Detail photo on the quilt

Hello, everyone.  The other day when I posted about the quilt, there was a detail of the center panel that I wanted to post, but the Blogger app insisted on turning it sideways. Even after cropping to get it wider than tall. A couple of days later it appears that the revised shape of the image has settled in.

The silhouette of the cowmen and their horses is what I think attracted DH to fall in love with the wall hanging in the store. This detail also shows most of the star blocks.

The white frame around the panel is linen from the stash. The prints, while I love them, are very monotone and the highlight really helps punch it up. IMHO.

A small break from Camino posts

 Hello, everyone.

A couple of south Texas items:

A really pretty moth we saw on our porch:

Isn't he something?

And we had a cold snap, which meant covering tender plants and moving some inside.

The dragon fruit cactus, inside of a sheet. We also added
incandescent Christmas lights to it.

And to finish off, we saw a very bold squirrel at Bentsen Park a few days ago:

Can you see what he's holding in his right front paw?

Tennessee wildlife sighting

 Hello, everyone.  I'm on the road visiting family. 

While outside in their yard (garden for European readers) I turned over a log and saw a creature that is new to me.

This is a slug with the most amazing leopard spots. I had seen one crawling in the evening but had no camera. This one stayed still for me to take a photo in the daytime. (Probably it was sleeping!) 

I thought slugs only came in dull solid gray. The spotted ones are something different! 

More posts after getting home, I think. It's very active around here with creatures and children. 😄 

A small walk report

 Hello, everyone.

We went for a walk at Bentsen State Park and enjoyed it very much. We went later than usual because the morning woke up very chilly--so it was around 9 am. 

My favorite of the pictures we took (so far) is this shot of the Rosa de Montaña vines near the entrance:

Also it looked like the painted map sign had been redone.

We found a new bird blind (with roof and seating) along the Kiskadee Trail which runs in a straight line and crosses the center loop. (Hiking only, shown as a pink line.) Saw cardinals, titmice, orioles, kiskadee, of course chachalacas and green jays. Also javelinas at the older bird blind hut near the resaca. And a pair of coyotes along the road while driving over there.

The La Coma were in bloom and smelled wonderful. (Yes, for those excessively picky people: "la" is the article. But I think that when using a word from another language there's nothing wrong with going with that language's convention of attaching an article to the front. "Las Tules", anyone? And a lot of people refer to La Coma trees not Coma trees. Which sounds in English like a medical condition: coma. Disambiguation is a good thing.)

It felt so good to walk again. Probably did around 5K but didn't really calculate.

It's a good year for the lizards

 Hello, everyone.

 I was loading photos into the computer and doing some cropping and noticed that, since we have scads of lizards this year, we have some photos of them. And, though I hadn't noticed before, they don't all look the same.

This little guy hangs out at the palapa. He bobs his head at us.

This fellow likes the pergola. Here he's showing off his red patch next to the pot of succulents.

This little guy was under a dog water dish. It's got a sheltered spot between the outside wall and the underside of the bowl. That broad-leaved tendril near him is indeed an ivy stem. It's part of a pot of needlepoint ivy. I didn't think those could grow here but this one is doing fine.

There are also many, many young lizards around, which we haven't caught on camera. They are half the size of these when we first see them, and then they grow to be like these. 

A small catch-up on sewing this last week or so

 Hello, everyone.

As it's August in South Texas, projects that can be done inside, in the air conditioning, appeal more than others.

Besides, Christmas is coming. (All y'all that think I am making things for you, close your eyes.) 

The Flowery Bull is making another appearance. 

Pinning the facing (outside facing) onto a new garment.

And a pair of "Woopsies"--The top stuffy was embroidered onto the reverse side of the minky-style fabric. (He doesn't look too bad, but all the lovely cuddly fuzz on this one is on the back side.) I may give the birdie away to someone...well, as I'm too old for lots of toys, all the toys are give-away items. And if you don't know that his front is on the wrong side of the fabric, he's fine. Perhaps some folks prefer him the way he came out!

