- Details, details

I'm here to say for the record that what Cindy Monte does at Handstories, creating gossamer swaths of stars, is very, very hard to do (well). That being said, when I awoke this morning to green grasses glittering in the early morning sun, I had to try ...

Patch #21

It doesn't quite capture the magic of the scene outside my window, much as Christmas tree lights don't capture the magic of stars seen through evergreen branches. Nonetheless, having stitched it will help me remember this morning's magic and appreciate Cindy's creations all the more.

Likewise, I tried to capture the sense of an overnight wash of raindrops in the gauge. Though there was too little to measure, the rainfall was worthy of recording with a fringe of blue linen and tiny pricks of pale blue basting along the edges of the sunlit yellow patch  ...

Other details I've stitched are too subtle to see unless pointed out, like these two weather patches joined with orange thread, a recollection of driving into Austin at daybreak last week ...

I've also stitched some seams in gray, a nod to partially cloudy days. They are beneath notice unless one knows where to look. A stitcher's conceit ... and therein lies the explanation for the fun I'm having. [Later: I just recalled that software game developers who hide images in their work call the images "Easter eggs"]

By the way, today's green patch was the outcome of a thrift store binge yesterday ...

The three table cloths on the top left are finely woven cotton/linen blends ... all 55" x 55" square and there were four more I left behind (2 beige, 2 a rather bilious yellow). They undoubtedly came from the same home, from someone who loved to set tables, someone like Dana at Raven and Sparrow. At least, that's what I choose to believe ... it makes for a good story.The teal placemats on the lower left seem to be the same cotton/linen blend, but I confess to being a bit unsure, even after doing a burn test, as they could conceivably be rayon or a rayon blend.

The shirts, on the other hand, are 100% cotton (the one on the left) and 100% linen (the two on the right). The green shirt is a men's medium, so lots of cloth to be had. The two ladies' blouses are another story: my favorite colors ... for stitching or wearing? I can't decide. Don's Solomonic recommendation is to put them in the closet to see if I actually wear them before putting them on the cutting block. Works for me.

And to finish the thought thread that I started last night, here's the Kantha stitch that I ripped out of Land of Flood and Drought ...

Double-strand DMC

And here's what I stitched in its place ...

Single-strand DMC

Visibly the difference is subtle (there's that word again), but to the hand it made all the difference in the world.