Planning for studio time

I've negotiated with DH to be able to spend all day tomorrow inthe studio. It'll be a wet studio day and I hope to do some silk fusion pieces that I can make into matted pieces. I put together the basic fabric paper for three journal covers yesterday. I will want to add some hand stitching to them and maybe some stamping. I even bought some feathers to meld into the silk fusion. I'll have to check my felt supply to make sure I can finish them. The last two cushions are sewn ready for stuffing, but there is a movie I want to watch tomorrow evening--so the ideal time to stuff cushions. This morning is the AGM of the Crafts Museum, followed by a short, fun workshop, and there is a lecture at MAWA this afternoon. Either before or after the lecture I want to visit a fabric store next to MAWA. I need to find a source for muslin , now that my usual source has changed their supplier.

My introspection has focussed on why I'm so busy. I have to wonder if we do it to ourselves because we have been forced inside by the weather for three months. Now, we just have to break out. So there are lectures and events etc. Or maybe the events have always been there, but now we are so anxious to get out of the house that we look for excuses.

More power cooking!

yesterday it was ribs. But first DH had to shop for a few vegetables we had forgotten Wednesday. The list he had read something like this: celery, onions, carrots, microwave. We had comparison shopped and found a brand name at Superstore, at a good price. Well it turns out they were sold out, so off he went to Walmart. The local store was also sold out, but they had one at a store all the way across town. They were willing to hold it for 20 minutes, so off he went. Now, you must understand that DH doesn't shop. If he goes with me it is with protestations all the way, but he still insists on going, just to make sure that I don't buy anything we don't need. So all of his travels and efforts were accompanied with phone calls home, to let me know what was going on. But a funny thing happened to him. He ran into people he knew. He talked to other men. I know how much he misses the company of other men, now that he spends most of his time at home alone. When he runs into them in stores etc he loves to spend a few minutes chatting. Yesterday he seemed honestly surprized at having enjoyed himself, when he told me about it.

We baby sat the youngest grandchild yesterday afternoon, and then DD and the four year old came to pick her up, but first had to help us eat the ribs. DD told us that they had attended an information session for parents of children starting school next fall. How time flies!! They didn't leave until almost 9:00. By that time I was exhausted, and fell into bed. No sewing yesterday.

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.

Hubby seems better

He actually woke up before I did this morning. I can't remember the last time that happened. so I have to believe that he's starting to feel better.

Spent most of yesterday working on cushions, and managed to finish one. The fabric she brought was horrible! It was an artifical satin that couldn't be pinned without leaving holes--almost like a plastic. It wouldn't iron, and any water spot left a permanent stain. I tried using silk pins in the seam allowance, but it was so tough that they wouldn't go through. I got the cushion made and stuffed and then had to try to hand stitch the opening. When I tried to hold it on my lap to sew, it kept slipping off, so I had to use one hand to hold it and the other to sew. And I couldn't use pins to hold the opening closed. What a pain in the a--! Hand sewing 8 inches closed took almost an hour!

Two more to make in the next few days, but they should be much easier, as they are on linen twill--a good sturdy fabric that takes pins, can be ironed and won't slip. Mind you the backing is velvet, so who knows.

Tonight we have to work a charity bingo at a local casino--from 9:00 to 11:45, so we both need to nap this afternoon.

DH remained quite miserable all day yesterday. He slept until 11:00, and then had a nap in the afternoon--unheard of! We were both in bed by about 10:00. He says he is a little better this morning, but I still think a quiet day is in order. We called DD and excused ourselves from dinner tonight. I sure don't want to be taking whatever this is into those little girls! I have the sore throat and cough, but that's all. I've been taking echinacea tea daily, in an effort to stave off the worst of it, but I know you can only do that for a little while. I still have a fairly important meeting this afternoon, but it looks like I'm going alone.

I finished quilting Chaos Theory yesterday, and then blocked it. It was looking good last night, but still a little damp, so I left it on the blocking board. Now that I've removed the blue guide lines, the actual quilting is less obvious. I had worried that it was so strong that it overpowered the delicate circles. I'll try to get it bound in the next day or so, so that I can post the picture of the finished quilt on the appropriate site, and then forget about it. The deadline is March 31st, but I have other deadlines that are more urgent--three cushions to finish by the 12th.

Didn't make it

to the show opening last night. I still hope to get there sometime. We did make it shopping for display grids for the Museum yesterday morning, out to Ft. Whyte nature preserve, in the afternoon, scouting the place for a future craft show and sale. We had to decide how many tables we could actually get in, as we ended up with a waiting list of 7 from our jury process Thursday morning. Then we were out to our DD's town for a nursery school fund raiser supper. Well, by the time they had made all of the draws in the silent auction, it was 9:00. DH was great through all of this, as he really hasn't been well--a terrible cold that I'm worried about turning into something worse. He never takes any medication--prescribed or OTC--but the last two nights has let me give him something to help him sleep. A sure sign that he's feeling rough. We have another rough day planned for tomorrow, so today we'll probably--hopefully--spend quietly at home.

What I learned

I learned a lot about hanging a show at this particular gallery. It can all be summed up in one sentence. The employee of the gallery is a control freak, and the only way to get anything done is to back off and leave it all to her. Lesson learned. There is actually a fellow in charge of the show in June, and I'm supposed to be helping him. He is not a "mover and shaker", and when he proposed setting up this show, the organization felt, quite strongly, that he needed someone so assist. Up to now there has been no problem, as I've been making the necessary arrangements, and he has been somewhere in LaLa Land. Well, today I got an e-mail about him wanting to hire live music for the opening reception. I would think that unless we get develop some system for people to enter the show, and some means of publicizing the show, we may not have an opening reception, but the other guy is in charge. This is really a minor thing, but I know this will be an expensive show to run, and I had hoped to minimize incidental costs.

Anyway, tonight is the Opening Reception for the show we hung yeterday. My stuff doesn't look all that bad, and there are certainly worse examples of fibre art there. Wouldn't it be nice if somthing actually sold?