Shadows

Work on the shadow quilt rolls along.

These are figures I cut yesterday. Last night I fused them to the quilt. These still need to be stitched on.

Are they dancing? Play fighting? Having an animated discussion about climate change? Maybe she's showing the creature some self-defense moves. A creature in this world should know how to defend itself. Maybe they're playing catch and I need to add a ball? What is their story?

This pair is stitched on. I turned the blanket stitch outward so the bearish figure has "fur." I'm thinking I'll either thread paint a large, possibly menacing tree behind the girl, or cut one out of black fabric and stitch it down. I like the idea of the monster holding hands with a little girl out of fear of a big, scary tree.

(Reminds me of the story in Little House on the Prairie when Pa goes into town without his gun and on the way home after dark, by moonlight, he sees a bear standing in the path watching him. He picks up a big branch to use as a club and runs toward the bear, yelling his head off, swings the club, and hits a big tree stump that he had mistaken for a bear.)

These are my sea-ish creatures. I stitched down the two figures on the left yesterday, but I decided that they needed a friend to make a trio, so I added the big-eyed figure on the right. Now maybe they need musical instruments. But what kind of musical instruments would they play?

This is one of my favorites. I like this pair very much. They're fun and menacing. Or maybe they're menacing and fun? (They're the monster version of the line from Steel Magnolias: "Laughter through tears is my favorite emotion.") I don't know if it's obvious that she's got a pigtails and a bow on the top of her head. Hm. Seemed so obvious to me when I was cutting her out. With the creature, I took advantage of the piecing to get the red, glowing eyes and the big white grin.

I had thought I'd hold off on quilting these panels until I got to the point where I felt they had enough applique. But some of them I think are complete. Maybe. Some of them may need...things? More stuff? What kind of stuff? Belonging type stuff? Background type stuff? Some of the creatures may need "words."

And speaking of words, this quilt needs a name. The Shadow Quilt? Boring. I need to think of something.

What do you think?

Yesterday
 
I had a quiet day yesterday. I went to a residency seminar in the morning (absolutely none of it applied to my role, but it's always interesting to learn something new) and then came home and napped. In the evening, Dave and I went out to dinner, to the place with good chicken wings. I had wings and a wedge salad. Dave had mac and cheese with broccoli and a side of buffalo cauliflower. He brought home leftovers, I did not. I kind of gorged myself and I'm feeling a bit oversalted today. Also, I've been super hungry all day. Probably partly dehydration, but I have eaten about four breakfasts (small ones, but still) and two lunches so far. I have also drunk about four liters of water and four or five 16-ounce coffees (mostly decaf, but still).

I just got a text asking me to come in and work tonight. No, thank you. I have gotten no sleep today and I won't work exhausted. (Maybe if I were 20 again, I would be able to get by on no sleep, but I'm not 20 anymore). Also: I just don't want to work tonight. I am pumping the brakes on my shifts and not working extra--and trust me, they will work you as hard as you let them--because working extra shifts is the quickest way to burning out on the job and I don't want to have that happen. So I'm just going to have to say no.

What was I saying? Oh, yes. I'm dehydrated and I just finished my second lunch. So I'm going to have another liter of water and maybe another decaf coffee. Then maybe I'll take a nap. I'd like to sew more this afternoon but my neck is acting up, has been for a few days now, and I'm trying to take it easy, neck-wise.