A triumph of sorts

Got up this morning and was going to work on the quilt, but something didn’t feel quite right…it just wasn’t a Sunday morning without sitting down and working on the book! So I sat down and wrote about a page worth of Day One…I’ve gotten in the HABIT of writing! Quite a difference from having to force myself to sit down and try typing. I’m thrilled. Definitely in the swing of things.

I have altered a pattern slightly to sit further down the hips than usual–I’m hoping adding 2″ to the back will be enough to keep skin from showing–and have gotten to work on the crazy-quilt top. So far I’ve done the center panel, and I think it will be FANTASTIC. I’m using all kinds of fabrics, from plain-Jane quilting cottons to elaborate metallic brocades, in shades from yellow to orange to red, in pieces about 3″x4″. I plan to decorate the seams either with fancy stitching or with strings of sequins, ribbon, etc. I bought 50 yards of silk ribbon from Dharma Trading Co and will try dyeing it in fantastic orange colors.

I’ve also bought a bunch of smallish silk flowers and will probably embellish the top with them. I was down at Jo-Ann’s Fabrics in search of orange quilting fabrics and noticed that they were having an 80% off (!) sale on one brand of silk flowers, so I immediately went through and grabbed all the orange and purple ones. At 40 cents a bundle, that was quite affordable. I plan to strip off the flowers from the foliage (I really dont’ have houseroom for full bundles of flowers) and store them in a bag somewhere.

That’s all for today…I’m headed down to the Peninsula to do a longish ride (for variety, I think I’m going to go down and do Congress Springs Road up to Skyline and then down Page Mill) and then have a dinner engagement, so I don’t expect to get much else done today.