The bottom stuffy was an experiment with a free design. The directions called for felt, which I used. The photo with the directions online didn't show felt as having been used, it showed something in the linen or cotton woven zone. There is a reason for that. The felt fabric doesn't have a lot of strength to resist pulling, such as the pulling involved in turning a tiny pillow right-side-out through a 3/4" wide hole. In the event, I widened the hole some, and used needle-nosed pliers to *carefully* pull out as much as possible. The pointy bottom of the heart was not going to come out at all, as it's just too narrow at the bottom. Then I stuffed it and closed the opening with red thread and ladder stitches. 

I guess the heart is good for a bowl filler piece. It's about palm-size.

Pretty doggie

Hello, everyone.

It has been busy around the old homestead this past week, with both canine and youthful visitors. Very little embroidery work was done, very little walking-with-camera was done, and to cap it off we had the edge of a hurricane this weekend.

The happy hostess of the canine houseguests. 

The reaction of the baby Caribbean Tree Cacti to the almost nonstop rain during the night and off and on all day. They had to be picked up from their pan, the water dumped, and then be put back. The pan was moved farther from the edge of the porch, too.

Hoping to resume more usual activity levels in a few days!

A pretty butterfly

Hello, everyone.

On this, the anniversary of our nation's Declaration of Independence, a lighter post:

DH saw a new butterfly flying around the yard. When she perched in the palapa, he caught this photo.

DD tells us that she is a Mexican Blue-wing. She's certainly a pretty little creature!

Happy Fourth of July to all.

Revisiting fleecy embroidered toys

Hello, everyone.

Yesterday I tried a new approach to the stuffed toy made in the hoop: making an opening to begin with in the back side.

How? you wonder. By piecing the back from two pieces of fleece with an opening in the seam for stuffing later.

The final back side of the kitty. (The seam line can be brushed out if one wants, the minky style fleece has a definite, though short, pile.)

While trimming I accidentally cut the seam allowance off on one of the paws, but that was easily repaired.

The only tricky thing about this pieced back was the sudden discovery that it is really important to tack down the seam allowances of the center back seam. (The seam allowance got eaten up by the foot, and it was a bit tricky to cut it free. Plus there was a small hole in the fabric at the end.) With that adjustment, the trick worked. And an opening that is hand stitched closed with seam allowance at the opening is sturdier than one that is just pulled together with stitches across a slit, and a better looking result than cobbling together seam allowances at the slit that will work like an unplanned dart. IMHO.

This is one of the Minkee Pals toys. It's about hand-sized, and you use the small (not miniature) hoop to make it.

Obviously, since the fleece I have is white, the colors were changed. I think they work out okay. And even though I bought the white remnant expressly to make these critters, I am going to use up the rest of the white: it's officially from stash now. (Found the remnant at Hobby Lobby.)

The kitty can be a toy for a baby, as everything is securely stitched down. It can be a small Christmas gift. It can be a package tie-on. It's a little bit small for a fidget, I think, but the back side is uninterrupted pile so it could even be that. Maybe it could be tucked into a pocket on a fidget, with a little tethering ribbon so it doesn't get lost. A flock of them could be party favors for a children's party.

The natural world: creeping critters seen

Hello, everyone.

Lately, since there is time to look more carefully, there have been some odd creatures seen. (Not a snake this time!)

Hike and Bike walk

Subdivision walk

The one on the left was scootching along in the gutter in the subdivision. It was about 5 inches long. (Appx. 13 cm. for my metric zone readers.)  It had rained a day or so before, at least an inch and maybe two. Possibly the critter's home was inundated.

The one on the right was at the Hike and Bike trail,crossing the path. It was about an inch and a half long.

Other than saying "lots and lots of legs" I am not sure what they are.

Progress report on the mason bee nest: the mud plug is still in place, the babies are obviously too young to have hatched, eaten their food, pupated, and come out.  We just check in on it and keep from putting our drink glass on top of it!

Re: beading, nothing at the moment. 

Re: sewing, hemming some napkins for the practice of it, thinking of making some purificators afterwards. The mitered corners and quarter inch hems of the one help to prepare the muscles for the other, is my thought. 

Re: quilting, my homework for the Kimberbell Jingle All The Way quilt class is pretty much caught up. The "bonus" small chenille tree is still sitting here and might end up framed in a small oval or rectangular frame to be a Christmas decoration on its own. (This would give an opportunity to add beads to it, always a plus!) 

Stash report: still a lot of it. But the napkins are using up some black linen. Some of the blue linen got turned into the last set of coasters, but there is more in the house I think. A bit of the leftover blue satin got turned into a pouch for an eyeglasses wiping cloth, that could be a gift idea for this winter.

A new project: embroidering onto a knit pocket

Hello, everyone.

There is always something to do around the house if you have a sewing machine. Even more so if you also have an embroidery machine.

DH had requested new sleepwear. As his preferred type isn't in the stores these days, that means sewing.

I found some rayon spandex knit on Fabric.com ( both navy and red solids) and decided that as long as I have these cool gadgets to work with, the chest pocket needed decorating.  I consulted DP, who organizes our sewing club and has much experience with machine embroidery, and also looked at the internet. Found a cute animal--DH likes it--and got to work.

I used wash-and-tear stabilizer on the bottom of the sandwich. Ironed on knit Pro-Sheer Elegance with the grain crossed from the knit grain--this is the part that will remain in the finished garment. Topped with Sulky Solvy, a non-adhesive sheer soluble that I like a lot, to keep the stitches lying nicely on the surface of the knit.

Yes, that is painters' tape holding the Sulky Solvy still on top! It's actually less tacky than my white sewing tape is.

This was the test sew-out of the bull. I mixed up the colors a little, used variegated charcoal where the dark brown is supposed to be, but it came out okay anyway I think.

The little bovine fits into the small 5x5 hoop of my machine, and fits perfectly onto the pocket piece.

Now if I can only find a use for the test project!

Spring flowerpots update, and a wild creature

Hello, everyone.

The last few posts have shown the progress of the holdover lily plant. This may be the last one for that plant this year, if it doesn't surprise us all by making seeds. (I haven't seen any bees coming around.)

Y'all can see that the main bulb has made many buds this year. It also has "pupped out" several stems in the pot and maybe in a couple-three years they will bloom, too. At the left in this picture is the stem of another Easter lily that was bought this year. It gave about 4 blossoms. In a little while I will find a larger pot--larger than the 1 gallon one inside the "decorator" purple can--and see if we can have two holdover lilies next year.

The yellow is one of the daylily plants that was brought over from the old house. The other three found homes in a flower bed, but there wasn't room enough for all four. It seems to be happy in the pot, anyway.

On another note, in March on one of the days we were sharing an afternoon gin and tonic (to frighten the plague-virii away) we saw a critter crawling around in the radio.

It's not very big, and we have no idea what manner of moth or butterfly it should become down the road. We did follow our standard rule of thumb: don't touch the fuzzy caterpillars. Some of them have stingers!

Today is the feast of St. Joseph the Worker, and by official proclamation in the US has been declared  "Law Day"--no idea if this name will stick around or not--as well as being May Day.

I was once told by my grandmother that on May Day in her youth they would make paper baskets and give flowers to their friends. As she grew up in eastern Montana, at the exact other extreme of the US (speaking north-south here) I suspect that any flowers they could find on May Day was a pretty big thing. Snow is not unheard of on May Day, and even on May 31 they sometimes get snow in those parts.

Here in South Texas, the first of May is well into "pretty darned warm" season. At this time of the year there is generally little rain and from now into fall what there is usually comes from tropical systems. Today the temperature has been well into the 90's F. (north of 32C for my metric zone readers.)

I have made about all of the elastic in the house into masks, and as the plague seems to be on the downhill slope now am looking toward other projects. DH wants some sleepwear, there is a piece of knit that looks just right for an infinity scarf for me, and hopefully the Kimberbell Christmas quilt classes will be able to resume at my local quilt shop. Also I have started working on a new fidget--still kind of misty and vague right now, but there is an oval of blue fur cut out for the base.

