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Friday, August 24, 2012

Friday already?!

Work has been ridiculously busy as of late!  Hopefully it will calm down some... however, that's no excuse for not working in the forge.  So last night I did!

Tackled Sugar Skulls last night, trying to get it to co-operate.  It's still fighting, but I think I might have it mostly tamed.  (Not quite saddle-broken yet, but willing to work with me?  Don't ask me where all these westerny metaphors are coming from....)  I've jazzed up Sugar Skulls with some flowers, because decorating altars and graves with flowers is also part of the Day of the Dead.  Each flower is appliqued using a different decorative stitch - just because I could.

From here, it's a matter of putting on the borders - for which I've chosen purple.  I stitched the flowers down with a variegated purple thread to help tie them all together.  Hopefully tonight I can get in the forge again and get the borders on, and then... then... start quilting?  Wow.  I'm going with a high loft batting this time, mostly so the skulls stand out in sharp relief.  Since this is pretty much a test piece, I'm not TERRIBLY concerned.  I will be doing a Sugar Skulls 2.0 sometime after... but there's already a line of quilts waiting in the wings.

Tomorrow, a trip to a store that specializes in batiks (squee!) to get fabric for a stained glass quilt, and then... home for measuring and cutting and so on and so forth....

For now, work, and measuring and cutting and planning... oh, the planning.

D and I are taking a trip soon-ish, to Mena, Arkansas.  Why?  Because there's a gorgeous little cabin there, and we have never been!  I can't think of a better reason, really!  There will be pictures, and quilt shops, and all sorts of things.  And D's parents checking on the house, forge, and cats while we're gone.

In random other insect observations... I know there's a lot of news about West Nile.  I know people have died from it, and that stinks.  D gets eaten up by mosquitos... they don't seem to like my taste much, though.  I hope that West Nile goes off soon - its peak, I believe I heard, was August and September, so we'll see.  I go out and water the little fruit trees right now, since the moquitos hang out in that part of the yard.  In the meantime, it's actually cooled down enough for the cicadas to start their mating songs.  The yellow jackets are still building nests, no matter how many times we knock them down!  Does anyone know what yellow jackets eat?  Are they actually GOOD for anything?  (I know they've got to be, but...)

Shay

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