A day in my life

As you are reading this, Dana, Kathy, and I are sharing our first play day. I have pushed for this for months, and the first one got derailed when the City turned off the water in my neighborhood to fix a leaking main line. Then Dana had a car wreck and we had to postpone again. Finally we will have our first ever play day with "We 3 Art." To prepare for this, I had a few things I still needed to do.

What may seem like a mundane, ho-hum day to most, was really a very enjoyable Thursday for me. I don't get out much, and when I do, I usually go places with someone else. That means I have to go places at their speed and pace, not mine. However, today I had several places I wanted to go and just shop at my own pace by myself, so I borrowed my neighbor's car.

I woke around 5:30 and puttered around the house, then went out and watered my garden. While there, I picked a few flowers for tomorrow.

Then I got sick. I never get sick like this, but I had nausea, dizziness, and waves of hot and cold. I didn't want to derail the day, so managed to get a load of laundry in the washer, then just laid down until I could actually walk around without feeling like I was going to vomit. Unfortunately, I got a very late start, but that didn't deter me.

While trying to clear my head a bit, I removed the broken needle from my Singer.

You can see I did a number to it! Dana told me about a place in the neighborhood and I am anxious to see what they have.

I did two loads of laundry, but the bulk of the laundry was lots of fabric that I wanted to remove the sizing from. Also, an old round tablecloth can be cut up for this project.

As you can see

there is a nice breeze, so these should be dry by the time I get home.

I took a lousy photo of my fledgling garden before leaving. The lettuce is about finished. I expect in about a week, it will "bolt" with the hot weather that is forecast for this weekend, so I knew I would pick much of it for our dinner today.

I didn't get two blocks from my house when I saw not one

but two garage sales close to each other. I didn't move when I shot these two photos, just twisted around. Although I bought nothing at the first garage sale, I picked up four wooden frames at the second one (the one above).

My first scheduled stop was the Dollar Tree.

Not only did I get the two things on my list (the lighters to light my chiminea and mosquito coils), I also found a 12" steel ruler with cork backing. I was so happy, I was practically dancing in the aisles.

As I was leaving Dollar Tree, I looked across the street and saw the blight that has begun to plague neighborhoods like mine. A grocery store, Big Lots, and Western Auto used to sit in these three recently emptied stores in the strip mall. The shoe store doesn't look like it is doing much business either. I hope the Singer Center, which is just out of view in the photo, will be doing better business.

Oh good! They are open.

Now, if they just have a needle for my machine.

What a place! I was overwhelmed by all the material, notions, and thread they had. When I explained how I would be using the needle, the woman started showing me all the things she does, like her hand dyed materials, applique, and other things she does with her machine.

She told me this quilt was made by a 16 year old quilter for an English project. It was awesome!!

Then she took me in the back room where she holds classes. If you are a seamstress or quilter, you will appreciate these photos. Since I don't sew that much, I am sure I didn't appreciate these as much as I should have.

I spent over two hours in this place, and promised to return with my art quilts. Woo hoo!

My final stop was Aldi, where I planned to pick up fresh pineapple and strawberries. The were completely out of pineapple and the strawberries were moldy. After showing one of the employees, I returned home, sad that I would not be serving fresh strawberries and pineapple to Kathy and Dana.

My next task for the day was to get the room ready for our play day. After dragging a microwave to the basement, when I plan to find a spot for it and leave it, I started setting up the work area.

I bought a new table and two folding chairs specifically for our play days. I sat on one of the chairs before I bought them and I have to admit they are very comfortable.

From left, the supplies are a microwave, paper towels, measuring cup and spoons, plastic spoon, Rit Dye, containers, material, iron, and craft sheet. The blue thing on top of my cutter is a tarpaulin I bought to place on the floor for drying the material in case we needed it.

Along with the table and chairs, I bought a shower curtain, which is cheaper than any drop cloth you can buy. The mugs are great because they won't break if they fall on the cement floor, and they are covered, so won't get any dye in them.

Another view. I think we have enough room, although not nearly as much as Kathy has.

I printed out instructions for the gals and placed them along with protective gloves at each of their places. Yep, I went all out and printed the instructions in color, something I would never do for myself.

Looks like I have covered all the basic materials.

I don't have a lot of stamps and no texture plates or Shiva PaintStiks, but I have stencil cream, which Dana says is basically the same. I also have a couple of stamps, paint in case we get to it, and bingo marker ink, which I think will be fun to play with. If we want to create a tie dye effect on the fabric, I have added a few rubber bands and marbles. I also included a mouse pad (under the rubber bands) because I read somewhere you need a cushion for stamping on fabric. Dana and Kathy will bring their stamps and texture plates, so everyone will contribute something.

Remember how I said lots of things in my craft room were on rollers? This rolling cart is no different. It can sit under the work bench when not in use.

Right now I have material and the plastic containers we will need for the project stored in it. I could have consolidated more, but I wanted to make sure each of the plastic containers had its own lid.

I'll put the finishing touches on the room before the gals get here, and add a vase of fresh flowers, which we might even pound into our fabric, which will be yet another technique we can try.

I don't have an ironing board, so my work bench will have to be a make shift one.

Looks like I'm ready to go, so now to get the fabric off the line, cut the lettuce, and fix a salad. Then all I'll have to do is fix tea and coffee.

It was a fun day for me. I hope you weren't too bored reading about it!