- Just Jace

Retrospective (11/20)

Patch #293 Bat boy

Original Post 

When you're the second-born child, every picture of you has your sibling in it. So when Jackson went to pre-school, I decided today's pictures would be just Jace.

We were headed to a pumpkin farm, so Jace got in his car seat, then invited me to squeeze in to my comfy little spot in the back ...

It might have been a cloudy day, but there was lots to do from exploring tractors ...

to climbing a hill with corrugated plastic pipe slides dug into it ...

riding a rubber tire horse ...

and a Pony Express train ...

swinging ...

and getting to do stuff mom would never allow at home ...

basking in the undivided attentions of Nana and Pop Pop ...

until all too soon it was time to fly away home ...

- Helicopter Nana

Retrospective (11/20)

Patch #292 Many moons

J's favorite read-aloud during this visit.

Original Post 

My daughter's neighbors on either side and across the street all have kids ... a glorious total of twelve kids in four houses. After dinner last night, J and J's two best buddies Kelsi and Kendra came over to inspect the newly cleaned garage ...

"It's so organized," declared Kelsi.

Relatively unimpressed, Jackson pleaded, "Come on, let's play!"

And play they did, taking to the cul de sac where all the neighbors are well-accustomed to watching out for them ...

having an absolute blast ...

playing with wonderful abandon ...

I freaked ...

Later, as I apologized to my daughter she asked, "Don't you remember how you let us go totally unsupervised on Nina Lane?"

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Ha!

- Not quite SunMoonStars

Retrospective (11/6)

Patch #291 J's Nana

Original Post

There's a part of me that's feeling somewhat guilty/apologetic about all the grandkid posts while everyone else is stitching along with Jude. But the reality of my Remember 2016 project is that our little ones are a very large part of my life and the memories we're making.

So my stitch bag remains in the suitcase as I "ooh" and "ahh" over J's penmanship ...

destined to be today's patch ...

And I refuse to try to take selfies while reading, but this is what came to STL with us ...

A library book I remembered loving as a child ...

then re-found when I became an elementary school librarian though I had forgotten the title, but could clearly remember the story. I especially love this newer illustrated version by Marc Simont ...

 which will surely inspire a patch. And the words! You have to love an author who leads off with "a surfeit of raspberry tarts."

Then there's the family tradition of making chocolate chip cookie dough (with pasteurized eggs to avoid salmonella). Yes, we're taking a chance with raw flour, but who could resist eliciting such joy?

Not I ...

- Long light

Retrospective (11/11)

Patch #290 Autumn sun

Original Post 

Early morning sun ...

throws long light, warming skin well before the air can ...

Likewise late afternoon, shadows lengthen and days get short too soon ...

We got to drive off into the sunset as my son-in-law's parents had offered to watch J and J ...

We waved good-bye and headed out to dinner, our first time out together without the kids in over four years. We took our time, talking about our respective first dates, eating food without cutting kid-size pieces, avoiding politics (which we had already gotten out of the way, finding ourselves in accord and thoroughly sick of it all), sharing various dishes, enjoying the experience of slow food.

Then drove home by the light of the rising moon ... happily sated.

- Change is in the air

Retrospective (11/11)

Patch #289 J's new wheels

Original Post 

It may still be summer in Texas, but here in St Louis the times they are a changin' ...

Even though it has only been five weeks since we were last here, J and J have grown. Today was an especially big day as Jackson got his first "real" bicycle ...

something that required fierce concentration ...

And since J was occupied with his new bike, Jace got to try out J's old strider bike ...

which he thoroughly enjoyed ...

almost as much as playing with pumpkins ...

and running after "cars" ...

Needless to say, we all had a good appetite for dinner ...

Acorn squash stuffed with Italian sausage, apples, celery, onions, garlic, panko crumbs, and cheese, seasoned with rosemary. The perfect Fall dinner.

- Almost a week

Retrospective (11/7)

Patch #288 Hi bird

What didn't get written into the original post was our visit to the Austin Nature and Science Center with G. In addition to trails and hands on artifacts such as fossils, the center has a small menagerie of injured and imprinted animals that can't survive in the wild.

One in particular breaks my heart ... an imprinted roadrunner that spends her life spinning in circles, then stopping while her eyes jerk back and forth. After which she begins to spin again.

Except, G and I quietly crouched down and I coached him to softly whisper "Hi bird" over and over again. It worked. She stopped her endless spinning, turned her head to the side, and listened ...

The memory patch came about as I looked at a printed fabric and saw a stylized roadrunner, so I stitched it with images of Mesoamerican gods gliding behind my eyes.

Original Post

Yesterday was a productive day ...

with retrospective patches completed for October 2

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016_10_02_archive.html

featuring an overlay of Texas ...

on Europe ...

October 3

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016/10/on-edge.html

showing two rounds of pomegranate dyeing ...

using liquid concentrate ...

and aluminum acetate mordant purchased from Dharma Trading ...

October 4

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016/10/comment-alert.html

featuring my first attempts at Inktense Shibori, the first of which reminded me of the queen butterflies in our garden ...

And October 6

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016_10_06_archive.html

featuring the second bit of Shibori, a tribute to Hazel's wonderfully wild hair ...

Today we're headed to Austin, where we plan to have some more fun with G while his mom and dad celebrate their 8th wedding anniversary (a little early).

- The Eiffel Tower of constellations

Jude Hill's SunMoonStars has been on my mind, but you would be hard-pressed to know that from my recent posts.

Nonetheless, her personal constellation post two days ago

http://spiritcloth.typepad.com/spirit_cloth/2016/10/sunmoonstars-night-sky.html

aligned with my own thoughts about the only constellation I've ever been able to spot with any reliability: Orion. But not the sword-wielding hunter, rather my own vision of an Eiffel Tower dangling precariously in the sky, aka Patch #287 ...

And of course there's a story to go with it, of crystal clear winter nights when my teen-aged self would walk four blocks south to my best friend Rachel's house. Always Orion hung in the sky, but I never noticed the sword, focusing instead on the tripod legs of my imagined Eiffel Tower. And yes, I knew it had four legs, but certainly if viewed from the side it would only reveal three, yes? Mais oui!

There was an earlier take on this bit of indigo-dyed vintage linen ...

but I'm well-pleased that I gave it another try. And even though I considered adding a field of tiny backstitches, in the end I decided less was more.

Addendum: The unused patch ended up in a bagstories piece, although you really have to squint to see it here (3/31/18)