A four-day weekend to get some real work done. I am still toiling away on the spiral piece with the working title of Threats. The base is a circluar linen tablecloth, circa 1960 or so is my guess. If you look closely you may notice that EVERY grain is on the bias which means that EVERY stitch I add creates new billows. A threat indeed. I have learned to go with the billow, pushing, nudging, letting it be imperfect. Because, after all, we are all imperfect right?
threats, 2012, Paula Kovarik
Didn't plant it. Didn't plan it. Wouldn't have thought to do it. The compost heap has given us a squash vine worthy of praise. Leaves the size of dinner plates, the vine travels in three directions and probably measures over 50 feet long. We actually need to name it since it has started to climb over the back fence to greet us. I'm looking forward to a plate full of baby yellow squash in about a week. And now that the worst of my gum surgery convalescence is over I might even be able to eat it.
Amazing bounty.
squash vine, 2012
This week has been a challenge. I was scheduled for laser gum surgery on Tuesday. I worked double time to be sure I had enough time for recuperation and healing after the surgery. On Tuesday, I prepped for the surgery by taking the prescribed mellowing agents. Trouble was, when Jim dropped me off for said torture the office said, NO NO NO!! It's NEXT Tuesday. Lucky for me those mellowing agents did not allow for the grand embarassment I was due. I don't even remember being there. Sure hope I wasn't drooling. I do notice a couple of new bruises on my body where I was bouncing off the walls.
Jim took me back home, tucked me in and let me sleep it off. I awoke to a new sense of entitlement, still walking a little like an Egyptian. Since I had the day off anyway I thought maybe I could get some work done on the spiral quilt. So creative, so happy, so sure of myself.
Today, I had to take out Mr. Tweezerman.
Sprial quilt, Paula Kovarik, 2012
I can't believe I am saying this. We FINALLY got some rain today. It is Spring in Memphis. Rain is a given, Beale Street Music Festival ALWAYS gets rained out. Why the change? What's up with the bluff city? Time and time again we watch the radar maps showing us storms travelling across the nation. They aim for memphis, they center around memphis and then they avoid memphis.
This little section on the spiral quilt is inspired by those clouds that pass in the day. I might add some lassos to tie them down. They are perfect for those little billowy areas created by the bias grain of this linen.
Paula Kovarik, 2012, clouds
So I needed to be able to draw a spiral on a big round tablecloth to begin the piece I am working on. Being quite lazy and unwilling to get out my geometry book I chose the easy way out. I tied a piece of cord around my spray starch can, attached that cord to a chalk marker and spiralled away. I experimented a little before I chose the starch can, tried a pencil (spiral too tight), a dye pot (spiral too loose) and ended up with the spray starch can (spiral just right). I taped the can to the middle of my piece, started the chalk marker cord stretched tight at the edge of the tablecloth and then just walked around the circle as the cord wound around the can. Voila! a Spiral!
Whew! That was a potential close encounter with my geometry book.
