I’m on a campaign to put patches back in style. I love my old Gramichi pants for gardening and messing around outdoors. The shredded knee might have been au current but it wasn’t pleasant when I wanted protection on the ground. Upcycled with patch and stitched over in sashiko “little stabs”. Good to go!
Step 1 – pin the patch inside and then stitch rows across it.
I liked it but it just didn’t feel finished.
Step 2 – I stitched the circle on the right, then the one on left overlapping the designs.
All done and good to go.
My last patch was covered and embroidered inside and outside to look good rolled up or down. It’s time to bring patching back in style.
Bitten by an anxious little Datschund, I was left with punctures in my calf (healing nicely with soap and water and hydrogen peroxide) and a gaping rip raveling my favorite linen summer travel pants. I was on vacation. I could cut the trousers off above the tear and hem them but I like the long capris length when it’s cool-ish and I can roll them up when it’s really hot.
First I tried a bright contrasting patch, thinking to create a funky look with Sashiko embroidery, tiny stabs (running stitches) in a contrasting hue. Maybe I could stitch an interesting design that included the shape of the hole?
You can see the stitches showing on the right side of the leg, it gets covered soon. I can see the outline of the frog but it’s not satisfying. Yet.
It just wasn’t working for me and it called even more attention to the tear. So I removed most of the white cotton thread and bound the edges with a whip stitch and then a blanket stitch in matching thread. The pants remained in my luggage the rest of vacation while I pondered the many ways of patching to keep the appeal of these dear pants. I knew I had a collection of batik frogs about the right size in my studio.
I needed a patch that would
cover the hole and prevent it from further raveling
look good when pants are rolled up, too
be fun during the repair and when wearing the modified pants
use hues and motifs that would go with just about any top I might wear
use materials that are already in my stash
use only hand stitching, why not?
What a lively frog! On the inside of the pants, Shashiko style stitches around and over the design secure the patch over the tear and hold down the pinked edges. I wanted the tied thread ends to show and the edges to fray. You cans see stitches showing through to the right side above.
I stitched some embroidery on the outside patch (a scrap) to lively it up and then attached it over the hole and inside the lines that show from the inside patch. The top stays open to form a little pocket for a fragrant insect repelling herb or something secret.
I can peek inside the pocket patch to check on the tear and give it comfort from time to time, a reminder of how this all came to be.
Brown stitching from the outside patch shows on the inside patch and I think that’s just fine. Funky and homegrown is the intention here.
Rolled up, the inside patch now shows and I think it’s rather interesting. Having 3 patches on this rip makes one pant leg a tad heavier than the other. If you find me listing to one side or walking in circles please lend me your elbow and set me back on the path. A disturbing accident is now a happy patch experience and the pants are good to go again.
This was so much fun I patched a design on my worn Gramichi outdoor pants with more sashiko stitching. Take a look here.
Ink and Prismacolor pencils in my sketchbook today. Leaves and stems have nothing to do with the blooms, just whimsical. I challenged myself to draw in ink, no pencil, no erasing, no mistakes in art.
Oh, come on flowers! Get your bloom on. I love picking wild flowers and those in my garden for springtime bouquets. I’m waiting and waiting for blooms! Winter lasted long this season and I’ve found only a few wildflowers so far and a handful of crocus and snow drops. Tulips and daffodils seem doubtful that the snow is truly at bay. I’m hopeful!
I believe in everything until it’s disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons. It all exists, even if it’s in your mind. Who’s to say that dreams and nightmares aren’t as real as the here and now? ~John Lennon
I’ve been collecting beach rocks, as flat as I can find them, for years. Some already surround small gardens or make stepping places out of mud at the bottom of deck steps. Some are waiting to be placed in just the right spot or pathway in new gardens.
Ernestly engaged with her spirituality and religion, Kathy lived 66 years with Cerebral Palsy. In this photograph my cousin was 25 years old and in college. I believe a room mate or good friend made this image for a photography class in 1976.
This image seems appropriate to illustrate scale among several other themes. Consider the scale of one single person alone in a church but not alone as she connects with her relationship with the Holy Spirit. I think the statement is made by the long empty pews and the empty church. How small we are, aren’t we?
I want to thank my followers for staying with me while I took a long break from blogging. I fell off a ladder & roof shoveling snow last January and injured my back so that movement was painful for several months. Then in July I had my appendix removed, followed by a month of abdominal infection and drains. Didn’t feel much like blogging and was mostly not very conscious for a couple months. As soon as I could walk around a block and didn’t have to use a stool in the shower I ran away – road trip to Port Angeles, WA, where I lived for a long time. I’m pretty well healed now so I hope to get back on schedule with writing and art for the blog and reading all your new posts. I really missed my blogging community.
Belly Biology. I invented the phrase for workshops and daily programs that I taught at Port Townsend Marine Science Center. Basically it means to lay on your belly and see what you can see, most often laying on the dock and looking at what lives under it. Now a good DSLR’s flexible LCD screen can save me the stretch but I still came home with pitch on my jeans, really, from laying on my planet. Try it! Next best thing to laying on my back and looking at clouds!
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA
Butter Cup (Ranunculaceae)and Avalanche Lily (Erythronium grandiflorum) Note this Avalanche Lily supports 7 blossoms with one stem. Commonly the plant produces 1 blossom per stem. They are edible but don’t store well. Use them to top salad or cake and serve as soon as possible or eat them in the wild but only a few per patch to preserve the patch. This is the first edible wild flower to spring forth in spring, Rocky Mountains, USA.
Weekly Photo Challenge: Surprise Shot with Olympus OM-D 5 set on close up scene, camera on ground. You don’t have to actually lay on your belly but it’s awe-fully fun if you do.
