the REAL challenge ...

... in this weather is to come up with enough motivation and energy to actually do anything. Actually, I lie. [ and not just the reclining on the couch that I'm doing rather a lot off ] The motivation is there sort-of, but between the heat and the FMS, well, energy is a major problem this week. Though actually, now that I come to think about it, the 3 hr Clogging class on Tuesday night probably wasn't a good idea. It was meant to be 4 hrs but by the time we'd tippy-tapped for 3 hrs with rather more frequent breaks than usual, we all decided that was enough for the first night back, given that it was still up round 30 deg C and hotter than hell in the hall.
Okay, forget I said anything. I think I just figured out WHY I was a little limp dishrag on Wednesday and Thursday. Sometimes I'm just a bit slow figuring these things out At least there was no bellydance class on Wednesday because I don't think I would've had the ooomph to get there, let alone dance.

Still, I've managed a little bit of activity on the Challenge each morning this week

We're getting into the fine tuning stage so some of the tweaking is pretty subtle. For example: I decided that the seam between the watery jade shibori and the geisha print was still too definite even though most of it will be covered by flowers. So I cut a bit off the shibori and pieced in a strip of dark jade moire chintz. You will barely be able to see it in the finished piece but the transition is smoother. Also I removed the hand dyed spacer next to the bottom carp and replaced it with the carp print. I also tried this with the spacer on the middle carp but somehow, because it's a much narrower strip, it was too intrusive so instead of reverting to the hand dye, I've cut a matching bit from the geisha print and I think I like that effect better.



A narrow strip of the jade moire chintz went into the left border as well. Repetition, repetition, repetition.



Have I mentioned yet that I'm piecing this on my 1951 Centenary model Singer Featherweight 221K1? Chris and Maz gave her to me for the big 5-0 birthday and until recently, I'd only used her for playing around. She's a lovely little girl and I'm actually really enjoying sewing on her without all the bells and whistles on the new[ish] Pfaff 2056. I DO wish she had a quarter inch foot though, cos I don't want to put masking tape on her beautiful, shiny, black finish.





Just so that you know just how much of a challenge this was ... THESE are the two fabrics we have to use an identifiable amount of. The small dotted one is interesting but whose bright idea was it to pair it up with that other one? They have completely different palettes for one thing.


Oh, and just so you know ... DD has decided to celebrate her impending quarter century by getting a tattoo. The deed was done yesterday and the evidence for anyone so inclined is here