What I did on my summer vacation

I can't recall whether I loved or hated the classic Back to School essay, but these days I am more than happy to show and tell.

The new Moon Myth patches made before our departure to the Outer Banks of North Carolina were stitched together ...

accompanied by the warm sun and gentle surf sounds of our rental house deck. Likewise, Deb Lacativa's dyed threads took in the beach air ...

And if I didn't get a whole lot done, there were no regrets for time well-spent with our loved ones ...

Likewise, our return to Texas was eased by my attendance at a Wax & Words workshop conducted by Lyn Belisle 

http://earthshards.com/shards/2018/06/it-looks-like-writing-but-we-cant-quite-read-it/

(whose SHARDS blog can be found amongst the Kindred Spirits in the sidebar)

It was definitely out of my comfort zone, this venture into mixed media, but Lyn made it safe and I ended up with several pages of "stuff" ...

from which this piece emerged ...

though I'm still not sure how best to orient it ...

or ...

or ...

Any thoughts?

Making the cut

I wanted to save them ...

but their light was already fading ...

Not only had I failed to neutralize the bleach used to create the patch clouds, I had compounded the insult to the cloth by rinsing it in vinegar. Fortunately, Deb Lacativa saved me from myself by sending this informative link:

http://www.pburch.net/dyeing/FAQ/neutralizingdischarge.shtml

Likewise, I realized the clouds were obscuring the details of the sun's arc through the sky. And to get really down to it, I knew in my heart that the strip of patches would appliqué better if they were rotated 90 degrees before stitching them together. Three strikes ...

So I took a deep breath and cut ... and cut ... and cut ...

then stitched a whole new batch of patches. Which will be put together at the beach ... soon.

Removing the patch appliqués meant I likewise had to cut into several of the base cloths ...

of which there are now seven ...

with nine more to go. This too was a good thing, as my recent revisiting of Jude Hill's online classes opened my eyes to a better way to stitch appliqué.

Always I am learning ...

Page 1 is done

I could hardly wait to finish stitching ...

so I could add text, this time printed out and laid onto the cloth before scanning (and still subject to editing of course) ...

And then it hit me that I really should create text boxes for each page before stitching ...

the better to plan ahead.

And I would be remiss if I didn't include the sun as seen from the back ...

But best of all, this beaming boy ...

Jackson on his first day of (summer) Kindergarten. Because his school district actually offers one month of summer school free to any child for any reason. A wonderful way to get ready for the real thing in August!

Addendum:

I've added a link to FOLLOW THE PROGRESS OF MOON MYTH at the top of the right sidebar which will document the pages of Moon Myth in sequential order as they are created. Since I'm at the earliest stages, the images are really rough drafts which will be updated as they are edited. 

Coloring outside the lines

I was going to post each page of Moon Myth as it was completed, but I can't wait that long.

So here's page one in progress, which began with auditioning some Deb Lacativa cloth ...

I learned, as always. What began as a 3.5" square of blue damask shredded down to a smaller-than-intended size ...

I decided it still had potential and kept on going by wrapping the edge of the reverse appliqué orb to keep it from shredding any further ...

Then started to semi-freestyle rays of sunshine ...

which is why I use water-erasable marker, because I don't always follow the lines ...

One final note: you may notice two marker colors. The turquoise is a very heavy-duty marker that can take multiple waterings before it disappears. The purple marker is a new-to-me product that vanishes into thin air, supposedly within 24-48 hours. Unfortunately, it sometimes disappears far sooner than that, leaving me wondering where the line went ... 

So much to love

Deb Lacativa's latest shipment of thread magic

http://morewgalo.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-weekend.html

arrived just in time ...

to become a part of Moon Myth ...

Four bases are well underway and Deb's threads will play a major role in their embellishment.

Meanwhile, here are a few looks in the rearview mirror at Parker's first birthday presents. A bib made from her infant sleep sack ... 

a sensory table made by Don (aka PopPop), which holds a tea set from Aunt Liss and is also the perfect height for practicing standing up ...

and her rag doll, which reportedly receives many juicy kisses ...

and then gets unceremoniously tossed on the floor ...

Good thing I went with stitched-on hair!

Hmmm ... did I ever post this?

So I was scrolling back through my pictures looking for something else when I stumbled across this ...

It was a Christmas 2016 gift, the quote taken from a t-shirt much admired (and aspired to) by its recipient. I think I held off posting until it was received ... ah well, better late than never.

So, a bit of recycled patchplay for your viewing pleasure and mine as we are soon headed to the island alluded to in the quote. I'm counting the days ...

And a note for Blogger users:

For reasons unknown, Blogger is no longer sending email notifications of new comments. 

So, if you are a Blogger author, you might want to check the Comments section of your dashboard. I've added that to my daily email checking routine.

If you are a Blogger reader, you might want to send an email with this info if you have commented on a Blogger post in the past week and it has yet to receive a response from the author.

This is just a test ... eeeeeeeeeeee

I hesitated to use Grace's trademark "eeeeeeeee" but it was just too perfect for how things have progressed to this first test page for Moon Myth ...

