Pre-Sandy preparations: Part II

So far no power outage...plenty of time to do October's free-motion challenge. I had spent some time doing the paper prep-work with Child the Younger this week, while Child the Elder had his piano lesson. Here's my practice job:

Kind of like a zentangle. I like this style.

I scavenged up a scrap of navy silk from when I sewed my husband's academic regalia robes, and sandwiched it with two layers of batting. I didn't have any wool or silk or bamboo, so I just used two layers of low loft poly. Close enough for an emergency pre-storm situation.

I started with some nice 12-wt Sulky as the border, then switched to a 30-wt blue for the first step. I didn't want to do my name, in case it came out well enough to frame, so I used a nice studio-wall word:

I switched back and forth several times between the two weights of Sulky blendables, some regular sewing-weight Gutermann, and the rayon Sulky that I use for embroidery. I decided to work on my bubbles, since those are sort of tricky for me. This time I focused on varying their size, and I like how it turned out. I also tried a few new motifs, including the checkerboard and the clamshells at the top. I really love the nautilus - it's a fast way to fill in irregular spaces. The one on the right is one that I developed on paper, as a fill-in for wavy but mostly straight areas (like tree trunks). My son and I have christened it "mermaid's tail." 

This little project is a keeper! I'm so happy with how it came out that I'm going to frame it and hang it above my cutting table.

Take THAT, Sandy! October projects are done!