Yesterday he showed me a little chip in the rim, not surprising since he slams down coffee mugs wherever he's sitting, on the kitchen counter, into the sink. TY has never been known for his light touch- whatever he does he crashes himself into. Chairs collapse, beds develop deep wallows, and shoe heels disappear. The coffee cup is no exception. But as he was showing me the wee chip I took it from him and discovered that his favorite mug, which is basically a member of the family and is talked about as if..., has a crack all the way down the side. This is comparable to the life threatening illness of a loved one in his mind. And away he went to play golf with a sad look on his face.
So I google 'CIA shop' what whatdayaknow, there it was, a website- and a funny one at that. They didn't have his mug offered, only one with a crappy comic on the side so I fired off an email to the 'contact us' link to ask about it and tell my tale of woe. I'm not kidding, at 8:15 on a Sunday morning, I got a reply back within five minutes. Yup, isn't it good to know our CIA is on top of world issues! She asked if I had a picture so I fired back this cheezy iPhone picture and she is going to re-order that model for us. I wrote back and said make it two for unforeseen future slams. Problem solved, and the sun comes up and we fade black... And I get my own favorite mug with the spider on the side and finish up the rest of the coffee outside in the amazing fresh air of the courtyard.
I got to the studio for a short tussle with the binding on the Twins quilt, only had stamina for one edge, but will sew up another side today and hopefully get this piece finished up in the next few days since the image is due on Friday. The binding is more pesky than a usual binding (which I generally do blindfolded) because I've cut one of the hideous old quilt tops on the bias in 6" strips so I can place a triangle pieced design along the edges. The original sewing was simply terrible with pieces falling out, raveling, double knotted threads, no matching corners, etc. Not to mention that the fabric on this old top was pretty much polyester and my scissors barely can even cut it. I pieced all the strips together and thanks to my pal Liza got a tip to stay stitch along my sewing line which stabilized it enough to sew on the quilt edge. Thanks, Liza. I was about to try fusing it but this is so much easier in the long run. It's working well and I'm getting the nice 2" triangle binding I had hoped for without the fabric buckling and folding as I go along. I still have mucho applique to finish up in the interior but it will be easier after I get the binding done and those raw edges taken care of.
The thing is, I was going for 'rustic' in this piece since all the elements for it were already there. I knew in the begining that I couldn't make a silk purse out of all these sow's ears so instead am drifting along with wherever the materials take me. The backing quilt is faded and has some spots I couldn't get out. The 6 quilt tops all had stains and are still there after a good soak and wash in Oxyclean. My decision was to just forge ahead. And what I am ending up with is a quilt that looks like it's 100 years old with hard use. Hope that it works in the show it's being made for. Oh well, at least it will stand out against all the uber-contemporary pieces of the other invitees. Stand out, yup, but perhaps not in a 'good way'... I always go through angst as deadlines get closer, start second guessing and wishing it wasn't so, so, so-sew.
The FedEx guy just caught me in my jammies, time to get this show on the road and put the spider-mug away (softly) until tomorrow. Heigh ho.
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