Monday, January 18, 2010

Little pleasures add up


It's been a good few days here. First, it warmed back up to normal, which makes life so much more pleasant and means I can get back into my sewing studio! Project Runway started back up and the judges agreed with me for the first winner, maybe that's a good sign.

I finally signed up for Facebook and was thrilled to get in touch with my best friend from seventh and eighth grade, as well as other friends I've lost touch with.

I've been negotiating a peace treaty among my various cats. Two live inside and three in sunrooms/screened carports and one of the inside cats, Pepper, does not like to share his territory. We've made some progress and I've had Pixel and Rascal in the house for a few hours each day. Both are very curious about my sewing and Rascal decided yesterday to help me quilt.

Sunday we went to see "Avatar." Wow! That is one of the most visually stunning movies I have seen in a long time. It really sets the standard for what can be done with CGI, and the blending of live action and CGI was absolutely seamless. The story was a little predictable, but well told and certainly thought provoking.

Of course the most important good thing is that I got back into the sewing studio. Thursday and Friday evenings I finished the free motion work on a small piece, Tybee Fireworks III and spent most of my time cutting up scraps into squares and strips. My bins about about overflowing and there are still lots of scraps.

Saturday I got goodies in the mail, three new art quilt books ("Quilting Arts," "More Altered Photo Artistry," and "Thread Work Unraveled") and a set of watercolor pencils. I read a bit and tried out the pencils, of course, but spent most of the day organizing my main sewing space. One large trashbag later, I can see my counters, but the adjoining room, officially the dining room, still looks like a fabric store exploded.

In one of my breaks from organizing I tried some thread sketching. It's lighter than thread painting, just as pencil sketching is more open than painting. My first effort was a simple palm tree with ocean background. Rather than use a hoop I layered it with batting and a backing, treating it more as free motion quilting. I haven't decided if I'm going to leave it as is or do more experimenting, maybe fill in a bit with colored pencils or???

Back to the sewing! Lots to do today!