Another recent walk, this time at Bentsen Park

Hello, everyone.

Just before everything combined to reschedule our Camino walk, we did a relaxed walk at Bentsen-RGV State Park.

The bird-feeder season was pretty-much over. Except for those feeders that had been stocked! We saw some pretty birds. One type we were seeing, in addition to the green jays, the red-winged blackbirds, the chachalacas, and various full-colored red cardinals, were these ones:

Near the bridge over the irrigation canal at the entrance. His color looked rather orange-ish that time.

At the water-enhanced bird blind with benches, getting a drink.

Also at that bird blind? He was eating sunflower seeds here.

These don't really look like the female cardinals. They might be. Or they might be another color variant. Or desert cardinal? the bill in the internet images of the desert cardinal seemed more sharply curved but the feathery look to the crest--sorry, those pictures came out blurry--made me think it's not a regular cardinal.

The weather was cloudy that day and it seems to have convinced the birds to keep their little caps down.

Returning to our little snake friend of the path

Hello, everyone.

Today we discovered that the Camino walk we have been training for must be rescheduled. The government of Spain declared a national emergency with travel restrictions, as near as we can tell.

So returning to the puzzle of the snake was an attractive thought. We think we have him identified:
desert massasauga is a type of smallish rattlesnake that lives in the Rio Grande Valley. It likes dry grassy country, and since there has been very little rain this year it should be very happy these days! (Link is to a photo from the New Mexico herp society.) We're still having trouble spotting the pit in his face, but he certainly has the cat's eye pupils, and the color. The tail photo seems to show a small rattle chain beginning to form. And he has the full cheeks of a rattler instead of the narrow head of many other snakes.

We cropped the photos and came up with these detail bits:

The head

Overall look at the snake, lying on the pavement

The tail

Interested readers are welcome to add information about this interesting reptile in the comments.

Wildlife on the walking trail

Hello, everyone.

A few days ago we were walking on the Hike and Bike Trail in our town. We often carry cameras in case something interesting turns up.

I almost stepped on this one.

He doesn't have a visible rattle--the first thing we thought to wonder about!--but he's rather small. (Around 18 inches?) He does have a line of brown spots down his back. His head is triangular, the wide part being behind his eyes. No pits were visible in his cheeks, at least to our glance. (But we didn't give him an all-over look.)

A view from another angle.

He was lying in the sunshine trying to warm up for the day, minding his own business right out there on the paved path. We passed on by, live and let live, and continued our walk. When we returned through that spot he had moved on.

Walking at Bentsen in November

Hello, everyone.

As you all realize, life went on while the series on Israel was being posted. I propose to pick up some of those bits in the next several posts.

We went walking in Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park after we returned. It was a glorious day for wildlife viewing!

One of the flock of turkeys that were attending the bird feeder next to the road through the park. This is the first time we had ever seen turkeys there. The flock must have been around 8 in number.

And at the blind there were a mother and a baby and two adult male javelina. (One may have been the father. He ran the other one off with much loud clacking of teeth.) They socialized, drank water from the pond, and generally hung around for a while.

Israel pilgrimage, fourteenth in series, and Christmas greetings (updated for spelling)

Hello, everyone.

This is the third post for the day we walked the Stations of the Cross in Jerusalem. It will complete the day with a brief remembrance of the chapel of Golgotha, which is also inside of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

As you enter the church, if you look to the right immediately, you see some very steep steps. These are the steps of Golgotha. It's a really steep little peak--granted there may have been a little more dirt over the rocks back then. Still, a tough climb up at the last from someone who had been beaten, dragged across the city three times, and then had to drag/carry a cross to the outside of the city. I almost wonder whether they had to do the nailing a little below the peak as there appears to be not much flat space for the executioners to work in at the top.

Inside the door of the chapel is another, very crowded, line.

