Fiber and Pulp

Lovely Evening

Today was one of those days when I worked very busily at avoidance. :P I have a task to do at my store that I really do not want to do ... and it is amazing how many urgent tasks I can find to do to avoid what I don't want to do. LOL

One thing that I _am_ enjoying doing is designing a small quilt to make pattern/kit for displaying pins - you know, those pretty enamel pins you can buy of quilt blocks or special events like shows or guilds. :) I'm pretty happy with my design - and, if you are interested in meta-cognitive things like I am, it was also curious to watch as the design ideas morphed all afternoon.

We had a reporter from the Catonsville paper come and interview Robbyn and I this afternoon ... will be fun to see what she writes about us. :)

As I was driving home this evening around 6:30 pm (yes, I did work late), the sky was lovely - very Maxfield Parrish, like the picture above by him. All soft pinks and blues and lavenders. :) The temperature was around 75 and the breeze was lovely. :)

The yard crew came today and went to work on our shrubs and trees - they pruned and hauled and pruned some more. Tomorrow I hope to go out and walk around the yards and see how they did - hope my instructions were sensible 'cause it sure cost me enough money. :)

The new sales associate I hired a couple of weeks ago, Katie, and I are going to experiment with making a Halloween costume for my American Girl doll (Molly) to display in the front window. I've been meaning to make fun clothes for Molly for a while ... and even bought a couple of books with patterns. Now I get to play. :)

Linda

Alice

I thought I'd share a photo of the playsuit I made for my daughter's porcelain doll, Alice, while we were on vacation in FL. Alice is about 13" tall - she's an artist's doll (i.e. made by a porcelain doll artist who does one-offs). The playsuit is one piece. I hand sewed it from a simple pattern Eva had drafted. The fabrics are hand dyed rayons from Cherrywood - they're leftover scraps from a shawl I made for Eva. :)

It was fun to sew this little outfit. I never was much of a doll person as a tiny girlie - mostly loved stuffed toys. I know I had tried to make dollie clothes before in my life but I"m pretty sure this is the first time I actually completed anything.

I'm happy with the way it came out. Definitely all hand sewn - by the time I could have gotten these little bits of fabric under a presser foot (even if I had my sewing machine to use, which I did not:), they were already sewn by hand needle. I actually doubt if my machine sewing skills would have been up to making this - too tiny!

I went to sleep at my usual time last night (around 11 p.m.) but did not wake up until 3:30 this afternoon. :P My throat is sore, too - I hope I am not catching the cold one of my employees was suffering with last week! :P Tomorrow is my day off and I really, really have to drag my ashes down to Greenbelt to get my CPAP machine serviced. I've put it off for several weeks but it needs doing. Can't keep sleeping my life away (I'm hoping that's why I'm sleeping so much!)

Eva called last night and taught me how to do video calling via IM - was wonderful to be able to see her as we talked. :)

Linda

In the Swing?

I can't believe 13 days has gone by since we returned from Florida already! Time really does just wash over me. :P I have a few more photos to share from our trip and then I'll move on to more sew-y topics. ;)

I apologize for the not-so-great quality of these pictures - they were taken with the camera in my husband's iPod. I flat forgot to take my own digital camera with me. (sigh!) 

These are all photos of flowers growing in the foundation plantings around our condo unit. I have no idea what any of them are - if you know, please leave me a comment and tell me any of their names?! :)

This is one of the building units for the resort - each building had two apartments in it. Ours was set back from the road and I couldn't get a proper photo. The balcony you see on the upper level is just off the master bedroom in the unit. Our unit's front door looked out on this:

 (left side)

 (right side)

I have to say that water felt as good as it looks! :)

I quite enjoyed our stay there - the staff was friendly and efficient and the beaches were lovely.

 

Since I've been back, I've been working madly for the store - we had an artist's reception for a small art quilt show hanging in the shop until the end of October last Thursday night. We got the finished Quest quilt back from our quilter (Maria O'Haver). I'm in the midst of planning a showing of the movie Stitched ... as well as some sales ... oh, and charity sewing days ... and ... never an end to the things that need to be done around the shop! :) Hired a new sales clerk, too. (whew!) Makes me tired to think about it all!

