the Stall in the Fall

I know pictures like this of art studios turned into public dumps are both common and boring but taking them and looking at them has helped me diagnose my Stall in the Fall, my unwillingness to take up serious design considerations and start something new besides another .....

...comfort piece. The time for patting myself on the hand and tut-tutting has passed. Lots of people have had tough rows to hoe and come out the other side in one piece as I have.

Nope, it did not kill me and therefore, I am stronger.

And so, in between other things that need accomplishing, today is Fold & Sort Day. Throw Crap Out Day. Spray it and Wipe it Off and Vacuum Day.

Thinking about a Change? Lisa Miller cuts it to the bone here.

Catching up

It's been a busy week. I decided on a nice deep border for the Booby Fling. Love those Cherrywood cottons from A. This one turned out a bit bigger than the others and so will take more time to quilt. As the weather chills down, this one is just enough to keep warm under while I work. I'm going to buy a lingerie bag and wash this one to test my care instructions so I can sell off a few of these. Now that I recognize that making them is an addiction I can not only tolerate but perhaps profit from. Jim had his final, miserably huge stitches removed on Friday. I kept imagining (and snickering over) an old joke that when the stitches were removed, his ass would fall off. The surgeon was mercifully brisk and almost like magic Jim's smile came back, he stood up straight and his ass did not fall off. I look forward to shedding my Nurse Ratchet in Charge of Pain persona and revert to being Queen of His Realm.

To celebrate, I spent the day with my buddy Jan down in her neck of the woods. We ran amok at Los Bravos with taco salads and decanters of Sangria although they didn't serve it with fresh fruit like at the Columbia in Tampa AND they wouldn't let us take the unfinished decanter with us!

OHCO disappointed me yardage wise - for some unknown reason they have removed all the manufacturer's labels from the bolts on the shelves and what was left seemed dirty and picked over. They were delighted to feature tables piled with simple, hemmed tablecloths and napkins. I only bought just this one to see what I might make of it but it was only $3.

scribbler's wednesday

Since my camera is on some kind of Mercury retrograde vacation, I've fallen back on the scanner. The last free pages in the sketchbook are looming but it's taken me since 3/04 to come that far. I'm just not a sketcher. Flipping through the pages, most of them have unintelligible scribblings from meetings, lists of supplies for projects unknown, anything but drawings. Thanks to Susie Monday for posting this quote from Annie Dillard. But here's a doodle that recurs and for once has made it off the page into reality. I wanted these leaves to stay soft, the better to be woven into my own version of Judy Martin's protection blankets, but the batting scraps I used must have had some kind of adhesive on them that activated and hardened when I ironed them. Now they are crisp, stiff ...almost mailable. Watch your mailboxes.

Booby Fling

Maybe these are coming in advance of a colder than usual winter here in Georgia? The birdy bodies are vintage damasks from my recent sugar dyed batch. When this one is finished, it's going to be for sale. I have to start making all this needle flailing pay somehow. Until then, I can look up on the design wall and have a chuckle over this silly gathering. There was a show on TV last night about a lioness who kept adopting gazelle calves. She was cub-less and confused. It did not turn out well. This bunch look as if they would try to hatch rocks as easily as they would eggs. You can't imagine what I went through to find a nice picture of the Boobies they were modeled after! Addendum - the border came out wonderful but I used another whole damask tablecloth to back this one and , due to the shifty nature of the stuff, it's proved impossible to hand stitch. Rather than machine stitch it, I'm going to take it apart and reback it with the plain muslin that has been so successful thus far. Live and learn.

Fling Flung Blankies

I've had some time to think about why these light weight, personal sized utility blankets are all I care to accomplish these days. It's only too obvious to anyone who has ever cared for someone at home who is recovering from a serious illness or injury. It's not that there is no time - between all the little things that are needed by the patient there is too much time. Time waiting. Time planning. Time worrying. So here's to the small joy of inexpensive fabrics, soft and gentle to the touch, white & cream, as clean and inviting as any blank canvas, completely ready to shape to my will without struggle or argument. Hand ripped and unmeasured strips almost ordering themselves without so much as a pin and lying flat, sweet and compliant under the machine's needle never giving a moments birdnest or bunch so much so that I will stitch a foot of inches before I notice the bobbin is empty. Here's to a simple set of bright colors and simple shapes laid into each block with a few hours of hand applique.Then, once the blocks are joined and the top and back fall into place, a few more days of waiting time hand quilting just enough graceful curves and leaves as they occur to me. The twelve weight cotton thread flows through the two light layers of muslin as easily as thoughts flow through the mind and time slips from summer to fall and when it's finished I'm holding pure comfort. Just enough cloth and weight to keep off the chill of a waiting room, a treatment room or a rainy afternoon, it was every moment a pleasure to make and I know will someday bring comfort and utility to someone else for years to come. This one was my fourth and last night I started a fifth. I call the points monkeyteeth. Now I have to consider writing lesson plans for something like this including everything from dyeing the fabric to hand applique. Too much for beginners? The month is young and I made two major deadlines. Time to start something new.