My brother, my sister and a good week

Last weekend's Open Studios were the culmination of a year of work and preparation. It was exhausting and exhilarating. Sales were good and I got to visit with so many nice people. At the end of the day on Sunday I walked away from the studio and didn't return until this afternoon. In between I have had a lovely week. 

My brother arrived from Idaho on Monday and spent a couple days, during which we had a great time visiting, being tourists, taking in some live Jazz and drinking in the glorious weather and fall color. He was actually here on business, but that got taken care of easily and didn't eat into a fun visit. It is a treat to be with either of my siblings so we always manage to make it special. Steve left on Thursday and on Friday I drove up to see my sister in Washington state. Can't remember the last time I saw both of them in the same week. I hadn't seen Becky since she started treatment for breast cancer about six weeks ago. She was scheduled for chemo on Friday so I went up and went with her. It is a long procedure--about four hours of just sitting while the drugs slowly make their way into her system by way of an intravenous line. She had packed us a little picnic lunch, and despite the clinical ambiance, we had quite a pleasant afternoon of visiting and catching up. That evening, along with her son, we had a great dinner at a cozy Italian restaurant. I have been so worried about her and my visit was as much for my own reassurance as it was for her. It is a devastating disease and it was so good to see her smiling and  laughing and treating the whole thing as a challenge to be tackled and an experience to learn from. She has some unpleasant days ahead and it is hard. I love her a lot.

The drive home yesterday was really beautiful and probably the last of our glorious fall days. Today we awoke to rain and the air has turned cold. A perfect day to return to the studio, and get back to work. I am working on the piece I can't show, but I can share part of the process. I am fusing irregular triangles of fabric to create a night sky. I start by applying the liquid fusible to the fabric, melt the fusible with my iron and cut out the triangles. I really liked the pattern the wet fusible created!

Once I had a nice assortment of various shades of night sky-colored triangles I used my little iron to start fusing them around the moon.

It goes surprisingly quickly and it is fun to see it grow triangle by triangle.  The sky is nearly done. 

Have a good week. I plan to.