Personal Pinner

When Barb comes to visit, I always make tremendous progress in the studio. That awareness has been - reassuringly - sitting in the back of my mind for the last few weeks as I've meandered through the days doing what seems like nothing. Definitely, it was nothing at all on the lines & shapes pieces. They were packed into a box and set aside. Now, I'm back to work.

When I quit, the piece was in the "octopus" stage with all sorts of long extending and un-stitched together sections. Yesterday, I conquered them and this morning, there is only one big piece up on the design wall. YES YES! It's a step-by-step process of pinning and stitching together each line in the cartoon. I really could have used a personal pinner (like a page turner) to remove the pins as I stitched and perhaps a threader. It seemed I was changing back and forth from black to white to black thread all day. Today, I'll be working in another color - most of the day - as I...

... add the inner outline. You can see the dark line on the white in this image below. The white will be covered to that point. Each shape has white around and each piece of white has an outer and an inner outline. The outer outline is out of my all time favourite, Hoffman, dotted lime green on black, batik. I'm deciding on the inner one. I want them to bring in but not overpower the focal point which is fuchsia. Last night, I flipped through a bunch of purples and decided they wouldn't work. Today, I'll figure something out.




On Monday, my friend Caroline, her husband, and her grandson were over for the day. Caroline and I have known each other since we were sixteen. We've grown up and gone through many stages together. At one time, we were the Moms not the Grandmas. How very strange. She's really truly a grandmother and...

... I'm just practicing holding the baby and then giving him back. He's a sweetie. He nicely slept through lunch and went back and forth between the Howard and Ron and Caroline and I as we visited. Caroline and I spent a lot of time in the studio talking about patterns. I had a Vogue jacket pattern that she loved AND that I'd bought for her when they were on sale AND that she didn't already own so, she got to take that home. We discovered a few in common so we may have a "contest" in the fall. Unfortunately we both collect more than we sew but that is changing.

Barb arrived just before Caroline left which was perfect. They have both heard about each other and finally got to meet. Barb is here for the week. She's barely sixty and has never had her ears pierced so this morning we're going for a late breakfast and then to get that done. I'll be there for support.

This afternoon, Francine is coming over to help me paint a straight line on the top of one of my canvasses. Something new for me so I'm getting some expert help with the process. Other than that, it'll be stitching the rest of the day and fresh, Pacific salmon for dinner. Barb's husband caught it on their holiday earlier this summer only he doesn't like fish. Works for me.

Talk soon - Myrna

Grateful: friendship