33,156 picks later…

…I am officially done with the coat fabric.  I cut out the last pieces (except the sleeves, but I have plenty of fabric for those) yesterday, so unless things go drastically wrong, I won’t need any more.  Yay!

That said, I’m going to continue weaving on the coat fabric…partly to stay in practice for weaving, partly because I want to use the fabric for making wedding favors, but mostly because it’s so beautiful!  I have no idea what I’ll do with it but it’s so pretty I want to keep some around.  Weird, I know, but I’ve fallen madly in love with this fabric.  More, more, I’m still not satisfied!  🙂

Sunday was mostly a day of rest for me – I slept nine and a half hours and took a two-hour nap in the afternoon, so I must have been pretty sleep-deprived to start.  I also went to the farmer’s market, and did a little bit of cutting/sewing – maybe three or four hours – but mostly I puttered around.  And I FINALLY unwrapped B.’s Christmas present to me – a pen and tablet, the Wacom Intuos 4, for use with Photoshop and Illustrator (as well as other programs)!

So far I haven’t got it doing more than saying “Hello World”, but I have high hopes for it.  There’s been considerable discussion on the Woven Pixel mailing list about tablets, and this promises to be a useful tool in my design arsenal, once I get back to designing drafts.  I’m also really excited by Alice Schlein’s new book, The Liftplan Connection, and plan to order a copy.

And I have made some progress on the coat: despite my general exhaustion yesterday, I managed to cut out the two last pieces (the center backs), and start binding the edges with Seams Great.  With this morning’s efforts, I’ve now finished edge-binding 7 of the 11 pieces, with only the side back and facings left to do.  (This would seem to be wasted effort, since the seams will be entirely enclosed by the lining, except that this fabric is very prone to raveling, so we’re giving it the extra protection.)

What’s left: finish the seam binding, then hand-baste all the pieces together.  I figure that will take me another 2 days, following which I’ll be ready to meet with Sharon again.