Wendy came over just after one and we both had a fabulously productive day. She finished the queen size, Weaver Fever, quilt plus two matching pillow cases that she was making for her son and daughter-in-law. Originally, they were just for her son. She started the quilt when he graduated high school and went away to university. However, in the four years since, he's gotten married. Luckily her daughter-in-law LOVED the colors.
I really Really REALLY admire Wendy's way of working. She has between 2 and 8 hours a month to quilt so she works on only one project at a time. Next is a tree skirt and Christmas stockings for the same couple (their shower present) and then a new quilt for her bed. Son number two is waiting in line.
With all the stopping and starting, I find it hard to make design decisions while helping Wendy so I tend to work on something easy. Since I have been completely and solely focused on finishing these exhibit pieces, that meant stitching on the binding. You might remember that I cut up, stitched together, and pressed a HUGE roll of binding several months ago. It was wonderful to just pick it up and sew it on. I finished that late afternoon, pressed the binding to the wrong side, and started hand stitching it in place - working until bed time. I debated gluing the binding to the back but at this late date, it seemed safer to go with what I know than to try something new.
Once I get an idea into my head, I'm committed - some might say stubborn. For instance, I thought about how much quicker it would progressively get if I started the hand stitching with the largest piece and worked my way down to the smallest. If I'd have thought of it first, I might have done it in sets but definitely not after the decreasing idea took hold. I stitched the two 24 x 36, then the four 24 x 24, and then the two 24 x 18, and then the final 24 x 12 inch pieces in that order. As I'd thought, it got real quick at the end. I finished the five largest yesterday and the four smallest this morning before going for breakfast with a friend at nine. I SO WANTED TO BE DONE and...
... I am! YES YES YES YES YES YES YES. I just finished stitching the focal point in place on the last texture piece. This will be the deceptively simple piece in the exhibit. The one that has all those crafty types shaking their heads and going "I could make that". Good. Now they have something to copy only simple is hard to do. Get it right because there's nowhere to hide - LOL. I think I got it right. You can let me know in January. After I emailed a picture to my friend Chris, she phoned and said it was the best of the bunch. My favourite is the lime and purple color piece.
The valley is very full of smoke. We can't even see downtown. There's a huge fire about half an hour out of town. That makes me nervous. The weather office is predicting dry lightening this weekend. The pieces are hung together at the end of the work island and everyone knows where they are in case they need to grab them while running out the door - right after grabbing the negatives and the external hardrives for our computers.
On Monday, I can start painting the canvasses and then maybe - just maybe - I'll be completely done by the end of the week, done before the first day of school. What fun that would be. After that, all I have to do is take them to the photographer in Kelowna and prep my last teaching class. A little temptation - encouragement - arrived in the mail today, those Vogue patterns I showed you a few weeks ago.
Have a great weekend, talk soon - Myrna
Grateful - all the tops are finished and ready to be mounted
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