Homecoming

It was good to see Matthew again after his Guatemala adventure. He'll be here for just a few days before he makes good on a many-years-long decision to move to Las Vegas. It'll be sad for us to see him leave the area permanently. Fortunately, we visit the Las Vegas area frequently, and so we'll see him often even after his move. Also, as we discovered with his Guatemala trip, he's only a phone call away.

We had a good lunch of Korean food, and he brought some beautiful hand-dyed and hand-woven fabrics from Guatemala. I took them outside to get a good picture of their colors Look at how pretty these are:

This next one has a metallic gold stripe through it.

I wasn't able to capture it with photography, but it has some sparkle (about an inch wide) where I've indicated with an arrow in the image below. You can make out the strip of lighter threads, and those add some sparkle to the piece.

Already, I know just what to do with these. I'll probably get started on it as soon as I've finished up with the Pansy Mosaic, which is currently taking up all the space on my sewing table. First, though, I wondered what y'all think of this. Being hand-died and hand-woven, they aren't like manufactured fabrics with a tightly woven selvage. The edges are hemmed on some, and on others, left kind of raw, like in the image below.

Since I'll want to wash and pre-shrink them in the washing machine, what would you do to protect these edges? Pinking shears? Stitch a line of stitching? Enclose in a mesh bag? All of the above? None of the above? I'm curious to get your input about this.

The only other thing I did yesterday was to finish off the third section of the pansy mosaic. Here, the greens have been introduced.

Now the first three sections are sewn together. The purple pansy has just a little bit left at the bottom, and the yellow pansy is starting to appear.

This morning, I'm heading off to the Farmer's Market with Erik and Mae. I'm not really sure what fruits and veggies will be available so early in the season, but it's always fun to meet up with Erik and Mae and enjoy a good breakfast. I'll probably spend a good part of the afternoon in the garden planting the last of the annuals, and I must check on things in the greenhouse. If there's time, I'll get back to my sewing.