When my friend invited me to Bend, Oregon, over Presidents holiday I didn’t expect to find a Fire Pit Competition at their Winterfest. They seem to be made from steel salvaged from Bend’s old mill. People gathered around the art pieces at Old Mill Park along the Deschutes River to share the warmth of the outdoor sculptures with a purpose – they had to be interesting to look at and hold a blaze.
Cabin Fever is no problem for these sculptors. They have a problem to solve and a product to craft. Mission accomplished.
Crust and crumb, the sourdough rye bread turned out just fine. It raised more than it usually does at home. I gave the biologist and the technician each the end parts and kept the mid section for myself. It’s mottled and I like that, not the way I planned but it adds visual interest. I used the whole wheat recipe substituting rye flour for the whole wheat and adding 3 tablespoons dark baking chocolate powder plus a little chopped up fresh rosemary. Superb texture and flavor.
The piece of bread in the bag was baked at home, much denser loaf. Today I decided to take an afternoon nap. No such luck. Something struck the wall next to my bed hard like a football in the wrong place. Shortly afterwards it happened again. I heard the staff yelling at each other outdoors and I knew I didn’t need to get up. I’d hear about it later.
They call these suicidal quail. Both were fleeing the talons of a falcon when they crashed into the side of the house. The biologist held them for a while to see if there might be a heartbeat. When I came down stairs he warned me there is a dead bird in the fridge and told me their story. He gently placed the still warm carcass in my hands and together we admired the feathers. So tiny around the neck. How precisely the hues change and form patterns.
Feather tips felt smooth, but lifting them they revealed fluffy down next to the body. I imagined how the feathers held warmth when the bird puffed up in winter. Staff took the birds home for dinner.
I painted more autumn scenes that afternoon and evening. It felt odd painting inside a specific frame, the shapes of leaves I had traced. For practice with techniques perhaps this limitation was just what I needed. I could concentrate on the process and not feel like I have to compose to the edges of the paper. This is the first time I haven’t taped down the edges. It worked OK on Canson 140, but I prefer Arches 140.
It’s my last evening shift. I packed a few things but left the rest for the morning sensing that I won’t have many hunters picking up a key so I will have plenty of time to move out.
I’ve been enchanted with the grotesque since I learned about gargoyles in my 7th grade French class. And I’ve always liked the humorous. Walking in Madrid in September I paused and clicked a few shots of this window decor while my friends advanced ahead of me, not noticing the window or that I was no longer keeping up. The skulls and rocks have been transformed to serve practical functions; they are no longer in their original forms. Go back and look closely and you will see what’s going on inside the room as well as reflections of street action. Let your mind feel the shifts in perception captured by the lens.
I met Richard Thomas when he was instructor at the Horror Writers Workshop Transylvania, Edition 2015, in Bran. One day on our way to write in a haunted castle we had lunch in an ancient cemetery. Richard made the original photo of this group of grave markers and I messed with it a bit to create this transmogrified image.
Pose like a statue until someone puts cash in your box (which you have also decorated and set out in an obvious and inviting way).
3. With cash secured in your money bucket do your best to pose with the payers.
4. Stay in character and interact with your patrons. After all, they paid for a performance.
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5. Have a blast with the people you meet. It calls more attention to your performance and makes everyone’s day better.( Eduardo’s slide show has 5 photos; wait for them or click the arrows.)
6. Perform in Madrid plazas. (Or you own street.)
7. Or create an interesting sculpture with support so it looks like you are performing a magnificent feat when really you have built something to rest on.
I feel like I saw more street performers in Madrid than I photographed. I have encouraged my drama students to do street performances for fundraisers and I think with more confidence and rehearsals some might do it. Really, I should do this to raise funds for my next travel. Yeah, thinking about it.
Spain’s Parliament Building in Madrid, early Sept. 2016
Spain’s Parliament Building in Madrid, early Sept. 2016
This week’s photo challenge is “Quest”. The topic can be taken a multitude of ways and I have been thinking and free-writing about it. When I looked at photos I made in Spain the first 2 weeks of Sept. this year, this one strikes me as an ultimate quest: the search to be welcome in a country, to take refuge, when people are fleeing unconscionable hate in their homeland. Thank you Spain for displaying your welcome!
Since I returned to Idaho my dad has been in ICU for 12 days in quest for his life. He’s recovering now and is in quest of a drink of water, which he is still not allowed. His ultimate quest is to regain his health. Health and freedom and a welcome environment, how easily we might take these for granted, but for many people they are the only thing important today. What is your quest today?
If I sat on the edge of the city arch, would you sit with me? Would you watch the coming and going and secretly comment on the fashion of the times as they pass by? I think it would be rather dreary and dull, don’t you? To sit on the edge for ever so long and never participate in the worldly affairs of human beings, the dull little things.
These are first photos using my new Olympus OM-D: E-M5 Mark II. It’s a mirrorless digital camera, very light weight and will do more than a DSLR. I’m taking it to Spain Tuesday and I have no doubt it will perform superbly as a travel camera.
How Mom worked to get my hair in ringlets! And how I wanted to run off and play! My hair is incredibly thick and not easy to curl. But Mom was determined. This photo looks like we had fun, but it wasn’t always a pleasure to sit while Mom fussed with my hair. Dad is still the jolliest man I know and I bet he took the photo. Dads take the best family photos. I don’t know if we were smiling because we loved the ringlet or because we loved each other and Dad made us laugh so easily. All of it, I’m sure. I still wear big straw hats and long hair but I don’t worry much about getting my curls just so.
Spain’s Parliament Building in Madrid, early Sept. 2016
Sky Blue Daze 