the story so far
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

rather than going to see the pieces one by one, I bring you the puzzle so far…

Feb 15 B
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

What a weekend! And it isn't done yet…

Aerin and I spent most of yesterday helping at The Love Show, an exploration of relationships silly and serious, at the Arts Center in the top of the old school. New England Center for Circus Arts  brought down their travelling rig and set up fabric and trapeze and straps and things to work with. Aerial work, combined with inspired partner acro, some elegant things (and one extremely foolish thing) with Bright Red folding chairs and a great deal of award winning juggling made for an enjoyable show. We helped both afternoon and evening, which made it long day.

This is one of four blocks I posted today, but you can follow the link if you'd like to see the rest of them. They are all edges – some feet, the back of a neck; nothing terribly exciting. I got two mostly done before yesterday, then finished them and worked on two more this afternoon.

We are getting organized to go see Coraline, because it looks gorgeous.

I have no fabric to show you. I had a completely luxurious day off, I wore the blue socks I finished yesterday (photo to follow) and Al and I celebrated 28 years of Valentine's day balloons, and 23 years since we decided to get married. On Valentine's day. Yay us.

Feb 12
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

So I lost yesterday to the flat tire and subsequent repair that always take far too long and usually requires fixing something else. It threw me off for the rest of the day. I did manage to ride – I took the big red mare out into the woods and crashed through the snow uphill and down. And Al and I made it Meet the Teachers night at the High School. We timed it perfectly. We missed all the blah,blah,blah in the auditorium and reached all the teachers with a tiny amount of time to spare. There are some pretty strong teachers this semester. And a lot of work.

Things are starting to melt. We have a puddle that is half the block long, and could float our canoe, and has white-caps on it when the wind blows hard, like today.

As for the square, I am running out of things to say about them. The color may be odd, because the cathode ray tubes are dying slowly on the computer I do most of my photo processing on. Everything is pink. It is not as distressing as I expected, except when I am trying to get the color balance reasonable (!).

D4

Feb 10 B
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Feb 10 A
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Whenever I make a pronouncement, something happens such that it is no longer true. Having said that Tuesdays are difficult to produce one square and blog it, I managed to make two today, and here they both are. I think I was getting impatient with how slowly it was going.

I make no promises about anything.

B2
B6

Feb 9
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I managed to ride a horse today, down the road and back, and another horse around in circles in the snowed over pasture on the paths the horses make going about their day. I made this piece, but I can feel an itch starting to make more pieces of horses. My mother showed me the most gorgeous book ever, of very simple, very clear, very very large format pictures of horses. Some of them were just pieces; a neck or the sweep of a back or the shape of the withers – the knobbly tops of their shoulders. They were inspiring.

D2

the story so far
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Six out of 24 pieces in place. I hadn’t realized the color was so uneven from picture to picture.

I’ll update this next week.

Feb 8
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

Long weekend – lots of hugs on the new baby (pictures of him forthcoming) lots of hugs for my brother and his amazing and fabulous wife, and for my mom, and my spare parents (everyone should have some) and my aunt and uncle I don’t get to see often enough… Lots of family and face time. I am ashamed to say I came home and sat very still and very quiet with my face inthe computer for a couple hours, just to unwind.

And I made this square. The last color of horse. I like him lots. I have to figure out what to do for the eyes – I am thinking of paint actually, rather than thread. Or maybe hand sewing.

This is the 6th piece, I am 1/4 of the way through the project.

C6

Feb 6
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I’m ashamed to say I cheated and chose a square with not much happening – I needed to make it and get on with the list of stuff to accomplish before leaving to see my mother.

My brother and his wife and new baby are coming off their island and south to be seen, and I joke that we are having the world’s smallest family reunion. My mother will have both her kids and all her grandchildren (3!) under one roof for two days – it should be fun! I am looking forward to it, but it seems like there is a lot of scrimmage before leaving….

A1

Feb 5
Originally uploaded by Dancing Crow.

I attended Alice's Science Fair this morning which was interesting. The kids did a great job getting interesting ideas across. Alice decked herself out in her lab coat (from Halloween) and a T-shirt that says "I shall do Science to it" and was ready to rock. It was hard to get the kids to hear and answer questions – they really wanted to spew their spiel and be done. I wanted to poke at the corners of their understanding, being the poking, intrusive, nosy individual that I am. Once they heard me, they did great.

I then went up to see the Canadian horses, and they were WILD! with the wind and the cold. I got Bob to ride bareback for the first time in his life, which he enjoyed, on his favorite enormous Penny, and I rode Kaboose and Ruby. Ruby is a lot like riding a couch – she is so plush and so warm…

Then I came home and did this square, and now we are driving to Brattleboro for Aerin's circus, and Family Circus, and then home and done. Amen.

B3