one minute to next

I snipped those little test stars out of the base and set them in around the Creatives. They are now either food or toys. Looks like home; everyone is busy.

The summer rhythm is paying off.  I finished the top this morning but I want to face it with another piece of white cloth and then hand quilt it just to keep the layers in order, give it a little substance.

I am reading a couple of  "how-to" books about writing. Who am I to sneer or giggle at the thought of learning something from a book, even if the title is "This Year You Write Your Novel"  by Walter Mosley. More inspiration than instruction, I also return over and over to Anne Lamott and Stephen King. It helps to have your own personal rah-rah club when you are writing. Today I read one page, put it down and then wrote four pages of spectacle - spontaneous human combustion is rarely spontaneous. Four pages is a good day.

a peach

Last night the whole state suffered a rash of violent storms with trees downed and power outages everywhere. We here in the holler escaped with some ugly skies and a little rain. Today everyone reaped the reward of a perfect weather day, so rare in Georgia they should be named like hurricanes.

I did spend the entire morning in the studio but not a minute in the stitching chair. I was cutting up and packaging prints to send up to market in NY.

My dear Goodman (on his birthday yet) gave me an idea, the kind where you slap yourself on the forehead and realize that the rock in the path that  you've been tripping over every day is actually a big fat diamond. Time to get out the polishing cloth.

summer patterns

The days fall into the comfortable rhythms of summer.

No matter how late I'm up, I try to get up early before it gets too hot out, and take advantage of the light in the studio for some hand stitching.

Some chores, some errands and then, it's pool time. I clean it, swim and then read until lunch, then I have to nap for an hour and then, the day job until one in the morning. There's lots of time for doing but precious little for thinking.

I had to forsake the studio this morning and spend two hours at the Honda dealership while they did something to the passenger side airbag so it wouldn't kill the passenger.

They  have a big fancy waiting room which was filled with people poking at and mesmerized by their devices or sitting stricken and slack jawed while the gizmos sucked juice from the outlets lining the walls.

I brought the river basket with me and starting working on the Creatives and, although the adults in the room eyeballed me like I was throwing the bones or some other form of voodoo, three little girls lined up very politely and quietly in front of me. No questions, just big eyes in faces full of wonder and giggles when I popped it out of the hoop to show them the whole thing. I have a nice project for this piece that I'm excited to move on asap.

There are lots of stars yet to be hung in the sky and the blue horse waits patiently.

more critters

Sometimes the best things just fall from the sky, or in this case, the shelf.

Sweetie has decided that the back corner of my stash closet is a better option than under our bed for the duration of a thunderstorm.
She climbed up there and made herself some room by pushing a small, forgotten basket of snips out into space.  As I picked everything up, this half dollar sized piece of old cloth said "use me or suffer the consequences" and I had to drum up a body to go with it - in fact there are three new additions to the Creatives.

Another piece is probably in order.

Before I was a telecommuter I used to take stitching with me to the office where it was allowed as long as it didn't interfere with the business at hand. I used to use my cubicle wall as a design wall. I got a LOT of things done there but almost none since I started working from home even though  the work computer is in the studio. The light and ergonomics for hand work is all wrong but that will be remedied soon.

We will be giving the spare bedroom a makeover, boxing up a lot of CRAP and then moving the workstation in. With a few changes to the layout, I should be able to resume the nasty habit of doing three things at once while becoming the night shift neighborhood busybody and some clear purpose will be established in the studio.

work on Firmament

I finally had to put the AC unit in the north window ousting Sweetie from her observation perch. She's migrated to the east facing window co-opting the right arm of my sewing chair.

There's room for both of us, I just have to remember to not put any needles or pins along the right side anymore.

So far, so good, but a long way and many stars to go - most of them half as small as these - to give some sense of scale and depth.