The Osterville Library is temporarily in the basement of a building on Main St . Jon spoke in the gym or the Methodist Church.

Scituate Library Community Room.

My first quick sketch directly from a photo (Jon’s photo). Did it quickly this morning before leaving for Massachusetts. Will be doing more from photo’s and memory for the rest of the trip.

It was nice to meet Heidi last night. She emailed me a few months ago saying my studio reminded her of a humming beehive and inspired a drawing.

I’ve found that it’s hard to get some time to actually sketch in the libraries. I had to sneak out of the talk in Cobleskill and had to piece together from quick sketches and memory the drawing from the Scoville Memorial Library. (a neat gothic building with oak panels opening into basement stairways.)
It’s easier to get the sketches of the places we stay at night, drawing before going to bed and early in the morning.

Now we’re snowed in at the Marriott, lots of time for the standard room sketches.

Children’s room at the Cobleskill Library, it’s recently restored and a magical library.

We stayed at my friend Bobbi’s house after the Cobleskill Library talk. Bobbi taught me to weave. The guest room is also her weaving studio.

Usually I take Saturday’s off, but I wanted to finish the Rita Howling Quilt before leaving for the Library tour on Monday.

For the past week or so Izzy seemed a bit off, hanging around me more than usual. I thought maybe he needed something to do, and since Freida seems happy as long as she’s by a wood stove, I took Izzy with me to the studio today. He did some sniffing around came to me a couple of times for cuddling then settled down under the quilt I was working on. Unlike Freida, he has no interest in lying by the wood stove. After having lunch in the house,Freida followed me to the door, but ran back to her bed by the wood stove when I called Izzy . He ran across the road to the studio and settled down as if he’d been doing it for years.

Jon, quoting Attachment Theory, had some other ideas about why I took Izzy to the studio instead of Freida. He didn’t seem to think it was about Izzy’s needs, but mine. I do feel stronger and more confident lately, like I have a greater sense of myself. (perhaps I don’t feel as great a need to protect and be protected ) I also see the dogs differently, they are all my dogs, not just Freida, so why not spend time with Izzy in the studio.

I have to say, I think Jon may be right. Izzy and Freida don’t seem to be concerned about who goes with who where. It seems to be my issue.

I have every intention of finishing my Rita Howling quilt before Jon and I go on the Library book tour next week. Between the snow and trying to figure out my business finances with my book keeper, and my machine breaking, I haven’t had a full day in my studio this week.

I was listening to an interview with the poet Elizabeth Alexander. She said that having children was the best thing for her writing because it made her realize that if she was going to write, she just had to write. She couldn’t wait for the right moment or to be inspired, she had to just do it when she had a free moment or not do it at all.

So I’m learning that I won’t get days of uninterrupted time in the studio. My life and my work are woven together in a way I had never imagined. The “interruptions” aren’t really interruptions, it’s just the flow of life and work.

I got my Brother back today. Actually Jon picked it up for me and I’m glad he did. He said the woman who fixed it all but yelled at him that it needed to be cleaned more often, she spent 3 hours cleaning the compartment under the bobbin case etc! etc! etc!

So I got off easy, Thank you Jon. When I called to see if there was anything else I needed to know about cleaning it , the same woman answered, she seemed annoyed. She said “When normal people…. I mean normally people clean their machines every two weeks depending on how often they use it.” She gave me some helpful advise and I promised to clean it often and thanked her many times for all of her help. And I am grateful to her for fixing it and getting it done so quickly. And I’ll be sure to keep the machine clean, I wouldn’t want to have to bring it back to her with the same problem.

I think tomorrow I’ll finish up the Collaboration quilt on my singer, then plug in the Brother and get back to where I left off with Rita.

After reading my post about collaboration Jon challenged (probably not the best way to start a collaboration) to collaborate on a piece with him. So he chose one of his photos and I made a quilt inspired by it. I’m not sure if this is a true collaboration, or just an inspiration, time will tell.

I designed the quilt yesterday, knowing I could piece it together with my Singer since my Brother is in the shop, so the sewing machine inspired me also, perhaps it’s a 3 way collaboration.

After many strange dreams last night (lots of trying to eat sweet stuff) I realized the quilt was missing something. So this morning I added the “I Love You” fabric. I started piecing it together today and I must say, it’s just right.

It’s hard to have a snow day when your work is just across the road. But I did take more time shoveling (many times today to keep up with it) and walking in the snow. It took me a few potholders to get used to the Singer again. I actually had to thread the needle! And it is a bit sluggish compared to the Brother. But truly, I was thrilled to have a machine to sew on and we were back at it after a while just like old times.