- 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.

- Frozen

Just a quick post today since there are grandsons to play with and chicken soup to make ...

Patch #41 (revised on 2/17/2016)

I anticipated being busy, so this is a pre-made patch. It was a toss-up whether I was going to stitch Southwest Airlines colors or a St Louis arch, until I spotted this outside the plane window ...

Do you see it? The reflection of the blue on the wing made a perfect (half) arch. Don't know when or how it will get done, but I love the serendipity.

Meantime, I'm also puzzling over how to do my weather patches, because as Meliss so aptly posted on Facebook ...

And not only is the temperature a bit different, the precipitation has a different feel to it ...

A few hours later I saw a sight I haven't seen for quite a while ...

Ha! There's nothing like the sound of a plow blade to bring back memories of snow days past!

- Leaving on a jet plane

A skinny patch for a short stay with G ...

Patch #40

We're leaving well before dawn, heading for St Louis and J times two.

But before we left, we made some early Valentine cookies ...

from an old family recipe ...

P.S. These days I make a half batch and use parchment paper instead of greasing the pan.