Beautiful floaty things

It's only 22 degrees right now, but at least 10 degrees warmer than Saturday, when it didn't get above 15. Unbelievably cold for Seattle. We just stayed inside most of the weekend.

My new sewing machine. It looks fancy, but it only does basic stuff, like the old Singer I grew up with. Of course, it's built nothing like that heavy metal machine that could grind through layers of corduroy and denim. 

That old Singer was finicky but my sister and I put it to constant use. Throw-away fashion and polyester didn't exist yet. We bought cotton and wool fabric in the basement of Woolworths, and sewed many a cheap outfit in high school. 

Like my prom dress, age 15. Fully-lined blue eyelet, lace trim. Quite a project. I remember like yesterday Mom taking that picture, while I proudly posed with the geranium. White gloves a cute touch.

I'm not a recreational seamstress these days, but a sewing machine is a useful tool if you need to mend something or make a simple project. I had an awful electronic Brother machine (bought at Costco years ago) which was always flashing error codes and jamming up thread. I dreaded hauling it out, it was nothing but frustration. It had 250 decorative stitches and a confusing pile of feet and attachments. Anyway, good riddance-- now donated it to a local charity chop.

So far so good on this new Singer. Saturday afternoon I made new fleece covers for our collection of little TV watching pillows. I didn't swear once.

Sunday was still way below freezing but bright and sunny. We ventured downtown in the afternoon to the Seattle Art Museum. We usually do those excursions early to avoid crowds, but I didn't think it would be so busy on a frigid day in January.

Wrong. The museum was jammed-packed with a long line snaking through the galleries to see an exhibit inspired by Hokusai's famous "Wave" woodblock. You know it from endless coffee mugs, scarves, shower curtains and puzzles. The real "Wave" picture wasn't even there, so it seemed like quite a fuss.

Anyway, we mostly wanted to see the Shirley Family Calder Collection, currently on loan. On his death, it will be generously donated to the museum. Jon Shirley was the chief operating officer and executive director at Microsoft in the 1990's. He is a big collector of many fine things, most notably, modern sculpture. 

Calling these works of art "mobiles" doesn't do them justice. They are beautiful, engineering perfection. Just fascinating. And Calder could do amazing things with a wire coat hanger.

After that, we briefly went over to the Market, more crowds, more long lines snaking down the sidewalk for everything from clam chowder to piroshky to the opportunity to spend money in the original Starbucks. Many Seattle tourists, even in the dead of winter. Everyone reads the same guidebooks. Visitors find our Pike Place Market entrancing, but the grumpy old-timers still miss the old authentic place, where you actually went to buy produce and fish. And bags of beans at Starbucks, the only store in town.