Now that I'm back from Yellowstone, and my last day of classes in the museum studies program is this coming Saturday, it's time to start some new projects.
First, I am now officially job-hunting in the museum field. My resumé is here, and if you know of any openings for anything in the museum world within commuting distance of Tacoma, Washington, I would be grateful if you'd comment here. Or email me. Or phone me. Or send me a carrier pigeon [g]. I am primarily looking for a position where I can work with collections, but I know since I'm being choosy geographically that I'll be lucky to find a position in the museum world, period. I'm also M.M. Justus on LinkedIn, although I haven't done much with that yet. Another thing to work on.
On a completely different note, I am this close to done with the half of the True Gold that takes place in the Klondike. When I finish it, hopefully by the end of June, I will be starting on the other half of the book, which takes place back in Yellowstone and Helena, Montana, the settings of Repeating History, with a completely different point of view character. When I have finished that half, I will be putting the two stories together in alternating chapters, and weaving them together at the end. It's going to be complicated. Wish me luck.
And on one last again completely different note, I have finally started piecing the new quilt that's been in the planning stages for a very long time. It is a Storm at Sea pattern, but I am doing it in flame colors, and with an unusual color arrangement, mostly to avoid needing "light red," otherwise known as pink, which is not a flame color. This is what, with any luck, it will look like someday:
As of today, these are the nine blocks I've got pieced, but not sewn to each other yet:
Everything about this quilt so far has been a challenge. Flame colors are completely outside my normal fabric palette. Working around the pink issue brought me to a halt for quite some time. The color configuration makes me think I've lost my mind (there are over twenty colorways of each of the three blocks in this quilt). So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that figuring out how to piece it has been a challenge, to say the least. I had my brain set on doing it in a way that does not work (geometry and I have been known to have knockdown dragout fights occasionally), and I had to convince myself that, yes, I can still do templates as opposed to rotary cutting, and be taught by some ladies on one of my online quilt communities that plenty of starch will help keep bias edges from stretching (I hate bias edges with a purple passion). All of which I have done. Now, at last, I'm on my way. I've got a long way to go, but that's okay, too.
So, what new beginnings have you got going these days?
Your quilt pattern and colors are beautiful, Meg. Good luck with it.
ReplyDeleteI loved reading about your trip into Yellowstone. What a great time of year to visit: lots of animals, geysers and few people. We stayed at Old Faithful Lodge the year of the Fire. We saw the fire on the ridge above, and were warned to keep our suitcases by the door, in case of evacuation during the night. We got a full night--not sleeping much, I must admit--and the Lodge closed the next day. This cut short our time in the park, but we did see Old Faithful Geyser and took a walk on the boardwalk, keeping a wary eye on the flames. What a wealth of animals you saw. We went another time--the year the government closed the park down because of no money. We had reservations right after Christmas. Our luck in spending much time there has been extremely bad! The people at the gate said we could drive through, but we couldn't stop. Of course, we did stop and saw wolves, bison, and elk. Thanks for sharing your wonderful time on your blog. And good luck with the job hunting!
My goodness, it does sound like your trips were almost jinxed. I'm glad you had a good time in spite of it all.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the kind comments on the quilt, and for the luck in job hunting. I suspect I'm going to need it [g].
That quilt pattern is gorgeous! Of course, given my palette preferences, I'm picturing it in royal blue, kelly green, a nice teal, and maybe some Vorkosigan brown. I suspect there're are some folks who actually see that sort of thing, the way I hear random snippets of music [parodied & otherwise].
ReplyDeleteNew beginnings: last month I had ze spouse empty all the shelves in the kitchen [foreign language, ya, & classics]. In the first sorting, I got rid of half [27-30 feet]. It may be time to sort again, before having him put stuff back.
Every time you start something new, you learn new things about yourself. [See Robin McKinley's "Carpe diem" post here: http://robinmckinleysblog.com/2009/09/page/5/ , which I just read today. I may be a week behind on your blog; I'm 9 months behind on hers.] Cordelia & Ekaterin would doubtless say something profound about constant re-invention / re-juvenation of self. I'll just note that sloughing skins hurts but can be kind of cool.
Here's a link to a "traditional" Storm at Sea quilt (in both color and layout): http://www.rockwallquilters.com/images/July07/stormatsea.jpg. An entirely different quilt, as you can see. I like it, but it's not what I want for my quilt.
ReplyDeleteI used to try to read Robin McKinley's blog, but unfortunately her extensive use of footnotes (which is completely out of hand) in a format that was not meant for it make it impossible for me to read it. Which is too bad, really.
Gorgeous quilt pattern, Meg. And good hunting on the job front!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Any tips you can give me as a museum person yourself?
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