Gettin’ organized.

Okay, long hours of getting organized. Again. I had to take my old jeans organizer down, because rats. Yes, they discovered it and started using it as a climbing wall. Wheee! Not so whee for me. Got that back up, because now I can close the door, and the magical climbing wall goes away for the night. This holds only the thread I’m using for the Tree Quilt. The Peace Quilt thread is in a large container of its own; the rest of my embroidery thread is in a 6 drawer cart. So, on with the organization:

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Then it was time to sort through and organize all the vintage thread I’ve come across in thrift stores:

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Then I tackled the small bag of perle 3 from Kestrel. That contained 170 skeins. I’m going to need a lot more containers before I tackle the big bag.

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Click for full size. © C. Ford, all rights reserved.

Box of Joy, Part II.

From Marcus, resin-metal (stainless and nickel steel) wondrousness! (Yes, one of them is upside down, because it’s for adult eyes only.) They need a bit of polishing with steel wool, which is being lovingly done by Rick. The Buddha was first, and now has a place of honour on my desk shelves, because he just makes me happy. Thank you, Marcus!

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Of course I did.

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While figuring out what colours I wanted for the next background piece, I came across a very small amount of the ultra very light mocha. Of course I did. So, as that’s what I need more of to finish this particular bit of background, I’ll get a couple more lines done on it now. Clickety for full size. © C. Ford. All rights reserved.

Botched Fresco Opera.

Cecilia Giménez's paintings. Arnau Bach / New York Times.

Cecilia Giménez’s paintings. Arnau Bach / New York Times.

Andrew Flack and Paul Fowler are currently working on a comic opera about Giménez’s life and how the mistake that initially horrified her (and the internet) ended up saving her small town from an economic slump, The New York Times reports. The painting, which was mocked in memes, a Saturday Night Live segment, and with comparisons to the 1997 film Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie, became a tourist attraction that spurred a 1,000 percent increase in visits to the local medieval art museum and revitalized the town’s restaurant business.

When the pair began work on the musical in 2014, Flack told the Times, “It’s a story of faith. … Why are people coming to see it if it is such a terrible work of art? It’s a pilgrimage of sorts, driven by the media into a phenomenon. God works in mysterious ways. Your disaster could be my miracle.”

The real story is full of dramatic tidbits, like local wineries bickering over the right to display “Potato Jesus” on their wine labels. Also, the two-faced priest who initially threw Giménez under the bus by denying that he gave her permission to work on the fresco ended up banished from town — he was accused of embezzling 168,000 euros from the church.

Most compellingly, it seems as though the whole scandal occurred because photos of the fresco were released long before Giménez had finished her attempted restoration. Her other artwork is gorgeous! I can’t wait to see how the fictional Giménez’s heroic redemption plays out.

The Verge has the full story. Given the er, botch of styles to be all mixed together in this opera, I hope it works out for everyone.

Marvel Fan-Fiction and Scottish Indies.

Cover for All-New, All-Different Avengers Annual #1. Illustrated by Alex Ross. Photo courtesy of Marvel Comics.

Cover for All-New, All-Different Avengers Annual #1. Illustrated by Alex Ross. Photo courtesy of Marvel Comics.

‘Annual’ releases exist in a strange place in the comic world. Created as a way to tell a different story in a series without interrupting the main plotline or numbering, some see annuals as a marketing gimmick. But, as evidenced by All-New, All-Different Avengers Annual #1, they can be a bold chance to think outside the box. This issue sees everyone’s favorite teen from Jersey City, Ms. Marvel, logging onto her favorite fan-fiction website to write some stories about her fellow heroes. Once logged on, she sees that other people have written stories about her and her friends, and she’s shocked but compelled to read on. The rest of this comic, then, are those fan-fiction stories of Marvel heroes. Layered, and with plenty of goofiness and a variety of styles, this annual does exactly what it should: it tells weird stories the regular comics certainly couldn’t.

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