I _have_ been working on a small quilt in the few bits of time I get here and there. The Baltimore Modern Quilt Guild (of which I am a member:) is participating in the 'Habitat' fabric challenge and I'm working on my piece. I hope to get it done in the next couple of weeks (reveal is in November, I think). I'm also supposed to be making blocks for our 'bee' for BMQG ... better get started soon on that!

Tomorrow I have to drive down to Gaithersburg for a Quest committee meeting (hopefully get to see some more quilts!). I always enjoy seeing the other shop owners (very invigorating) but not so much the drive down and back . :P

:) Linda

Southern Sun

One thing I notice immediately when we travel south is the sun's elevation - here in southwestern Florida, the sun is quite a bit higher in the sky than it is near my home in Maryland (midAtlantic area of the U S). The most important effect of this high sun on me is that it only takes a few minutes of casual sun exposure to burn my skin. :P

I tend to spend the daytime hours of vacation indoors - reading, sewing, playing games, watching a movie or just 'hanging out' with my family. Swimming and beach walks are evening hour activities - very pleasantly so!

The sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico here are spectacular, when I have managed to catch them. :) (Not being an early riser, I miss out on dawn beach walks.) The sand here on Ft Myers Beach is very fine and very white, making for beautiful scenery.

I have done a fair bit of embroidery, wool appliqué, and even hand sewed a 'play suit' for my daughter's porcelain doll, Alice. Sadly, photos have to wait as my iPad does not have a camera.

There are some beautiful flowers here at the resort among the foundation plantings, only one of which I recognize (the hibiscus). I'm hoping to get some photos of them before we leave so I can satisfy my botanist's curiosity. :) Skittering about everywhere are cute, tiny lizards of some kind with dark stripes down their backs - adorable! :)

The very best thing about vacation is the lack of pressure to so anything in particular - it's like being a kid at the beginning of summer again! :) We have to leave tomorrow morning so today is occupied with leisurely travel preparations - mixed with quiet laziness. :)

We have mostly been without Internet connections this week (the resort's wi-fi equipment was struck by lightning) so I _am_ looking forward to re-connecting when we get home.

:) Linda

Travel Day One

Wow what a day this has been! I got up at 8:30 am (oh-dark-thirty by my usual standards!) to shower and pack ... while my husband and son went grocery shopping (son stayed home for this trip). My sweetie had set the goal of being on the road south by 10 am and we WERE!! Trust me, that counts as a minor miracle. :)

We are southward bound, aiming for a week at the beach in Ft Myers, FL. The worst traffic of the whole trip is at the very beginning, between Baltimore and Richmond. :P I've done a lot of long-distance driving, enough to consider myself adept at it, and I don't generally mind it.

For some reason, my nerves have been all a-jangle today. I can't remember so many near-collisions and close calls! Maybe going north/south is fundamentally different than east/west? I've driven from Baltimore to Kansas City and back ... and to Indianapolis and back just in the first half of this year. Just don't recall so much disparity between fast and slow traffic as we have seen today.

Speed limits have been 70 mph most of the trip, about the same as going west on Interstate 70 (we're on I95 now). We've passed at least two rattletrap pickups going 40 and the bulk of the traffic is moving around 80 mph. Nerve wracking differences!

I love the names of places we have passed - especially the rivers: Rappahannock, Tar, Lumbee, Neuse, Santee, Tillifinny, Camahee, Whatacootchie ... Wonderful. :) Could not make up better ones!

It takes eight hours to Myrtle Beach, ten hours to Charleston, twelve to Savannah. I feel like entire chapters of American history are rolling under our wheels. :)

Have you seen that Barbara Brackman has started a blog for War of 1812 quilt blocks and history, similar to her Civil War blog? Ought to be great reading!

:) Linda