a place to be flying

"we have always been

dreamers in montana."

-brian schweitzer

while the weather here has been tumultuous at best, we had a couple warm(ish) dry days and i just couldn't stay inside. i've been dreaming of flying down some back country road on my vintage kaw kz900 restoration project! he was roaring like a lion again and itching to eat some asphalt, so who was i to deny him? he's been couped up too long in his garage. waiting for the weather to change. waiting for some repairs. both managed to manifest at once, so out we went. two glorious days of freedom! 

now, the rain has returned. my crazy work hours have encroached (we are short two staff members at the moment...that's nearly one fourth of our staff...lots of open shifts that have to be covered). not to mention that i've been promising jack a new paint job... i'll miss him while he's getting groomed and polished. but i have plenty of cloth whispering to do in the meantime...

namaste'

"new" source of glorious silk and other thoughts

several hours of blizzard strewn mountainous driving later, i am safely at home, ensconced in warmth and the adoration of a certain cat who was certain i'd left him behind for good this time!  i would like to say that i hope never to have to drive through such winter madness as this again, but i know mother nature wouldn't listen one wit...

meanwhile, i've been unloading goodies from my trip, and settling back into my home.  amongst these treasures are two drexel living room club chairs that i remember growing up with (mom bought them back in the 50's) that have been in storage in my folks' garage for nearly 25 years now.  they are in quite a sorry state, but as such, are crying out for restoration and recreation...but more on them later...  while dropping these off at my storage unit (where i have many antiques and other items that don't currently fit in my tiny cottage, but simply can't bring myself to let go of yet), i spotted a huge basket full to overflowing with.....silk ties!!  glorious and wondiferous silk ties from days of old when i worked for lawyers and wore suits (oh, the hideous crime against humanity!!).  ties were one of the few garments with which one could be creative when working in such a conservative environment...and i took to them with wild abandon! old ties, new ties, hand painted/hand dyed ties...it didn't matter, so long as they were silk, i loved them!

being the horribly addicted clothes horse that i have always been, i amassed, quite literally, hundreds of ties! it seems the last time i counted them, i reached 346 before i gave up because they kept turning up in the oddest of places.

these, of course, were immediately loaded up into the truck and brought back home.  i think at one time i had contemplated the idea of making a crazy quilt...or maybe it was a dresden plate quilt?...from them.  clearly, they had other ideas since they immediately began whispering a myriad of requests...all related to my more current work with slow cloth, kantha stitching, boro techniques and spirit cloth!  i think these lovely snakes of silk will live in my studio for a bit before slithering their way into my quilting...

tonight, however, i am going to watch eat, pray, love and start a small cloth for something i have in mind...

oh...and i saw this fragment of wonderfulness today...

namaste'

  

and we're off...

we left early yesterday morning before the sun was quite awake...off to spend a week with the folks in idaho.  fresh on the heels of an unexpected winter storm was probably not the best time for a road trip, but apparently mother nature didn't get my request for clear roads...

i've never traveled so far in the truck with the saint.  she's used to having full roam in the back of the blazer, so it was interesting trying to juggle the wheel with the saint trying her best to make like a lapdog...especially while attempting to drive on two feet of packed snow and ice!

ah, the joys of living in the country!  after fourteen grueling hours on the road, we finally pulled into the folks' driveway at midnight last night.  i would have slept in this morning, but the saint had other plans for me...

now it's time to settle in and work on the midwinter long cloth for a bit while mom is off getting her hair done...

namaste'