Studio Insulation

Posts about the studio have been skinny lately, but that doesn't mean things haven't been happening. Work has been of the sort that is like insulating the house, you can't see it but it's there, keeping the place cozy. I have this huge closet in my studio that Steve and I share. Neither of us is pleased about it, but we're polite to each other whenever one of us needs to get inside.

Today I moved a bunch of things, clearing up about a cubic yard. The trouble with a cubic yard is that all the items I need to shove in there are all different categories of stuff, an ironing board, fleece, an amazingly large dictionary and thesaurus, water colour paints, and empty baskets. God, it looks so much worse in a photograph. Steve owns about a third of that cubic yard and he has 13 miles of photographs, slides and negatives he wants to store.

The white curtains is covering my work wall. Behind it are around 5 projects I am frustrated about not getting to, but I can feel the urge to pull out those thumb tacks coming on.

Another bit of insulation activity has been I-tunes. Music in our house has been difficult to access since the demise of the CD player. All the music has been transferred to some sort of electronic device or other. Magic acts of key boards, mouse, TV and computer keyboard all play a part in trying to get music.

Finally, my play list is on my computer, I have a decent speaker and a sticky note with instructions on how to use it all. I just realized I can't use my speaker at the same time as the gizmo that transfers photos from my camera. Sigh, Alberta Hunter and her man will have to wait.

A table top Ott light has made a huge difference to being able to hand sew while watching Karen Ruane's videos. I can sew for longer into the day when the light fades and the over head light can't keep up.

 

To the right of where I work there is still some mayhem. I can't figure out a way to keep active projects from spilling all over the place, I can't bear to throw out those baskets, the ironing board lives in the dining room where there is more room for using the sewing machine and amongst all those items roams a cat that can't settle down. She and I have tried umpteen spots for a cat nap. I prefer the chair, she prefers my lap. I move around too much so she gets grumpy and shouts. She is the first cat I have ever met who can shout.

I set out a quilt that needs quilting on the radiator to the left of the computer, close by for petting and snuggly, but sniff, not good enough.

Humph, she stomped off after walking over the key board and reading the last paragraph. Good, that gives me five minutes of peace.

I did make something I am rather proud of.

I wanted to make a pin cushion for Karen's class and came up with the idea of two strips of flat piping to embroider between. I figured out how to make the triangle blocks into a square so that the purple and white/green face each other and lie opposite each other.

Then I came up with the idea of setting some sashing between the squares. I rarely attempt sewing anything that needs straight lines and accuracy. It makes a fun quilt block but is too busy for embroidery.

I made a simpler combination and am working on getting fancy with it. Work on the pillow cases continues. Gosh it's large compared to the size I usually work with. I despair.

To conclude the insulation motif, I've knit a dark blue vest and have been sewing on two wool items. I know them as jumpers from when I was a kid, a plaid sleeveless dress that was worn over a blouse or sweater. I'll show them in better nick next week along with more photos from Turkey. But the camera battery has died. Time to recharge it and me.