There are many editorial tweaks to come on text, format, margins, font, etc etc etc ... but it has already come a long way. And it is here that I must acknowledge the incredible wealth of knowledge I have gained from my recent revisiting of Jude Hill's Spirit Cloth classes. Time to send another donation in appreciation of her incredible teaching.

To recap how I got to this test page, I took my cloudy patches from this post

http://imgoingtotexas.blogspot.com/2018/05/stepping-out-of-my-comfort-zone.html

after agonizing about which Deb Lacativa threads to  use, which was pointless worry as any of her threads would have worked. From there I decided to use her thread magic on my base cloth seams, seen best here ...

The stitches are like an endlessly fascinating string of jewels popping into view, turning an otherwise repetitive task into true patchplay.

I had originally trialed an intricately paperless patched base for each page of Moon Myth ...

but it was too fussy and felt "tight" somehow. So a consult with my fellow artist in residence led to stitching the patches onto a simpler base ...

which also felt a bit "tight" until I watched one of the Spirit Cloth videos on managing layers and realized there was a simple solution to be found in cutting through the back of the base thus easing the patches into it ...

Then I basted some harem cloth on to anchor the base seams and provide a friendly ground for future stitching ...

because my ultimate goal is to create a cloth for each page of the book ...

then scan each cloth ...

and superimpose text using Word. From there I'll be able to make "camera ready" PDF pages and print multiple copies of the book.

But then I'll have all these (hopefully) beautiful little cloths with large blank spaces. Hand stitching all the text into those spaces isn't realistic, so the plan is to stitch selected words from the text on to each cloth page and then join all the cloths together into a large story cloth.

At least that's the plan for now. 

Stay tuned ...

A recipe (ish)

I had some fresh eggs and rainbow chard from Back to the Garden

https://www.backtothegardenamr.com/

And I had a Native Plant Society of Texas potluck to go to.

Not being one to follow recipes, I'm equally lame about recording them. My usual MO is look up an ingredient, survey a few recipes and get an idea of where to go with it. So, in hopes that my Potato Pancake with Bacon and Swiss Chard Frittata is actually good, here's a record of what I did to end up with this ...

Cook up 1/4 lb of bacon and set aside to cool.

Grate one yellow onion and 4-5 new potatoes. Squeeze out excess liquid, beat in two of the aforementioned farm fresh eggs, a healthy dash (or two or three) of Montreal steak seasoning, and some Bisquick (1/4 cup maybe?). 

Fry potato pancakes in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil on high, 2-3 minutes per side. It will probably take two batches, which should nicely cover the bottom of a casserole (I pre-treated mine with some baking spray just in case, but it probably wasn't necessary which turned out to be a good idea).

Cover potato pancakes with a layer of sliced Swiss cheese (feel free to substitute ... chorizo and Manchego would be a good alternative, for example).

Thinly slice one smallish red onion and sauté in olive oil for a few minutes while you chop up a bunch of chard (I removed the stems first). When onions are translucent, add the chard and a sprinkle of salt. Sauté for another 3-4 minutes. Taste to see if chard is al dente and adjust seasoning as needed.

Beat 4-5 eggs  (maybe more) in a large bowl and crumble in bacon. Add a slug of heavy cream ... never hurts. Fold in chard and onions. Spread on top of potato pancakes and cheese.

Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes until eggs are set and edges are bubbling. 

Cross fingers and head out to NPSOT meeting (optional).

Final verdict: this one's a keeper ... although I'm sure I'll tweak it some more.

Note to self: Next time, halve the potato pancake mixture, put in a smaller casserole dish and top with a bit more cheese. Leave chard, egg, cream and bacon quantities the same to create a thicker top layer. May require some time adjustment.

Stepping it up

I was originally going to title this post "Pieces of sky" ...

for the patches I made as a start to Moon Myth.

I even looked on Google to see if there were any songs titled Pieces of Sky. And there were (are), with lyrics and videos and everything ... but they also weren't (aren't) my creations, so the links got left on the cutting room floor. 

And then somehow along the way things got a little crazy ...

because an inadvertent blort of Soft Scrub on purple cloth led me to try tidying up the mess with a Q-tip which led to me realizing I could make clouds ...

on all those pieces of sky ...

which then had to be put into some kind of order ...

to make sense of them all ...

which wasn't easy, because ...

ALL of Deb Lacativa's threads are cosmic. But really, that's a good thing, because that means they all work ...

But then I realized some of the pieces weren't quite right. So I'm making more, stepping out of my comfort zone, trying to turn cloth into story in a new (to me) way.

Taking a risk ... 

it's how we learn to walk ...

how we learn to dance ...

how we learn to step it up a notch ...

Addendum:

About that learning thing ... you can't believe everything you read on the Internet. Like vinegar to neutralize bleach ... Not!

According to Deb Lacativa, who I trust absolutely, one way to neutralize bleach discharged cloth is to add 1 Tbs of Aquasafe to the rinse water (found in the pet aisle of the grocery store with aquarium supplies).

Always I am learning ...