After six nights in the dark, my power returned last night. I am immensely grateful that my house escaped the widespread devastation that can be found in my community. I've posted my photos of the devastation and its aftermath to Flickr; I did not seek out damage for photography purposes, but it was everywhere I went. it took a few days to rescue Tenzing from the vet's, thanks to this mess in front of their building:

Lucky house, lucky vet.
at , Rainbow, Alabama, United States by domesticat.
['Lucky house, lucky vet']

Tenzing was so panicked and stressed when I was finally able to get him that he'd wet himself, poor thing. I got him home, helped him clean himself up a bit, and then he sulked off to the back of the house for a few hours to calm down and regroup. After that, he was fine, but I can reassure you that he spent most of our powerless time milking his OMFG I Was Stranded At Teh Vet's drama for all it was worth:

Traumatized
by domesticat.
['Traumatized']

There was much cuddling, once he calmed down. I had candles and plenty of fabric to cut, so in the evening hours, while both the dark and the curfew were firmly in place, I got to work cutting fabrics for Pentatonic and Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, my two insanely complicated quilt projects that I've been putting off for far too long.

A dark, quiet workspace
by domesticat.
['Pentatonic in Progress']

During the days we had no power, and I had nowhere to go, I opened up the windows to the house -- thank goodness our powerless time was filled with blue skies and fresh breezes! -- and worked in my new sewing room. Cutting, cutting, cutting. I couldn't sew, but I could prepare to do so, and I got plenty done:

Cutting for Pentatonic
by domesticat.
['Cutting for Pentatonic']

Last night, we had our first electrified evening since the storms, and I gave myself a treat. I had hot food! A cold drink! (Okay, I also cleaned out the fridge ... not so yummy.) I sorted through the piles and piles of rhombs I cut for Pentatonic, and started finding sets that worked together. I wanted to try sewing a medallion from Pentatonic, just to see if my custom-made acrylic templates (laser cut via ponoko.com) were as accurate as I hoped. Pentatonic is intentionally simple: two riotously multicolored fabrics plus a white background:

Perhaps, perhaps, a center star.
by domesticat.
['Perhaps, perhaps, a center star.']

I am not fussy-cutting the fabrics, just creating pieces, and sorting them roughly by color. I'll be able to do blue stars, green stars, purple stars, pink stars -- and they'll all have a gentle coherency of color. I'm pleased to see it works when sewn the same way it worked in my head. I've got a long way to go before I'll get to this point, but it is comforting to know that my pattern pieces work as well as I'd hoped. Last night, when I was sewing, I thought back to Penmanship, and thought, "Yep, this feels familiar. It's finicky, but it's just a Penrose. I know how to do this now."

Screenshot on white
by domesticat.
['Screenshot on white']