- Sketchy

Dana at Raven and Sparrow wrote a great post about words and I have to agree that finding the perfect word is a kick. So today's post-word is "sketchy" ... see if you think it fits.

First, today's patch ...

Patch #13 Silk stitch on linen

which was cut from a piece of scrap linen used to try out some ideas ...

prior to stitching them into this sampler (I used to plan things out more often in the past ... now I'm more into freestitching). The lighthouse that ended up on the patch is Montauk light, which Don and I visited on the last day of our honeymoon on January 2nd in 1978. It sounds romantic to say we honeymooned in the Hamptons, until you realize there was a reason our room only cost $24.95 a night. "Freezing cold" doesn't begin to cover it, as any Long Islander can tell you about standing on the edge of the Atlantic in the middle of winter.

I did take a picture of the b-side ...

prior to backing it with some very fine handkerchief material for stability ...

Then I cut the 1 3/4" patch shown at the beginning of the post. I must say I like it enough to plan on adding some other stitch sample patches as this project unfolds.

Meantime, I have one last piece to share from the dyeing workshop.  After dip dyeing two linen blouses in Brazilwood and madder  ...

Note: both blouses started out white,
but had been dyed with Prairie Tea prior to the workshop

I got home from the workshop only to realize I had neglected to dip either of them in cochineal. Deciding to work further on one of the blouses to remedy the situation, I took a stone taken as a souvenir from Maura's property ...

tied it into one corner of the blouse ...

then dipped it in water hoping to pull some rusty red as a base for the cochineal ...

Even after 24 hours of soaking and drying it didn't work well enough to even bother photographing the result. Undeterred, I continued to the next step: wadded up the unwashed cochineal sample I had brought home (knowing it would release excess dye when wet), wrapped it into the same corner of the blouse, dipped it in water, and gave a good hard squeeze before hanging it up to drip dry ...

That worked out much, much better ...

But as with much natural dyeing, the long term results after laundering and drying tend to be far less dramatic ...

Which isn't really a problem. The way I see it, this blouse is a work in progress simply waiting for the opportunity to be dipped into the next experimental dye pot.

- Orange again

Addendum: after writing the post below, we had dinner with my daughter's family. G has the best seat in the house, looking out the dining room window. As the meal wound down, he exclaimed, "I see the moon!"

Sure enough, a waxing crescent was sinking into the sunset west. Patch #12 has been revised accordingly, albeit one day late ...

Patch #12 redux

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I was thinking I would make an orange patch each day we watch three-year-old grandson G (yep, that's actually one of his nicknames).

We're a day earlier than usual this week since he was diagnosed with strep throat yesterday. So we got up at 5:00 and drove into Austin just as dawn was breaking on the horizon ...

Patch #12

It seemed like the light was radiating up, but this stitch didn't quite capture what I was after. No matter ... there will be other sunrises and sunsets this year, so I'll look toward to seeing how many ways I can interpret them in cloth.

Interestingly, my camera is having a hard time dealing with this intense orange, so I tried stepping away from it ...

Add caption

Okay, nuff said on that. Here's another look back at Christmas:

"What about making a gingerbread house? Do you still have the pattern?" my older daughter texted as we planned for the arrival of her younger sister and family for Christmas.

"On it!" I replied. 

No, I didn't have the old recipe and template, but I had the Internet. That and an idea to make smaller houses, one for each three-year-old grandson. I couldn't wait.

After looking at scads of designs, I picked the simplest I could find and made a mock-up scaled so the pieces would fit on my baking sheets ...

along with a frame to ensure the gingerbread could be rolled to a consistent thin-ness ...

I followed a recommendation to use the gingerbread recipe from the most recent Joy of Cooking. It worked well enough, but didn't taste great, so I think I'll use my grandmother's ginger snap recipe next year. In any case, I whipped up one batch, which was just enough to cover two cookie sheets ...

While the gingerbread baked, I made more bases so the houses would be sturdy and the boys wouldn't have to worry about being careful ...

And when the gingerbread came out of the oven, I cut it to plan ...

let it cool a bit, then stuck the pieces to the bases with royal icing (made with pasteurized egg whites) ...

There were gaps once the houses were assembled, but I figured they could be filled with icing to serve as decorating opportunities ...

Which indeed they were ...

A family tradition is (re)born!

- Violet and the Blood Moon

Morna Crites-Moore had a beautiful post today. If you haven't seen it yet, click here to take a look ... I'll wait.

Her post, along with the news of David Bowie's death from liver cancer inspired today's violet patch  (not that I was a fan, but Ziggy Stardust, Major Tom, and Suffragette City did play in the background of my teenage years) ...

Patch #11 Discharge bleach dyeing on linen

I haven't done any discharge dyeing with bleach for over a year, mostly because I wasn't wild about cutting freezer paper masks. Having long intended to try using Don's foam paint daubers as an alternative, Morna's post gave me the incentive finally to give it a try ..

Note: Jude Hill did not recommend Lemon Soft Scrub, but it was all they had at HEB

So even though it looked promising ...

Looks can be deceiving ...

nothing much happened. Reading the label I found bleach waaaay down the list of ingredients. Hmmm.

Not to be deterred, I dug out a bleach pen, squeezed some out on the plastic lid and gave it a try. Whoa ... talk about fast acting!  The first couple of moons went way too far. Then I tried rinsing sooner, and others didn't go far enough ...

In addition to the moon variations,
I was seriously debating which was the best violet representative

Fortunately, the moon at the beginning of the post was just right. Because it only takes one, right? Which reminds me ... gotta buy one of those billion dollar lottery tickets today.

Before I head out though, here's the final batch of pictures from the natural dyeing workshop ...

A blurry picture of Maura hanging the first demo

Ten of the sixteen participants

Three vats of red

into which we all dipped cloth we brought with us for the workshop

Brazilwood (which Mo informed me is an endangered species)
samples of which were cut up and given to each participant

Silk, cotton, linen and wool dipped in
Cochineal and Madder were also shared with everyone

 The second day of the workshop was dedicated to Indigo magic
1 ...

2 ...

3!!!

Once again, we were all given the opportunity to dye our own cloth

which everyone was prepared to do

The afternoon was dedicated to creating shibori

graced with a rare touch of sunshine over the blackland prairie

- True (indigo) blue ... at last

I've thought about doing some indigo dyeing for a while now. Not for the first time, as I participated in eighteenth-century colonial-style indigo dyeing with Kathy Smith back in the 1980s. A true purist, Kathy conjured a vat with stale urine. I wasn't so brave.

More recently, I tried my hand at Maura Ambrose's indigo vats (one chemical, one organic), dipping pieces of vintage linen tablecloth in and coming out with this for one ...

Patch #10

I left the hemstitched edge intact, liking the look of it, wondering how it might play out. And I may add some stitch later ... well, now actually ...

Snow falling in East Hampton, New Year's Day 1978

The b-side maybe even more realistic than the front

So, having mentioned the dyeing workshop, here at last are my photographic impressions of it (Maura's artistry shown with her permission) ...

Coming into Maura's home for the first time,
this was what hit me

Followed by this wonderful display of potential

and instruction

Works in progress abounded ...

and while most were machine-sewn, some were hand-stitched

and all had colors to dye for

Samplers of a sort hung on the walls,
some perhaps dating to Maura's days at SCAD

Bits of memory enshrined behind glass

Notebook pages that spoke for themselves ...

a full range of potential

carefully curated

artfully presented

Truly an inspiration ... to be continued