Weather news first … it’s not really that cold at 30 degrees in Central Texas, but a fine rain continues to fall, weighing the trees down with ice. Behind our house, the neighbor’s live oak has drooped another 2-3 feet since I took the first picture at dawn …
We did lose power for a couple of hours, but we are fortunate (?) to have a gas stove, so I was able to make hot coffee and grain cereal for breakfast.
Our daughter in south Austin has not (yet?) lost power, but she does have a lot of live oaks which are losing branches at an alarming rate …
And so it goes …
On a more positive note, I have encased the raw edges of three Glennis moons in close(d) herringbone, seen here front and back …
Note that all the moon patches were first basted down with Jude’s glue stitch, which will remain in place as the tiny white stitches serve as visible “stars” on the front of the patches.
As you can see, there are also horizontal lines of paired stitches running through each of the other-side pictures shown above. Those stitches were formed by the combination stitch that I used to attach the long strips of black linen to the flannel sheet, as described here …
For the record, this is how I worked the Combination Stitch of one tiny backstitch combined with two running stitches …
where the needle comes up at 1, a tiny back stitch down at 2, followed by running stitches up at 3, down at 4, and up at 5 … all done in one motion.
The next pass of stitches continues up at 5, down at 6, up at 7, down at 8, and up at 9.
The result on the top side is a series of stitches that look like dash dot dash dot … on the back the stitches look like paired dashes.
The reason you do not actually see the stitches on top in the image above is that the strips of cloth were folded over on themselves after being attached to the flannel in order to create a bound edge … basically a form of log-cabin construction directly on the flannel backing cloth.
I used some other ways of attaching cloth to the flannel sheet, so stay tuned for more in the promised series …
I'm Going to Texas (version 2.0) 
I am saving all your posts about your stitching methods, and loving your photos and descriptions ! My heart is full of thanks.
Love.
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I’m glad you find them useful … I’ve long used this blog as a notebook for process, looking back when I tackle something and realize I’ve done it before … so often wondering, hmmmm, now how did I do that again?
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Thanks for the stitch diagrams, they are quite helpful.
I’m so sorry for your poor trees. I hope the damage will by minimal.
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It has been humbling trying to put what I do into written form as so much of it is what Karen so rightly calls “intuitive stitching” … and what Jude has always called “just going”
As for the trees, it was amazing watching the local news last night … the cracking and crashing sounds caught on video as huge limbs came crashing down … one Austinite was filmed with a huge live oak that literally pulled up half his front lawn when it fell over, roots and all … I’m waiting for daylight to reveal the state of our neighbor’s live oak that has come to visit over the fence
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Brrr…
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I’m looking forward to going back to our usual 60 degree weather … our house isn’t insulated for this kind of cold and the windows get ice on the interior frames whenever the temperature goes below freezing … which then melts onto the sills …
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Hi LA – I’m sorry I got lost with the stitching; but I did relate to the cold and loss of power – the weather just seems crazy this year. Stay safe. B
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B – I’m afraid global weirding will continue to bring more and more extreme weather everywhere … buckle up, it’s gonna be a rough ride
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Similar temperatures to what we are having here, just into the minus °C (-6°C here a few nights last week). Don’t expect that in somewhere like Texas though. Is I normal this time of year?
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It’s definitely not normal, but as noted above, extreme weather is becoming the new normal everywhere … we had a similar freeze two years ago, but longer and more intense (6 days of weather in Fahrenheit single digits) … 200 people died in 2021 and there have already been multiple deaths with this latest freeze … the infrastructure isn’t up to handling exceptional weather
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Hope things warm up soon…the unusual weather is so hard. I was just reading an article in the local paper about how our usual summers will most likely be replaced with more and more smokey summers with bad air quality and that the state is starting to work on response plans. So much is changing for all of us… P.S. love seeing the detail on your stitching!
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the fixes won’t be easy … just read an article about the ongoing power failure in Austin, which was exacerbated by all the overhead wiring … it would take billions of dollars to put all that wiring underground … of course, I’m thinking, why don’t they convert people to solar instead???
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Loving the stitching lessons and background to why, and what, and how the glue stitch made stars…
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done in black on white it might rightly be called poppy seed stitch … ha!
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As you say, the extreme weather thing is becoming more and more common everywhere. That poor tree! As always, very much enjoying your stitch process 🙂
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Our neighbors have already cut back the broken branches in their tree, which lost no more than 20% of its limbs … and happily our fence and the dwarf pomegranate beneath the tree survived intact … we can only imagine what our last house up in the Hill Country must look like, as it had dozens of large live oaks and are grateful to have weathered this latest storm in our current home
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Love your Texas two-step stitch. And I liked seeing the link from when you first started covering felt with linen. I don’t remember that post. So thanks!
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The flannel was a king size sheet I bought from LL Bean … not my usual mo, but I wanted something that would remain stable as I stitched all that added cloth onto it … so far so good
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First of all, relieved to know that everyone is safe from the bitter cold. Checked your weather and it looks like your temps will be rising, up to 75 on Monday. Tonight will be in the 30’s and then night temps will also rise but will go back down into the 30’s later in the week SO sleeping under My Heart’s Compass will surely be a very good thing. especially when you close your eyes and think of the landscape inspirations..
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variations in temperature are the norm in Texas, as I’m sure you recall … 30 degree swings, even with 24 hours, are common … so yeah, we can’t complain about the weather in the week to come … I haven’t put My Heart’s Compass on the bed yet as it has 3 years of being dragged back and forth to the ironing board and needs to be laundered … tomorrow is forecast to be sunny and the storm has knocked down the pollen counts, so I’m hoping to run it through the washing machine and dry it on the lawn (there’s no way I’ll put the cloth through the dryer even though I’m a bit concerned about pollen)
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too cold to think right now. I love diagrams.
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it’s amazing how many steps our fingers remember … no thinking required
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