A WISP

WISP::Work in Slow Progress

Before all the excitement about the new house and the drudgery of painting it, actual sewing took place around here.

I started these blocks this summer, kitted some pieces up to take when we went on vacation, and finished six or seven blocks. Some of them still smell of sunblock and that brings back memories of hard sunshine and the wind coming off the water in Maine. Isn't it odd how smells can do that to you?

Anyway, I finished the last two and I'm going to stop here. The blocks finish at about 8 1/2 inches, so this will be just the right size for a table topper or a wall hanging. I have just the right fabric picked out for lattice strips and a border, a beautiful repro blue stripe, but alas, I am also going to use the blue in another project, and I'd like to make sure I have enough to finish THAT one, so these little squares are going in a box until we move and I'm able to start machine sewing again.

The weather continues cold, gray, and dreary here. More snow is expected Thursday afternoon into Friday, so if the prediction stands, we could be looking at yet another snow day. I've had enough of January, thank you very much.

I'm itching, simply itching to start something new, but that would involve pulling fabric out of boxes I've begun packing and I just can't bring myself to do that. For now, I'm going to have to be content to work on the socks I have on the needles.

Notes From the Bottom of a Paint Can

I know I said I wasn't going to spend a lot of time posting about home improvements, but I'm afraid that's pretty much all that's been going on around here.

The young(ish) couple we bought our new house from had some very definite ideas about home decorating. One, unfortunately for us, was that walls need to be painted with very dark, saturated colors. The dining room was a dark salmon color with an even darker stripe about 24 inches wide of what could only be called "oxblood" (about the color of a pair of Bass Weejuns). The oxblood color even extended to a square in the center of the ceiling. Two of the walls in the master bedroom were deep brown, and the living room and my new sewing room were blue.

I was optimistic enough to think that a couple of coats of our preferred cream-colored paint would have the place looking light and airy in no time. We began painting over New Year's weekend. And painting. And painting. By the time we had applied the third coat (primer, then two coats of regular paint) to the dining room and we were still seeing shadows through the paint I was getting a mite discouraged.

My daughter and her husband came to the rescue this past weekend. My daughter worked for two summers on the paint crew for the local school system and she actually enjoys painting, even the cutting in around the woodwork and the ceilings. The two of them brought some much needed energy and enthusiasm, and by Sunday afternoon we had more or less finished the dining room and gotten a good start on the bedrooms and the living room. As luck would have it, I got two snow days this week so my husband and I were able to paint some more, and I think we're almost there. Almost.

For now, at least, we're leaving the other rooms for another day. The kitchen (green, blue, tan, and dark mocha) and the bathroom (dark pumpkin) can wait for another day.