Payday!

It's been a lean month, and it was a relief to finally get to the end of it. So yesterday we shopped. We are looking for a new microwave. This has triggered a discussion on whether it's better to buy a top of the line, in hopes that it'll will last awhile, or to buy a cheaper model and expect to replace it more often. They can't be repaired, nor are they easy to get rid of when they stop working. My experience is with irons. It doesn't seem to matter how much I pay for them, they only last about 18months. Irons made for household use just won't standup to 5-6 hours a day of being used. I'm not alone in this experience, as it has been discussed at some length on the quilters internet group I belong to. Anyway, the discussion came down to what features we want/need in a microwave. We really only want some fairly basic features--which sends us to the cheaper machine.

Shopping means power cooking and filling the freezer. My doctor has firmly told me to get the beef out of my diet and eat mainly fish, with some chicken, or pork tenderloin. Have any of you priced chicken lately??!! Or turkey!! $4.00 a pound for turkey!! I can't even substitute eggs, nor am I allowed to use cheese. So, for the next while I'm going to be searching for recipes that can be used to turn a single chicken breast into 2-4 servings.

In the studio, I've discovered a small area on the back of Chaos Theory where the water I used in blocking it, caused the hand dyed fabric to run. It's very small, and only on the back. I'm going to try discharging just that small area, as the backing is white. This is the first time I've left my machine quilting out in the open for the world to see on the back of the piece. Usually I put on a false back to cover my sins. I already have the binding sewn on, so adding a false back would be difficult, but if the disharging doesn't work, that's what I'll have to do. I finished the machine work on the second cushion, and now have to stuff it. Then on to the third cushion, after which I plan to reward myself with a wet studio day.

Last evening I attended a session on studio visits and artists' talks. This was part of what they are calling "Boot Camp"-- a series of presentations that have been offered through Mentoring Artists For Womens' Art (MAWA). These sessions have been great! They are designed to help women artists feel more comfortable in the world of art as a business. I think I've learned a lot from them, but I'm sorry that I missed the first one. They may be repeated next fall, so I need to keep my membership, just in case.