Sunny But Colder

Well it’s gorgeous and sunny today but of course because it’s clear, it’s also colder this morning. Thank goodness for a warm husband to snuggle up to, at least until he got up at 5:15am to get ready for work. See the frost on my front lawn? That’s the first frost I’ve seen in months because it’s hard for frost to form when the front lawn is under water from all the rain we’ve had. Sure nice to see the sun for more than a few minutes at a time before the next deluge. I’m sure there’ll be a lot of locals who won’t be needing their anti-depression meds today. People who live where there’s snow have no idea how dark it gets when there’s nothing to reflect what little light we get in winter except the puddles! And it’s supposed to warm up somewhat later. Maybe I’ll actually get to sit out on my deck this afternoon?

Still plugging away on the rug. Now that I’ve started, I can’t stop! I want to complete this soon. I want to check it off my UFO list. (Though I keep adding more things, so the list never gets any shorter!) I’m heading toward the bottom right-hand corner and wishing I had a proper hooking frame with gripper strips. The hoop just doesn’t keep it properly taught with such a small area to hold onto. I’m ending up working on the corner with the backing loose. Maybe I’ll try the Nova Scotia method of wrapping the rug around my thigh to give my hook something to pull against. And yes, Mel, I do need an auger! Hence the honking big Hartman hook. The linen was supposed to be “primitive” weave but I think it would be somewhat easier with a #6 cut. I’m skipping a lot of threads to keep it from being too tightly packed which makes bubbles in my flat rug. When I started this rug I didn’t have a #6 cutter head for my Bliss, but now I have one, plus a #4. (I doubt I will ever go skinnier than #4.) I’m just not experienced enough as a rug hooker to get the finer points sometimes though. Like I’ve said before: rug hooking is easy to get started but takes time to master. Your Damselfly is just a dilettante.

Speaking of "dilettante" — I got this book a few weeks ago. I had a flirtation with making books a year or so ago. Books made from paper. Books that somehow I can never write in. Pam Sussman's book shows how to make art books from cloth, like teeny little book-shaped quilts. I still have a weird aversion to making "art" pages, but I'm seeing some more practical uses for these techniques. And maybe if I worked with fabric for awhile I might be able to learn to make book pages that serve no practical purpose except to just be. Or go back to working with paper. Fabric is so much more forgiving and looks better when it's funky and imperfect. Plus I have an awful lot of fabric swatches that I've been creating with my Spectrum study group: monoprinting, dyeing, rubber stamping, shibori (tie-dye), katazome (resist paste), etc. Maybe they would look better if they were cut up and reassembled into something? Plus lots more embellishments added. I want to learn to Free Motion Stitch with my machine. I want to learn Coptic Stitch to attach signatures together. I want to loosen up and layer and collage and paint over and stitch on top. I need to just start.