Mountain Vacation Time

The week before vacation is always crazy. I wish there was a way to just get the heck out of Dodge without all the micro-planning.

Part of that planning is what kind of small projects I might want to haul along for the trip. I’m not much of a novel reader (my family knows I get squeamish over too much sex/blood/violence/scary stuff in books or movies) so I put together my sketchbook and a couple of small handwork projects to fill the evenings with a cup of tea before bedtime.

I took my lovely Bernina to the repairman spa to get a little tune up, then got to work overplanning the amount of “crafty” time that I would have.

First off, I made a couple of “coloring pages” for the Eastman Angel project.I traced her features then copied off about 10 sets – I’m thinking that by spending some time doodling with designs, I’ll get a foothold of an idea going. Here’s an image and here’s an image that I pinned on Pinterest that has my brain churning on how I might incorporate some zentangle type designs.

In related news, I visited our heavenly friend at the cemetery and found that one of her hands has gone missing. I understand this is fairly common and that some cemetery caretakers keep a supply of spare hands around.It looks like this may not be the first time it has happened. What makes it especially weird is that the hands don’t look like they belong. This angel is exquisitely carved as young and innocent – and has the hands of an old man. Hmm.

Secondly, because like a little variety, I fused two small shot cotton pieces for (possibly) a little hand quilting:Even though there are safety pins, they are fused – just wanted to make sure they didn’t fall apart in transit (and who knows when a safety pin might come in handy while out of tow?)

Here’s the perle cotton that I will use for the hand quilting:What’s that, you say? What’s with the vinyl pouch?

Well, just so you don’t think I’m a complete sloth, here’s my pencil pouch:I made this a couple of years ago in a fit of crazy quilting – it actually needs a bit more embellishment, but I’m tired of it in the UFO pile!