topsides weighs puckery

“My only strength is finding something where most people would find nothing.” 

(Mary Pratt)

This would not be ME sleeping on the job.

TA-DAH

I'm so excited to put this puppy to bed!  It's been in the works for months now but I keep detouring off into other projects.  But today at 1 PM I did this:
Uhh, all those stripes wind lines are hand appliqué, sometimes I even impress myself

The last goddam stitch!

My fingers are bloody and scraped, but I got the last swirl sewn down, all the bindings sewn on the back, a stick the right size that only needs a hole drilled in the center for added support.  Done, and Done.  I even have a secondary slat because somebody's show said they wanted a bottom slat too.  

Well ta ta, I CAN DO THAT.  Pffffft

And now I can ready the studio for the new machine that arrives in 2 weeks.  I found a group on Facebook that talks about it, so I have a place to get tips when I get flustered.  I cannot wait!  Meanwhile I found an old top I can practice on, and I have this monster piece on the wall that needs borders sewn on and circles fused so that will be my actual first piece on the Q20.

Whenever my hands started to bleed I'd fold a few more pieces and now have all the grays, beiges, blacks and whites folded and done.

pretty, eh?

This is what I face next.  Then a few more rolling shelves:

Hey, look look-  a cleared table!  Haven't seen that in 6 months, gonna aim for TWO cleared tables, starting tomorrow, then I have to empty out two bookshelves to move them around and make a new space for my chairs and hassock by the big garage door, I can be surrounded with books and magazines there, a cozy spot that just collects crap as I walk in.  Then the new machine will go against the wall where the rack is with all the paints-  to the left of the quilt above.  That should keep the design wall free and give me elbow room at the machine.  Hopefully I can get some sewing supplies in the shelf next to the new machine.  Then my real machine will slide right under the worktable when not in use, pull out to actually (godforbid) SEW.  And hopefully in cleaning these shelves off I will toss stuff and organize stuff and prioritize stuff until it's so neat I will never work again.  As if.

I bet I have six jars of gel medium. 

Anyway, I seem to be on a roll right now and don't want to stop to smell any flowers just yet. 

I wanna have an 

ARTY BUG PARTY 

Artist Claire Moynihan lives and works in rural Hertfordshire, England where she creates tiny sculptural insects and snails on felt balls using a variety of freeform embroidery techniques. After completing a collection of work Moynihan then organizes the pieces inside traditional entomological boxes which from a distance could almost pass for the real thing. See much more of her work in her gallery.

wow.

Puts my time folding fabric neatly to shame, doesn't it?