Tuesday, August 11, 2009

A Bummer of a Day

"No man will work for your interests unless they are his." (American psychologist David Seabury, 1885-1960)


Imagine my surprise when Google Alerts sent me here to the
Sisters in Cloth blog. I LOVE this picture of two of their members checking out my quilt at the Whistler show! Thanks to them for showing it.














I get alerts every now and then, usually to alert me that I am on the cover of a couple of Kaffe's quilt books and it's on sale in some midwest shop. Years ago I was asked to do a quilt for a few years running, and write out directions for the book. Well, I loved doing it until I got to the writing part and discovered that they needed exact measurements for each strip I cut. This was torture because I think my original directions were something like, "pick seven or eight fabrics and cut them all in different sized strips from 1/2" to about 3 and then sew them together!" The whole thing was way too free-form but I do have to say I loved doing those pieces- I think I had a cover mention for three years and I always thought that was way way generous.

We had a crit group on Tuesday night, only four of us there but it was so good to be in their company for even two hours. The other three had small pieces of work in progress or almost finished. I showed Sylvia and my 'timelines' from our QBL class. One of our members had taken Dorothy Caldwell's class previously, though a two week version so she was able to follow along on my kantha story as I showed the small squares.

Funnily enough yesterday I showed up for my periodontal surgery and the doc was a young Indian woman (frighteningly not yet old enough to be a daughter!). I was asking her if she had any previous stitching experience but was afraid to get into the whole kantha thing with a pretty Americanized young girl. Turns out she might have needed a bit more practice because my sutures all feel like Gordian knots in my mouth. Basically I am on rations of grits and yogurt spiked with mushed mangoes and not a happy camper. This is my birthday week (!) and I have a couple of lunches planned with old friends as well as a bang-up dinner at Blue Ginger as the culmination of festivities. So far though all I have done to 'celebrate' is flash my shiny new Medicare card at the dentist and the eye doctor, the GP happens next week. (I make all my doc appointments around my birthday so I get 'em done.)

I went to Ikea also this week and bought some things for the studio. I found table tops and legs for the long desk (I need three 5' desks for this and will still need one more to turn the corner) under the windows but they were too heavy to lift, let alone get into the car and home. I'm asking my son to lend me himself and a truck to help me with this. Also found an under cabinet drawer system and a great little drying rack that doesn't take any room when folded. I don't have an Ikea near me in FL so have to buy it here and ship it down with my other stuff, and it's still cheaper than building it myself.

My Spoonflower order has been shipped too- how's that for fast! I'll put up a picture when I get it in a day or two. It's all coming together, almost like a PLAN...(evil grin).

And finally, this quote from the Robert Genn pages that I've been saving:
Your studio is a sanctuary, a workshop, a classroom and a throne room. Your easel is its central altar and you are its high priest. Like the dog who circles before lying down, you need to enter in a circumspect manner, take your place as a central character and please yourself. The studio is more of a fetish than most artists let on. Get the feeling right and you'll thrive.




2 comments :

Deb Lacativa said...

"bummer"?
Sounds like a good day all in all to me. Things got done. Some things did not get chewed. There's always the blender ;)

Bev Snow said...

Sandy, just so you know, there's an Ikea down here in the swamp, in Broward along I595. No son or truck, but a rental truck could save on shipping. Good luck with the broken lock on your studio!
Bev