Back in my happy place

March 5, 2023March 5, 2023 ~ Liz A ~ 26 Comments

I’m on my sixth or seventh skein of Deb’s threads, happily stitching my way across a sea of hope …

And wow, that one patch of Deb’s dyed damask makes me think of Hazel’s sailing ships … imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, even when unintentional.

We’ve actually been away … an overnight trip to the little town of Brenham …

which we reached after two hours of driving by lots of bluebonnets.

We stayed at the Main Street House …

wandered around the historic district…

had a great dinner at Las Americas …

and wished some other intriguing places had been open when we wandered by …

Sadly, the new normal in Bed & Breakfast land appears to be serve-yourself breakfast … a change from the toothsome offerings served at a common table in pre-Covid days.

Still, it was good to be venturing out in the world again … and then return home to blue skies and new leaves pushing old leaves off the live oak trees …

a sure sign of spring!

Connecting threads

December 4, 2021March 30, 2023 ~ Liz A ~ 19 Comments

I recently found my way to Karen at Stitching Life via the sidebar on Jude’s Spirit Cloth. Karen’s current post, in which she replicates a bit of nineteenth-century pattern on 40-count silk, lit up the long-neglected synapses that connect the current me to the once-upon-a-time me. So I sent her a link to this image …

Then I actually read my post, which included this image …

and the words “I’m starting to wonder where my bit of even-weave cloth will end up.”

I suspect Mo is nodding her head as she surely knows where this is going. The tiny bit of linen ended up being 1.5″ to a side and I know that because I gave it away …

sent it to Mo in Australia along with a bit of rust dyed cloth, where she incorporated both into the Key Book …

And the story might have ended there, except that Mo dreamed up I Dream of a World Where Love is the Answer, to which I responded. And somehow, in the course of that magical time, Mo gifted the Key Book to me …

The pennant with Old Man Crow’s lyrics to I Dream of a World Where Love is the Answer, travelled to Australia, where it lives with Mo and Rod to this day …

The mended shell eventually returned home to Texas (where it subsequently became a part of a published book, which is a story for another day) …

and now sits on the same shelf as the Key Book …

Last, but not least, here is one of Mo’s exquisite drawings from The Illustrated Lyrics of Old Man Crow, which arrived September 12, 2016. How do I know that? It’s all on the blog …

Coming and going

May 18, 2021May 18, 2021 ~ Liz A ~ 6 Comments

I’ve been thinking recently about “audience,” which is to say, who is in my mind as I stitch.

When I made Remember 2016, it was all about Logan (then 11 going on 12) …

Jackson (3 going on 4) …

Griffin (also 3 going on 4) …

and Jace (1 going on 2) …

These days, it’s very much about the new littlest ones, Parker (who just turned 4) …

and Ellis (1 going on 2) …

in hopes that they will find themselves in the patches of Remember 2021, just as their older sibling and cousins find themselves in Remember 2016.

And so in these most recent patches, a nod to Ellis, who is learning to talk and sing. Each visit gives us new glimpses into her growing vocabulary. And when we’re not there, Meg sends us milestone videos, like this 45 second rendition of the ABC song …

But better yet was our most recent babysitting adventure, when Ellis began to sing along with my Backward ABC song, which Griffin and Parker then joined in (because of course I taught it to them when they were “1 going on 2”).

While there was no video evidence, I did confess to Meg that she should probably let the pre-school teachers know about E’s latest addition to her repertoire … lest they wonder … yet again.