Saturday

...I felt better both physically and mentally. Enough so to want to do something in the studio finally. But not sit and sew. Standing felt pretty good. So I decided to take care of some fabric that's been sitting on my dryer for months, some pieces bought with birch quilts in mind. It's been sitting so long because quite a few of the pieces are batiks and batiks tend to have a lot of excess dye in them. I've gotten into the habit of checking each one in the sink, and if they bleed, I keep soaking and rinsing until the dye stops running. These are fairly light colors, so you wouldn't think there'd be much excess dye, but even that light blue released quite a bit. Once washed, I ironed and folded them, ready to either store or use immediately.

I've also been sorting beads - several "free" scoops of beads that my anal retentive personality cannot stand to leave unsorted. Besides, I needed to pick out certain colors to use in Balance Check and the tie quilt. I find that when there are a lot of different colors, a muffin tin makes for an excellent sorting bin. I finished sorting most of the miscellaneous beads, some of which I already had in little bags.