Monday again?

The weekend went by too fast! Saturday found me taking a trip to Ojai with my artist mom to a reception for a new exhibition of pastel artists. This reception took place in the studio classroom where my mom is taking a watercolor plein air class. One display window outside the classroom included various student artists' renderings of a model dressed in a formal Japanese kimono and obi, with a fan held open on her lap. My mom's painting was there with about 10 others'. A good friend of my mom's had a window opposite that which held her beautifully repurposed vintage cards, made from bridge scorepads, old books, wallpaper, and other treasures. She also made some quirky and fun little figures from some garage workshop parts. Really fun and funky. The pastel artists exhibition was amazing--it is a very difficult medium, pastel chalk (these are not oil pastels). It is amazing what control some of the artists had and yet how free with color and layering others were. Most were landscapes and I wanted about 80% of them! It was quite a large showing, maybe 100 pastels of all different sizes. I tried to trick my mom into buying me one I told her was only 7 dollars, though she happened to notice that it was really $700. Too bad--it would be gorgeous in my house! Classic California plein air style--rolling hills, live oaks and grasses, blue sky and eucalyptus. Yummy. Midway through the reception there was a performance by a bellydance school and then they invited the standees to join in. My mom and I skipped that but most people looked like they were enjoying themselves.

Sunday I lazed around most of the morning after walking up--bing!--at 7:22 am. I did a few chores and straightening up but then attacked my messy sewing corner and managed to make quite a dent. I spent extra time clearing off the Hoosier cabinet that holds most of my quilting projects, patterns, tools, etc. Upstairs I have half a closet where my fabric bins are and I made a few trips up there with handfuls of leftover fat quarters from the previous look-see. Later I finished my MATH calculations (there's that dread word again!) for Susie's project, which is next on my list for piecing. I bought a batik panel at a quilt show last year and am bordering it with flying geese in a dark blue/black solid with oriental fabrics for the corner triangles. Tonight I will cut the pack of charm squares into 2.5" squares as a start. It's already getting to be 9:20 so I should finish up this post and get going!