Carolyn accused me of being a tease, and she is right, I am a tease, but I have been teasing myself as well, with all these lovely fabrics stacked up, waiting to be cut and me running around like a loon all week. It is as if the promise of sewing is taunting me, but I can’t quite grab hold of the time to delve in.
I hadn’t really expected much sewing time on the weekend. It was G’s birthday and we spread the celebration out over a couple of days. Our favorite local restaurant, Café Tamayo opened on Thursday after six months of renovation and we were there on Friday night for an absolutely fabulous dinner including our favorite duck confit and a wonderful bottle of Cotes du Rhone.
Saturday afternoon we attended a benefit concert for a local chamber music group. The concert and reception were held in a home up in Rhinebeck, the next town north of us, and it was absolutely lovely. The American String Quartet played a concert of Shostakovich, quartet #11, and Haydn (I should remember which one but I don’t, you can tell where my loyalties lie). The living room was L-shaped and the quartet played at the base of the L. We ended up sitting in the narrower, shorter, foot of the L, just behind the cellist, which was marvelous. It felt like we were in the middle of the music, and I, for one, was absolutely thrilled to be sitting right behind the cellist’s left shoulder and able to read his music as he played. Heaven.
Sunday has become a food oriented day since the local farmer’s market opened on Mother’s Day. I stop at the farmer’s market first to select the produce around which I plan the week’s menus. We get a special order of yogurt from Old Chatham Sheepherding Company every week and it comes in Saturday morning usually. Now instead of picking it up on Saturday I just do all the menu planning and as much shopping as possible on Sunday. The whole process takes a good bit of time, but it is such a pleasure, spreading the days "catch" out on the kitchen Island and planning the week's culinary adventures.
It is still early for most produce here in the Northeast and the farmer’s market is heavy on greens, including these lovely mustard greens that we picked up this Sunday:
We had them sauteed with black olives and blood orange juice as a side dish to lovely fried soft-shell crabs. I think I finally mastered a nice gluten-free breading by combining rice flour and peanuts with crushed red pepper in a blender and grinding it all to a fine powder. It crisps up nicely on the crabs. Mmmmm good!
And yes, there was finally a little sewing last night, although not garment sewing. I have had softies and stuffed animals of various kinds on the brain and so I am indulging in a little sewing play.
I took this fabric (the one in the center)
to use as my first softie, the Pointy Kitty from Wee Wonderfuls . This is actually a test run for the softie I need to make for Back-Tack . I was originally determined to make Pointy Kitty but now I am considering Wee Bunny as well, as I think my fabric choice might make a better bunny. The final back-tack softie will be made with the black and white fabrics shown in the post from May 18th.
At any rate, I was beginning to have doubts about my choice of fabrics. I am not sure my ideas for brightly colored creatures are all that sound. But the kitty looks cute all cut out:
It is possible that it will be too bright and garish, something more frightening than charming, a softie that only its mother could love. We'll see.
I have started sewing but am low on thread in appropriate colors so I must run out to S&S today as well as to JoAnn for felt. I went to the JoAnn in Kingston last week but the felt supply there was very limited. Poughkeepsie will have more options.
Meanwhile, Monday morning has been busy. Two trees blew down across the driveway and two solar panels blew off the roof (for the pool heater). They were, of course, the two the mason had to loosen to move out of the way while he rebuilds the chimneys. The masonry work has held however and there are no leaks in the house. There was little other damage from the winds last night, with the exception of the irises, which are lying on the grass like a line of slain soldiers, a sad reminder that nature will always have her way.
