Sigh, dreaming of tie-dye, colorways, and Vista…

The weather has been unusually warm. So much so that I actually thought about going out into the garage and doing some LWI dying - I owe R&M a dyed chair cover to make their couch; my winter wardrobe doesn’t have enough color in it to keep me sane over the winter months… The problem is that I’m not prepared to bring dye powders into the house. There is too much chance of them getting onto other things, like carpeting, my fabric collection, or my grout in my tile floor.

I’m ready to branch out a bit on my dye adventures for myself and go to new color combinations….  I have found a few websites, more intended toward the web developer, that have led my mind to try a few new options:  Color Combos, and the Color Scheme Generator are a couple that are great fun…  This one inspired me to try raspberry and orange together for a new shirt…

Even though the weather gods had blessed us with warmth in January, my mind was distracted. S agreed to let me get a new computer, as mine has had sluggish performance issues in the past. His parents were looking to get something new, and quite frankly I didn’t see them managing to figure out windows vista too easily. So, since I needed a less sluggish computer anyway, we’re opting to reformat my existing machine for his folks. I found a new machine on Sunday, picked it up last Monday, and have been fighting the reinstallation of my software ever since.

The glitter glue princess appreciates that she can have her own screen instead of having to share, and she has taken to it like a fish to water. I’m just having to bear through little burps and hiccups that come with trying to reinstall everything we need back on the machine.

This whole vista compatibility thing is driving me nuts too - I can’t run my old Nero software, can’t run a few of glitter glue princess’s old games (that I must admit to playing more than her now - shhhh!).  At least, for now my embroidery software and pattern drafting programs still work.  Those are the ones that matter most….

Then…. there is the black screen of death, as I’m now calling it.  I’m in the midst of discussions with HP and microsoft on how to handle a little problem that Vista is having.  When my computer goes to “sleep”, it actually goes into a coma and won’t come out till I unplug it.  I get no reaction at all from restarting the computer.  This has monopolized the majority of my time of late.

So, if you are wondering why I’m not around, give a little pause and send good thoughts my way while I try to hold my temper with this transition….

A bit of sewing

This has been a hectic month - not much accomplished. Too many kidlet parties, too many things to get done before school - it is just a crazy time.

But…. I did finally get the shower curtain sewed together from a couple entries ago… It is for a small shower stall that I’ve just used a nasty blue gingham curtain on for the last few years. Well, it is now properly dressed:

This bathroom is in our basement (mostly used by me in the morning to keep the noise down from the sleeping masses).

After having it up for a few weeks, I *think* I need to dye something a bit lighter - the shower is now pretty dark. This will probably take a year or two to change at the rate it took me to get this one done - HA!

Some me time in the Fabric Gallery

With everyone gone, I went on a quest for new towels - ours are decrepit and need full replacement, not just one or two but ALL of them need replacing. So, I took a little jaunt to Ikea. The ones I liked had no washclothes, and there were only white ones that would work with my spray dyed green shower curtain. So I left with things that were not the intended point of driving all that way (that happens whenever you get within 10 miles of the place - random things come swishing up to you and insist you purchase them, like a 30 foot roll of drawing paper).

Totally bummed, I decided to stop in Williamston at Fabric Gallery on my way home for a little midway break in the drive. This is what insisted be taken home:

A very lovely piece of Echino Chinese twill (it says duck, but I don’t think it is heavy enough to be duck). The ladybug repeats every foot or so. Forgive the grainy pics from my cell phone, as my camera is in another state right now… The green next to it in the first pic is a piece of binodal rayon with a crossweave of black against bright green.

This more than makes up for the towel situation. Now off to Kohl’s to see if any are on sale…