- Three down and then some

The first three patches of 2016 have been stitched and joined together ...

Patch #1 - #3

I don't think I expected them to be quite so wordy, but that's what fell out of my fingers (to paraphrase Mo, who had some incredible stuff fall from her hands here).

"It's only rain" played in my head all day yesterday after I drove to the food store and noticed the dark rims of the raindrops on the windshield. I tried replicating the effect using a Pitt pen ...

followed by backstitch and Inktense pencils ...

Patch #2 close up

It was another first-time experiment and I'm realizing this cloth will probably end up being a sampler, whatever else it may become.

This morning I awoke to find the clouds parting in the west, with a promise of sun to come. Walking out to get the papers, I found 0.6" in the rain gauge and splashes of new growth in the lawn. So I got bold (for me) and picked an uncharacteristically bright thrifted linen blouse from my stash. Tearing off a strip, I was delighted to find it to be two colors woven together, seen here on the back of the patch ...

Patch #3 B-side

The quote stitched on to the front is from the autobiographical song Mother Blues by local songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard that seemed to fit how I'm feeling more and more often ...

And the days that I keep my gratitude

higher than my expectations ...
well, I have really good days"

That walk down the driveway also triggered a decision to try stitching one inch patches representing each month's rainy (blue) and sunny (yellow) days ...

The first five gray squares are "blanks" added to facilitate the calendar format

We'll see how that goes.

Meanwhile, here's one of Don's Christmas projects ...

Trios of snow-y houses with warm yellow light glowing in their (wood burned) windows ... one set for each of the girls and a third set promised for our collection.

The houses were cut from an 8 foot long 4x4 beam Don spotted in a tree down the road. No doubt it was washed in during the Halloween flood and wouldn't be missed by the owner of the vacant lot on which it landed. So Don salvaged it and cut random rooflines with his new (this year) table saw ...

And that was just one of his projects, so stay tuned.