sunday early

In preparation for mixing the first new batch of dyestock for this season I spent some time inventing some new color names...the colors themselves won't come until I get to the worktable later today...among the contenders: Octaria, Spar, Beaucoup, Slurry, Plush and Sunday Sauce. There will be my standards: Monkey Blood, Steel and Blue Lightning! New names help me think about regular colors in a new way when I am building a palette from red/yellow/blue.

Meanwhile I spent the morning visiting with Jake who stopped by to render the verdict on Colin's car (well worth salvaging to our collective relief)  and packing up a box of Art to go off to market.  I was a bit distracted and forgot to put the duck pillow in the box. Next trip.

And that's not a breast on the box - it's a piece of a page from an old calendar with paintings by Georgia O'Keefe - a painting of a shell rather injudiciously snipped by yrs trly trying to make a pretty label. I'll make a pasty before I subject the inmates at the PO to anything that could possibly be interpreted as racy. The blue marker didn't take over  the tape.

freed

Here they all are freed from that fusty pink background. I'm not even going to address "now what?' for a while.

They have the feel of patches to be sewn on something  wearable.

But I'm going to set them aside for now because this weekend, the sun is supposed to be out and the temps in the 70's.

It's been so long....

moo

It's been that kind of a day - rainy and cold, only fit for curling up in the stitching chair.

But first thing this morning I got bogged down ordering postcards from MOO.  25% off is hard to resist when you chance upon something you actually need.

What I should have done was select images before hand and checked that each one was adequate to the print process, but I worked "on the fly" as their web process encourages. It's a lot like what happens at a buffet...so many tasties out there that you put one tiny dab of 20 things on the plate. Too much to eat but not enough to satisfy. I was upset to find that many of my images were not large enough.  This is my first MOO experience...I'll let you know how things pan out.

some redecorating

As much as I loved the old header, it's time for some shaking up. In anticipation of the new dye season, the image behind the title above is a damask table napkin that I got "hands on" with last season. Errand number one today is a stop at the pool supply place for a tub of soda ash.

I've also tried to improve readability, enlarging the fonts that matter...let me know if I've made a difference. So much depends on each users viewing settings.

fiber surgery

Nope, not a background....

Freeing the elements from that sad background is underway. One done and my right hand is shot even though I've put my Dad's wire cutting shears to work.

I'm thinking an exacto knife might make things a little easier.

You can see the thickness and density of the cotton batting. This was actually a sheet of printers felt that I scored a long time ago. It was not a good choice for the purpose. Now I'm paying.