I’m back from a rather whirl wind trip Downeast for the weekend. The main reason for the trip was so that my father and I could attend a workshop at the Woodlawn Museum where we learned to make our own painted canvas floorclothes.
Since I have pretty much no native artist ability, I chose to do a motif from one of the books the instructor had brought, and even ended up making the stencil to do it. (With much help. Geometry is hard!!)
This is my more or less finished project. I figured I’d keep it simple because I couldn’t quite decide what to use as an edge border that would match the knots. I’m pretty proud of myself for a first outing.
Here are a couple of other examples from the class:
I never did get a good picture of my father’s. He based his on a geometric design that another student brought, and was still working on it this morning when I left to come home. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a picture the next time I’m up there.
The most impressive one there was this one, shown in an intermediate and close to finished stage:
She used a book as an inspiration for the actual picture, but she drew the drew the design freehand, and then traced it as a transfer to be able to fill the detail in on the floor cloth. Definitely more than I could ever do.
Later that night, Dad, C and I went to see Neil Simon’s Laughter on the 23rd Floor, performed by the New Surry Theatre at The Grand in Ellsworth. The play is apparently based on the writing staff of Sid Caeser’s vareity show in the 50s. It wasn’t a bad little production, though in discussion afterward, someone pointed out that the timing was off, and in retrospect, I have to agree.
The next morning, I headed out early so I could make a few stops on the way home. On the way out of Ellsworth, I naturally had to stop at the Big Chicken Barn used book store. I wasn’t able to find anything from BF’s list, but managed a decent haul for myself, including three Patricia A. McKillip books, of which I’m most excited to have Heir of Sea and Fire, the second book of the Riddlemaster Trilogy that I didn’t know was a trilogy when I bought the first book. It’s actually out of print as a trilogy now, and Paperspine doesn’t have the omnibus edition, so I wasn’t sure when I was going to get around to reading the other two books. Now I’ll just need the third, and that seems very doable if I take a surf through Abebooks.com.
I also stopped at the Barnes and Noble in Augusta, and managed to completely accidentally score an edition of Maui Magazine. I’m suddenly in the market for all things Maui, as my sister and I bought tickets last week to go there in July. The price was insanely good, and we figured we just had to go. I’m really looking forward to it.
My final stop was the Purl Diva yarn shop in Brunswick. I didn’t make it there last summer when I visited the other yarn store in Brunswick, as the day I went was the one day of the week they’re closed. However, that’s probably a good thing, as I was compelled to buy both Malabrigo and Madeline Tosh sock yarn, and I really couldn’t have afforded to add that in at the same time as the stuff I bought at the Knitting Experience shop. At least I was able to pace myself. And it’s definitely pretty! (I also found out that Schaefer makes a Heather sock weight yarn. I was only able to make it out of there without it because I don’t want silk in socks so I don’t have to worry about care. I purposely let myself forget there are other applications suitable for sock yarn. I may have to go back. But at least I made it out with only two skeins this time.)
And, last but not least, I give you various pretty flowers from my weekend:
