinking outside of the box ...

G's end-of-year parent conference was today. Highlights included his house full of shapes ...

and a flower in his favorite color ...

Nice work G!

- Pizza! Pizza!

It's rare enough to find pizza that makes my New York heart sing, let alone find it in a sleepy Texas Hill Country college town (San Marcos, known locally as SMTX) ...

We don't go often, but when we do it's a memorable experience ...

As was our visit to Paul's Deli in Williamsburg last month, where you'll find yet another pizza box memorialized http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016/04/travellin-shoes.html

P.S. I would be remiss if I failed to mention we were in town to attend a book launch about the springs of San Marcos ...

which can be viewed from glass bottom boats like the one pictured above.

- Love those old shirts

Mary Chapin Carpenter's song This Shirt never fails to bring tears to my eyes. However, I have not one, but many old shirts that hold precious memories.

Patch #136 is from one of my all-time favorites ...

And it's perfect because today would have been my Mom's 85th birthday. If only ... but no, she departed this life in 2008.

Some of her shirts are still in my closet, others have been worn to the point of threadbare and now reside on my stitching-cloth table. The one that contributed to today's patch was my nightshirt for many years. Pieces of it have appeared in the Close Your Eyes and Close Your Eyes Too books that I stitched for G and J. Other pieces became a part of my Hearts for Charleston quilt square and Mending patches. You can find Index links to those projects in the right side-bar.

Today, another of Mom's shirts became the background for retrospective Patch #102, which began as both a spin on Don's wooden patchwork for J ...

and Jude Hill's recent posts about stacked running stitch ...

The only problem was, I liked the back even better ...

So, you can either go back to the April 11 post to see the patch in its final form or you can click the Retrospective Index link in the right side-bar to see my progress on all of the belated patches that I've been slowly catching up on ...

- Strip tease

Retrospective (5/22/2016)

Patch #135 Good luck

Original Post

Once I got started, I couldn't stop. The strip of black and white squares, begun yesterday, was completed by dinner time ...

And now I know how long my monthly patch strips are: exactly 57 one-inch squares. I couldn't have done better if I tried.

This week's weather patches got done for dessert ...

Twenty rows of seven. I do love these little bits of linen!

- Know thyself

Retrospective (5/22/2016)

Patch #134 Friday the 13th

Original Post

I am smitten by Jude Hill's nine patches ... likewise Judy Martin's. But when I made a pile of 1.5" square patches, I found myself profoundly dissatisfied when I tried putting them together in blocks of nine.

Still, I love making my little one-inch weather patches, which I string together in week-long rows of seven.

So it was that a light bulb lit over my head today: make more strips ...

This I like. 

I also very much like fresh veggie fritters. This batch has red potatoes, carrots, yellow squash and onion ...

One egg, a bit of seasoning and a 1/4 cup of Bisquick to hold it all together while sautéing in olive oil. Perfect with grilled whatever and a dollop of sour cream, avocado and lemon ...