Those of you who have been here a while know I like to make patches day-by-day. That actually started back in 2016 after following Ronnie Ayliffe’s year-long project Look up.
And so, even though I’ve got plenty to keep me occupied with E’s coverlet, I’m looking ahead to working on my heart’s compass again.
At first I thought I’d do daily moon patches to add to the bed cloth, so I stitched a 1” square on Sunday, January 2nd. But it was the first day of the new (invisible) moon, so I actually stitched the sun instead …
Thinking I wanted to cover the top edge of the 108” bed cloth with a year’s worth of the patches, I quickly realized 1” would be too small. So I tried a slightly larger size and got through a whole week of 1.1” patches …
before deciding those wouldn’t be big enough either … besides which, I wasn’t happy with my cloth choices.
Harrumph.
At which point I gathered cloth gifted by Connie Akers, along with blue and gray cloth and threads dyed by Deb Lacativa, Malka Dubrawsky, Tina, and ummm someone else I’m surely forgetting …
and put together eleven days worth of Looking Up …
The patches are not quite 1.25” in a mix of sky and cloth stories which should work. However, I won’t be relating all of those stories here. For now I’ll just tell this one.
Yesterday’s patch was stitched to recall Parker’s weekly visit, which included drawing very color-full “unicorn kitties in ballet dancer nightgowns” …
Afterward, we went out to look for the moon, which I couldn’t find in the sky until P pointed it out to me (more on that in a sec) …
So I asked Parker to pick out a cloth with which to make the day’s moon patch and she went straight to some Lacativa-dyed cloth (good eye). I sketched a ragged-edge moon and appliqued some fine white cotton onto the sketch.
Then I squinted, said “nope” and rough cut a piece of harem cloth in order to free-hand stitch a new (better) patch …
And that’s going to be the fun part of this project: after a year of stitching suns and moons and stars, I am sure to have quite a variety of results. Fingers crossed.
One last thing about finding the moon. I’ve been using a moon past app for quite a while …
without realizing it has a nifty compass feature that lets you point yourself at the moon, not to mention information about the sun and a calendar overview of the moon phases for the month (click to see full images) …
Who knew?
I'm Going to Texas (version 2.0) 
I’ve always had a thing for the moon.🌜🤓
Love your patches!
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so good to see you here and yes, judging by your 3:33 a.m. IG picture of the last lunar eclipse, you definitely qualify as a moon-mate
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First up I smiled when you had decided to do the moon; and on the very first day there was no moon! Sounds very much like something I would have happen. I love where you landed on Parker’s moon – that cloth is fabulous for it. And what’s not to love about unicorn kitties in ballerina night gowns?!?!?! I love the imagery of the sky and the sun and the moon and remembering to look up (also like the play on words with the Don’t Look Up movie de jour…) Very cool moon app and how good is the compass?
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no moon was the perfect opening for considering what else I might do … and that considering continues as I awoke at 4:00 this morning with ideas flying through my head … for sure I’ll be consulting with P in the future as she has a great eye … just like her mom
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Love the unicorn kitties! Parker has a pretty cool ballerina type skirt, too.
The bed cover is going to be great! Can’t wait to see it finished–but I guess I’ll have to since you just started the moons.
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one of the things about blogging is how over-familiarity with the long-view can make one forget there might be new readers who don’t (yet) know the backstory … for sure I’ll put the bed cover in an upcoming post and do some idea-storming about where it’s headed (and for those who do remember it, I’m glad it has had some fallow time during which new ideas have come to light)
and thanks for noticing P’s sparkly skirt … she has recently started taking ballet classes and I’m not sure who loves the dancewear more … P or her mom
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Oh my gosh…Parker’s eye for detail! Love those Kittes 🙂
And love your moons. you are always up to something I like looking at!
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LA – a very full post – so grand that Parker could find the moon and choose the patch – ownership right there. The app sounds really nifty – I will investigate that. Go well. B
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I wonder whether this particular app will work equally well in Australia (where your waxing moons look like our waning moons and vice versa) … that said, hopefully there is an equally interesting down-under app as I suspect you’d have a lot of fun with something like this
and yes, I love that Parker is so aware of the moon that she can readily find it in the sky
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Parker has such an eye for color and detail, her unicorn kitten ballerinas would look magical transferred to cloth with the moon shining overhead as they danced the night away…
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I had been sad that Parker left her abstract coloring behind, but no more … her drawings get more and more detailed by the week and it’s fascinating to see where her imagination takes her … that said, I don’t know if I could do justice to the intricacy of her drawings, but we do keep a photo album of her creations
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Go Parker! What a fabulous drawing. Looking forward to seeing where your project goes.
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this morning’s flurry of ideas is starting to gel into something like a plan …
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Fabulous post. Thanks for the app. But I’m with others in needing to swoon over Parker’s kitties. So fabulous. And a whole family of them! The bigger size square works a lot better and somehow I think will be more pleasurable to work with.
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truly a kittie corps de ballet (although P said they were actually a family) … and yes, I’m definitely partial to 1.25″ and 1.75″ patches so I have a little room to embellish
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Love, love, love your moons idea. Can’t wait to see how they play on your bedcloth. And P’s drawings are delightful. They put a big smile on my face. Thank you Liz for sharing them. xo
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I’ve also subscribed to Glennis Dolce’s monthly moons, which are sure to find their way onto the cloth as well … and yes, I confess to being in awe of P as she puts her ideas on paper … at age 4 I think I was still in the triangle + square = house stage of drawing
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