low

Sometimes it's just us and Don Draper.

well shod

I am so tickled to have finally found a pair of shoes! This may not be a big deal for the majority of you, especially those who are afflicted with shoe-itis.  I know you are legion and there is help if you want it.

It's not that I cannot afford a new pair of shoes (within strict limits to be sure) but I am very fussy and hard to fit. I think I have been looking on and off for maybe three years; since the Sketchers started splitting around the toe.

Having given up finding anything in all the shoe emporiums around here, I went to Bass Pro Shops yesterday and headed for the clearance rack, always my first stop.

As I watched a tall, warrior looking woman clad in black leather picked this pair up and inspected them. For all her grandeur, she had tiny feet. I said "They'll never fit you". She looked at them rather disdainfully and put them back and strolled away, chains clanking.

I snatched them up, scuttled off to the nearest bench and tied them on. As I had hoped, they were made for my feet. I clapped my dear old Sketchers in the box, walked around the store for a while and then checked out. Good for at least another five years if I switch out to sandals as soon as the weather permits.

Seth

Since there is no end of snappy sayings, I could on making these, but I have to stop.

There are other things that I want to do.

Not more important things, just different things.

time tattered

The shawl has been around a long time; whipped up in haste from three yards of panne velvet that had to have been half price somewhere.

The machine appliqued flowers added on years later when I started dyeing cloth.

It used to be my go-to wrap for anything after dark.
The vintage damage is evaporating and I'm not going to try and stop it.

This also reminds me that free motion machine appliqueing damask over a substrate with some softness/depth gives wonderful dimensional results.
The quicker and dirtier the stitching the better.

pool trouble

You know how you should never badmouth your good used car or covet some other set of shiny wheels while old faithful still gets you there and back?

 Yesterday I went to the aquatic center at the park not five minutes from my house and spent a solid hour wearing out my lane of their Olympic sized pool and woke up none the worse for the first real exercise in ages. Delightful.

My blue heaven

This morning I was greeted by the sad sight of our pool down about a foot of water. The hard freeze that lasted most of the week has taken a toll on some point in the pool infrastructure. The liner is fine, but the  hoses that run under the decking have not been replaced since the pool was put in.  We put off replacing them for many years now, but I think brand new hoses would have not stood up to the kind of cold we've just been through. The leak is slow so I'm hoping it's not the tank. At any rate, come spring, it's gonna be a mess but I WILL see my blue heaven restored.

1999..my guys getting it done

Jim & Jake

and the winner is.....

Karoda.....

be in touch.

lenses updated

I probably should have taken more time moving the circular viewfinder over the UFO before selecting this segment.  Even then I was enamored of the pink french knots and the fragile piece of gold/pink damask.  Enough..

It's too easy to keep going, but once the piece is cut from the whole it can quickly become distorted and I want to keep the circular shape/boundary so no text for this one.

lenses

I've taken one of the hoops and used it to isolate a section from an unsuccessful UFO in hopes of rescuing this small segment rather than trashing the whole piece.

But now I'm screwing up my courage to venture out in sub-freezing temperatures to go to the aquatic center and see if I remember how to swim.

the arctic south

It was SIX degrees this morning. I slept on the floor in the office last night next to the space heater with Sweetie and Voodoo. Just finished breaking up almost two inches of clear, black ice on the pool to keep the steel frame from breaking. The cold should take care of the fleas and mosquitoes for the coming season.

Hot summers past are just a dream away.

badges

It's no bigger than this. I just wanted something in my hands while I watched the new season of Downton Abbey last night.  He just had to say "great love comes with great heartache"  or somesuch.

We were talking about tattoos today but instead I'm making badges..

Sometimes we need our stinking badges.

just not feeling it..

I spent most of the morning yesterday in the unheated studio laying this out. Now I marvel at the myriad ways I find to waste precious time.

That piece of brown and lavender damask that is the base of this twenty inch square is going to devil me.

It's been in any number of false starts.  It's only quick basted so tonight I'm going to take it apart, pack all the pieces in a baggy and have a giveaway. Leave a comment and Wednesday I'll pick a winner..maybe you'll have better luck with all this than me.