time constraints

After working the weekend and using yesterday to catch up on errands, I woke up this morning fully convinced it was Sunday, fell back on my face and wasted half the morning of what's really my Monday. Ugh.

To compensate for the disjoint in time, I set about building my friend's Pink quilt with wild abandon. Ripping, ironing and piecing without a measuring tape or pattern in mind is very freeing.  Once the top is finished I plan on some very organic machine quilting - more fun for me and a good warming up for working on the Big One.

stalling

 one of many neocolor sketches from last night. it's still on my mind.









I'm still thinking about how I want to proceed with the new piece on the wall. I like it for it's simplicity and vigor and don't want to screw it up, bog it down with a technical misstep.

I gave fleeting thought to finishing it like "Beach" - only two layers, aside from the design elements and all hand stitched. It was finished as a functional summer quilt, one of my "flings' and I spent most of last summer stitching on it. The pale blue in this one is cotton lawn, the blue in the one on the wall is silk chiffon. Is the energy and immediacy of the new design cancelled by miles and hours of my very small Kantha stitching?

It feels that way to me.  I am more inclined to layer it over a light batting and machine stitch it, the way it did with "Innocent Bystanders" or "Roadkill"

So the question, dear readers, is machine or hand stitching..and why?

detail from Roadkill

new on the wall

Just something to think over in my sleep.

this is big, 4x8 feet (hear it crack in the wind!)




I met my friend Jan for lunch at our traditional place los Hermanos Taqueria in Lilburn where the California Quesadilla is  so reliably delicious I don't know why we bother with the menu.
One of Jan's sons, Ryan,  has been recruited to be on the Taiwanese version of American Idol!
Does anyone know how to access Taiwanese TV via the internet?

Sunup

I spoiled my own coffee yesterday and walked around with a headache until after lunch, grumpy. This morning I got up to find the dishes already done and good coffee (correctly made) just a button push away. I love you Jimmy.


In a few minutes the sun will have cleared the eastern horizon and come blazing into the studio and I'll go back up there and take advantage of the light and work a bit more on this which has to be named "Clara's Tattoo Dream". 

I'm off from the office today so it's going to be an art day for me with a tentative break for lunch with humans at an actual restaurant. Wonder if I'll know how to act??

There is cloth to select, sort and iron, a big New piece to get up on the design wall, stitches to stitch and laundry to catch up on before the weekend rain sets in. ciao4now.

after dark

My end of the swap arrived yesterday! It's more subtle and mysterious in person than it was on the web and impossible to do justice to with a hasty snapshot. Thanks again, Clara. For now, I have it stuck to the mirror right over my monitor.

I was inspired to take up tools and doodle a bit and a little later, I closed my eyes and reached into the scrap basket for two pieces of cloth and I was amazed that I never found them together with my eyes. This will be a part of a much larger whole: