inked.

in a few weeks i'll be getting it finished 

(adding a turquoise-y/green background, and yellow to the tape measure).. 

but for now:

 

done by the incredible chris dingwell, portland, maine.

weekend approaching.

i'm typing this from bed with slightly tacky (both in color and in wetness) nailpolish on. 

multi-tasking. 

tomorrow morning i drive up the coast a bit to Alewives to teach my hexie class to just under a dozen most-likely fabulous crafty ladies. of course, i'll be doing this after i fill my gas tank and get some quick breakfast at dunkin donuts (and gather my mother who's coming along, as usual, for the ride and the fabric shopping ;)). after my class i'll swiftly be heading back to portland so that i can sneak across town to get a good-sized sewing related tattoo on my upper left arm! eek! pictures of all of these things to come later on, i'm sure. but first (but after my tattoo), i'll be stopping at the shop to drop some things off, pick some things up, hang some things, and generally get a grasp on what else needs to happen before our grand opening next friday evening! then i can sleep. and sunday i'll be working on kits for my classes/the shop all day, probably. if my arm is in good working condition. haha...

i'm anxious to get teaching, and i hope that folks are interested in signing up for what we have to offer! although my rough schedule is laid out through mid-may, i am in the process of planning a few more special one-time workshops; one for each skill level (beginner, advanced beginner, and intermediate). these are more specific and involved than the rest of my classes, so i think they'll be fun! i am probably getting ahead of myself, but thats typical. especially when it comes to quilting and my craft - it doesn't matter what i'm doing, i'm over-planning, moving too fast, and brainstorming at lightening speed. its just nice to have some sort of outlet for some of it. ;) i hope my business partner doesn't think i'm insane. i just know what i want to be doing, and i'm pretty sure i know how it should be done. to a point. its definitely a learning experience. even while working fourty hour work weeks, i've got all the time in the world to dedicate to this, so i'm hoping that we can get it off the ground and keep it running. 

my love is in the fabrics, in the pairing and unpairing and repairing. its in the little designs or the big sprawling flowers, in the brights and the muted, in putting two awful colors together to create something gorgeous. its an unexpected art, sometimes, this quilting. i have so many ideas that will never get made, but just having the ideas alone is sometimes enough for me, sometimes the execution ruins it (you know, kind of the way you feel about a crush? sometimes when you get to really know them, they aren't at all what you thought?). i feel for some fabrics the way i feel about springtime and wearing peep-toed shoes. i'm ready for them all of the time, but sometimes they just don't work. sometimes you have to wear big wooley socks for a bit until the time comes.

the time is coming...

except for this snow we're getting tonight...

and meanwhile, i miss my boyfriend. even though we live together and sleep next to each other - most days the sleeping is the only thing we get to do together. tiny conversations at 3am when the cats are stirring and i steal the blankets back. i'm asleep when he gets home from work at night, and he is asleep when i leave in the morning. perhaps on sunday he'll want to help me make kits? (i'm kidding. ...kind of.) i miss him, and realize that we won't always spend most of our talking time on the phone during lunch breaks; just a bit longer. he's had a few job propositions but nothing serious and likely nothing worth taking, but everything is getting thought about. i didn't schedule myself to teach any classes the weekend of his graduation. i didn't think i should miss that. ♥ ten years after the fact, he'll have two degrees and a second piece of paper, hoping it will land us somewhere interesting and fulfilling. fingers crossed.

what will i do then? i've decided i'll teach regardless of where/if we go. i'll teach somehow or somewhere if i can't teach out of our home. wherever home will be. if we can't stay here, i'll figure it out. until i can have my shop. maybe we'll stay here, and AS will really take off. for now, i can't see much past next friday pm. 

who am i kidding? right now i can't see much past tonight. i'm exhausted with an early wakeup call. lots to do. but, thank goodness i seem to be on the mend, after my second round of this chest cold, two weeks each time. ugh. too much to do to be coughing. not even enough time to take any pretty pictures this week. i'll remedy that this weekend. i promise!

xo.

the end of the four day weekend...

a little late night fabric cutting from yesterday..

working on getting kits made up for my two beginner classes! 

i think i cut over 100 - 5" squares.. and there are probably double that in strips waiting to be sized!

 

today i made an example/model for one of those kits...

here are some photos from along the way! ♥

 

 i still need to do the top quilting on it. :)

now, to match up all of those little squares!