The line. Also an overview of some of the beautiful and edifying mosaics on the ceiling and walls. (The birds alongside the cross are souls ascending into Heaven.) This is the Latin chapel, the actual place the Cross stood is in the Orthodox chapel which is out of sight around the corner on the left.

Detail of the mosaic: the Bark (ship) of Peter on the left, a symbol of the Church; the Eucharistic pelican on the right. The pelican here is a theological, poetic pelican. She feeds her young with her own blood by piercing her breast. It is a very ancient analogy of the Eucharist.

A detail of the Sorrowful Mother, viewing her Son. Even the executioner is sad.

Another image of Mary as Sorrowful Mother. Besides the candles and the crucifix (it's an altar) you can also see some of the devotional gifts that have been offered to the honor of the mother of Our Lord. This time she's portrayed with the sword prophesied by Simeon when He was presented in the Temple as an infant. ("Your heart, too, will be pierced by a sword, that the thoughts of many may be revealed," I think it goes. It's in the Gospel of Luke.)


And speaking of the Gospel of Luke, today is Christmas Eve, AKA the Vigil of Christmas.



The tree has a bow because the fake trees are too delicate to accept a star. Trying to strengthen it never really worked, so I capitulated.






The angel was a light cover from a tree light strand that had a whole flock of angels. It came with a little clip, which holds it nicely atop the stable.


I hope for all y'all to have a blessed and merry Christmas and a happy new year. Feliz navidad, y prospero año y felicidad!

Israel pilgrimage, second in series

Hello, everyone.

The morning after we arrived, we got out early and rode on our bus to visit several places. This post will discuss the visit to Haifa, which was the last of the day, just because that one has had the photos looked at a little more.

 A view of part of the harbor at Haifa. 

An interesting bird. I have no idea what kind it is. A crow? It's larger than a grackle and smaller than a chachalaca.

At the top of the hillside over looking the harbor at Haifa, we visited the founding monastery of the Carmelite order of monks and nuns. As it had been built or remodeled under the Ottoman government when the area was part of their empire, the monastery looks more like a school or apartment building from the street than a monastery. A passer-by who didn't read the small sign wouldn't know there was a Christian church anywhere nearby.

In the apse of the church, a statue of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, giving the brown scapular.

A painting from the church of St. Joseph and the Christ Child, with two Carmelites in the foreground. I am not sure who they are.

A ways up the street, and also a drive-by view from below, the Bahai's have built a garden. Their garden has some structural elements in common with the shrine Bom Jesu in Braga, Portugal: the stairs which are visible in the view looking up. Their garden is very pretty.

Looking uphill at the Bahai garden

 Looking downhill at the Bahai garden.

After a short hiatus, one needs to organize a bit

Hello, everyone.

The hiatus in posting was unexpected. I went with a group from church to the land of Israel. (More on that in future posts.) On the first day there, I went to make a blog post from the tablet.

Whoops. The tablet picked up on the local Google version, which is in Hebrew. It's possible to figure out how to click the sign in button, just remember that everything on the right before is now on the left. (It's one of those languages that reads right to left, instead of left to right.) The next screen, however, requested the password. In Hebrew, which the password in question isn't.

Well, when you travel, you learn new things.

For today, a picture of a dear pal:

Ready to play now?

I'm still getting back into the groove of the home space, will begin posting trip things soon. It was very educational and edifying.

Walk: Return to Estero Llano Grande

Hello, everyone.

Last week we drove over to Weslaco and visited Estero Llano Grande.

"You don't see me! I tucked my bill down!"

This little fellow was sitting in the grass at the edge of Alligator Pond.

The birds at Estero seem to have had a good year for babies. We saw a lot of tree ducks, several family groups, and some avocets and at least one heron. This little guy might be a young green heron, or some other bird in that family.

The alligator was not visible when we were there. It was early in the day, perhaps too early for sunning. The banks of the pond had quite a bit of vegetation, too. Perhaps the gator wandered off elsewhere to sunbathe without visitors.