The shortest day?

This is not an obscure reference to the end of the world, which had better get a move on if it is going to happen, except that, if it's based on Mayan time, we have to make allowances for their day ending several hours after midnight GMT.

It is an even more obscure reference to the fact that 35 some years ago I was experiencing one of the longest days of my life, which started in the small hours and ended a long time later, after a lot of swearing and yelling, with a bouncing baby boy. Of course he isn't really 35, it just isn't possible....

Happy Birthday, Cheese Major, so glad that after a few rough years things seem to be looking up for you.

Things are looking fairly good at Cheese Acres too. 

Page 1 is finished, apart from having some stiffening and a backing added, which won't happen until the very end.

A considerable amount of unpicking went into this, so even though it doesn't quite lie flat, it's staying that way. I have been called many things in my life, but 'perfectionist' is not one of them. (I actually typed 'peefectionist' which I rather like, but I'm not one of those either...)

And I've made a good start on page 2. In the chilly fastnesses of Wednesday night - or perhaps Thursday morning - I came up with the idea of making a stamp with Softsculpt from page I. 

So I did. 

Well, several stamps, because when I was searching for the Softsculpt, I found some Magicstamp shapes as well. Anyone else have stuff they don't remember buying?)

The result of the printing was rather paler I'd hoped, perhaps because the fabric paint is several years old, but paler was better  than too strong.  

Then, as I was reading old embroidery magazines in bed, I came across an article about Italian quilting - so the phantom tubes have been Italian quilted. (I hope you are impressed by the months of forethought and planning which go into my design process.)

As this is the only time I've ever done any IQ apart from C&G , when I used a sewing machine and a twin needle, and the result was very tight, I'm not quite sure to do with the ends. The book I consulted suggested quilting wool or piping cord, and as I had lots of the latter and none of the former, piping cord it was. The drawback to this is that piping cord is very prone to unravelling. I've left the ends quite long for now, but when I've had enough wine to stiffen my sinews, I think I will probably tack the ends to the backing fabric before I trim them a bit shorter. Then some random arrow stitches in the background and page 2 will be done. However, if I don't get it done tonight it will have to wait till next week, as we are having two small guests for a couple of days and I suspect there will be other things on my mind.

The small hours search for Softsculpt was productive in other ways. Not only did I throw away some things I won't ever use (feathers and tomato paste tubes, mostly) but I also found several packets of skeleton leaves left over from C&G, which will be useful for the next session of the Contemporary Textile Workshop. For once we've been told more or less what we'll be doing, so with any luck I will not be taking masses of stuff I decide isn't right when I get there. (As it isn't until the middle of January, perhaps I have been guilty of forethought and planning after all?)