Work on it Wednesday

Just when you thought you'd get to see some clear ground...BAM!!!  The dreaded white stuff from heck makes an encore appearance. Luckily, we got a layer of sleety rain / ice and then only about an inch of snow. Not far away, by my folks house, they got 6 inches of the white stuff - YUCK!!

Not one to take chance (HA!), I planned the day in the studio, with detours into the laundry room.

First up was the silk quilt, right?  No, no it wasn't. What??!!  After the wait and the not knowing if and when the missing black silk would arrive and the impending deadline, I wasn't feeling ready to tackle it yesterday. At least, I know better than to force the issue!   There is no sense getting in the fray if you are not mentally prepared to deal with the fray(ing).

So, I needed to work on a new saddle pad slip cover - purple this time.

 

High density foam saddle pad needing a cover

Purple saddle pad slip cover with envelope style opening

That was quick so I moved on to the Daring Downton Debacle challenge - month three.  I thought I was going to use the 'Castle Garden' block, but the 8 x 8 grid just didn't look right with the other rows.

So back to the books and I found the 'Castle in the Air' block - a 6 x 6 grid block. This row will be done in split colors - half pinks / half peaches and half blue / half green - to sit between the other two rows

But I needed to do a variation to keep it a little closer design-wise to the other two blocks.

My changes are shown in red.  The color plan was drawn out and a full size block drafted.  Parts will be paper foundation pieced.

That done, I moved on to some cleaning

First - Saddle cleaning, that is - for my friend Pam who just picked up this second hand English saddle.  Nothing fancy but serviceable.  It needs a good cleaning and conditioning, and a little repair.  Step one was to disassemble the parts and saddle soap the parts.  My saddle is also home from the barn, waiting its turn for some TLC.

Second - We did get all the laundry done - with some help from a furry friend.

Third - The sewing machine needs a de-linting before I sew one more stitch!  Have you cleaned your machine lately?