- Merry Christmas

Retrospective (1/18/2017)

Patch #360 The beginning of Joy

Original Post

From our home to yours ...

                     

we bid you peace.

Addendum: Williamsburg twin tree ...

- Christmas Eve day

The patch will come later, but it's been a busy day, so it's all good.

It started with an apt horoscope for our mutual Gemini birthdays (we were born two years and one day apart) ...

It's no coincidence that I finally added a "Collaboration" heading to the blog Index today!

After breakfast, I baked cookies ...

recipes for which can be found here

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2010/01/top-cookie-or-take-your-butter-and-go.html

Somehow Don talked me into completing  our beach picture printing project ...

while he worked on creating bead board backing (more on that when they're complete). All of which was way more fun than packing (which we still haven't done).

I added another week to the Land of Flood and Drought - 2016, which is now 51 inches long and one week from completion ...

and as night-time fell, the Ackert family tradition of Christmas Eve pajamas from Santa continued, causing much excitement ...

which abated, enabling a more focused shot ...

Now for a good night's sleep ...

- Tic tac toe

Patch #358 Three in a row

Don made wooden tic tac toe boards and markers for G and J, which had been in the works for a while. So when I was headed for Hobby Lobby the other day and he asked, "Could you look to see if they have some drawstring bags for the markers?" my response was along the lines of, "Really, don't you think I could do that?"

Well yes, he had considered that, but it was kinda short notice. Hence the Hobby Lobby gambit ... hoping I might offer to make them four days before Christmas.

Of course I did.

The drawstring bag idea was discarded early on, as I eyed a thrifted denim shirt that had awesome patch pockets, quickly removed ...

I lined the back of each pocket with linen, turning under the raw edges of the denim and blind stitching the layers together ...

Then sewed wonky buttons onto the front and made frog closures with some cord ...

Not bad for a day's work, although my fingertips felt bruised from pushing and pulling the needle through the denim ...

Ironically, once the throbbing went away I thought, "Gee, I should make a patch."

And wanting to make it look authentic, I challenged Don to a game. Blue won on the board ...  

but orange won on the patch.

- Not much to show

Patch #357 A rose by any other name

would still be pink. 

That's my new iPhone 7, which is "rose gold" with a "desert sand" case. Which is to say, it's pink ... just like daughter Meg's new phone. 

My excuse for getting a new one? Well, my trusty iPhone 5 has been maxing out on storage and the battery has been fading faster by the day. With Christmas only days away and a new granddaughter arriving in the spring it was only a matter of time. 

Fortunately, I didn't exchange my old phone (with which I took this picture of the new phone), because Surprise! There is no longer a Blogger app for iPhones. So even though I have this great new phone with a great new camera, I'll actually continue to blog on the old phone.

Right.

Anyway, the patch is a lustrous cotton sateen from Maura Ambrose's dye workshop last year ... a perfect match to the matte glossiness of the new phone (I know, it's oxymoronic). I decided to leave it unembellished as most of what we did with the rest of the day involved Christmas gifts that can't be shown ... yet.

- The symmetry of solstice

Patch #356 Increase

I struggled with this post at first, which seems funny now because it all became so clear in the end.

I knew I wanted to include this verse from The Writer's Almanac (recently added to the Kindred Spirits) ...

And I knew I wanted to do something that represented solstice. 

Oddly enough, it took me a while to think of looking back at my summer solstice patch, with the Strawberry Moon rising into a darkening sky ...

So of course it turned out that the solstice patches would align ...

and it was a short mental leap to seeing my way clear to a similar patch ...

Meanwhile, Don was busy hanging pictures of our grandkids, taken (you guessed it) on the eve of the summer solstice and finally printed this week. From oldest to youngest, Logan and Jackson ...

Griffin and Jace ...

with just enough room at the end of the wall to fit in one more, someday soon.

They are the light of our lives ...

and as I took a picture of the (almost) complete picture wall ...

I saw my grandmother's desk in the background, Don's grandfather's desk in the foreground, and our very first couch (remember crate furniture?) in between.

That's when my doubts about next year's cloth resolved. I do want to continue  patchplay and storytelling, although perhaps not every single day. And I want to keep trying new things, to continue playing with new ideas, even while honoring the old things that live with us in our home.

I know I'm being vague ... the ideas are still coalescing. But I do know for sure that next year's cloth will be about love and learning and light ... 

and how their increase will surely bring us joy.

- The light before Christmas

Patch #355 Nonpareil

Our St Louis daughter decided this year they would do an experiential gift for the boys instead of getting them more toys.

Research maven that she is, she found out about the Santa Express ...

and booked tickets for the family. (I love this retro travel poster).

J and J weren't aware of what was up until they were at the hotel, dressed in their pajamas ...

Then they boarded a real train and magic happened ...

Do you believe in Santa Claus? They do ...

- Blue (agave) Christmas

Patch #354 Texas Christmas cactus

It's cold. The weather app said 22 ...

but Wimberley is down in the valley. We're about 300' higher and our thermometer had a slightly lower reading ...

But the ultimate indicator is the frost weed and it was in fine form, close ...

closer ...

closest ...

Last winter we didn't get a frost weed freeze until the end of January, which means it made it on to the Remember cloth ...

You'll notice it's just to the left of a sunny day patch ... and two more patches to the right is the memory of an 80 degree day at the end of January.

So yeah, don't feel too sorry for us. Here's our forecast for the next five days ...

Gotta love Texas. Which is why we decorate this way ...

The neighbors really appreciate it, too ...

I managed to finish a trio of retro patches today ...

If you look at the original post on November 28

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016_11_28_archive.html

you'll notice there's no mention of an expected grandchild. But that was the day we received the news, so the secret is finally out ...

And knowing Meg would be getting the news on the 28th, we held off shopping for her birthday until November 29

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016/11/one-more.html

Also knowing Meg to prefer more subtle colors, we were on the hunt for corals, peaches, or raspberries rather than the stereotypical pinky pink. This is what we got ... 

Hence the patch Pretty in not-quite pink ...

And so we made it to Meg's birthday on November 30 without spoiling the surprise

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2016/11/big-reveal.html

Process note: I was especially pleased when the bleach discharge on gray (Meg's favorite "color" long before it became trendy), turned a pale pink, because a little bit couldn't hurt.