Taking a break

Been getting ready for a show this weekend. Weaving and sewing rags to be woven into rugs. I usually weave a couple while I ponder the design of the next one or two. I generally have piles of rags sitting in front of me in my studio and looking at them for a while over the top of the loom helps my brain to focus on the next bit of creativity.

There are all sorts of decisions that need to be made when cutting rags. Striped fabric will give a completely different look when woven with the striped long or cut across. Other patterns too will give different results depending how large or small the pattern is. I have a rusty colored warp on now and am using up some fabric that has been hanging around for quite a while. My favorites are the flannels and courderoys... I like the way the weft packs down and they tend to be nice and heavy and lay flat.

Yesterday we picked the first big batch of tomatoes, cut them up and squished them for sauce. I usually make two kinds of sauce each fall. One is a base for spaghetti and the other for chili. I put them up in quart jars and then for the winter at least once a week all we need is a lb of hamburger mixed with a quart of sauce to make supper. Maddie used to not like the spaghetti so much, but her taste buds are maturing thank heavens. I recently found some dehydrated mashed potatoes that come in flavors like three cheese and garlic .... She used to hate potatoes, but now she is a fan and really likes the flavored mashed potatoes. They are another meal we can make quickly. It seems our lives are just too busy sometimes.

I ended up (well actually Puck ended up) canning 6 quarts of sauce. I probably would have gotten more like 9 jars, but he let it cook way down. No problem. I hope the garden holds tight for a few more days though. It is still a lot of work to get all those tomatoes done and the peppers are not quite ripe yet. I hate to buy peppers when I know they are coming.

Puck has been painting the trim on the house. He has this big idea about making our rather shabby victorian look fancy victorian. He picked the classic porch green as a base color and has been slowly painting. He proposed a mauve as an accent and there we argued. About two houses ago we made a terrible decision on paint in a bedroom. What looked great on the paint cards looked like a bordello on the walls. We went round and round and finally he came home with some choices. I chose the least offensive of his offerings. After all if he is willing to paint I can live with the color... I spend most of my time indoors anyhow. He got a mulberry color that looks dang close to pink up on the house and just finished painting the front screen door that color. Now all I have to tell people is "ours is the house with the pink door" Ah well it is not so terrible. I hope!

My show is in LaCrosse which is close to where my sister Ellyn lives. She has graciously agreed to put up with us for a couple nights. It is always good to see her and as Maddie is now considering LaCrosse and Ellyn went to school there we have lots to talk about.

Also I just shared the link to this blog with my sister Ellyn wave wave. Now I am going to have to say lots of nice things about her :) Not even my own family knows where this place lives LOL

Well I suppose I should go back to weaving, but I may just bunk out and watch tv for a while. My neck is killing me.