Short week

Well, now that my panda is done,  I’m trying to decide what to work on next.  Currently working on?  Nothing! I’m just watching Walk the Line. Two of my favorite actors in a movie about Johnny Cash, one of my favorite musicians.  Pretty awesome.

1) I must clean up the couch first.  We have two smaller couches in our living room, a sort of L-shaped sectional type thing.   One is now entirely covered with yarn and amigurumi accessories.  My husband has been heard to voice one or two complaints.

2) I have two small cats to crochet next. They’re part of my cat memorial project.  You see, Caper also had a brother once upon a time, so my project must be about them both. Both cats were black.  I’ll tell you, if black cats are really bad luck, I’m sunk.

3) Next I’m going to have to do some mending.  Buttons, zippers, hems.  Mending projects, I must confess, are the only reason I ever regret knowing how to sew.  Mending is awful.  I mean, it’s really not, but I do not like it.

4) ??? Don’t know what project I will attempt next, but I think it might finally be time to start my flower project challenge I made back in the spring.  I had a lot of stuff lined up in front of that, but I think it’s time.  I have about 400 ideas, so the first thing I’m going to have to do is whittle that down.

I <3 fabric

Good day for fabric! I’m generally excited about fabric and nothing is more interesting than new fabric techniques & types. I do love exploration of new stuff.

FIRST: in my wandering I discovered the wonder that is Ah! Kimono, which is a site that will sell you pieces of fabric from kimonos. I received my first package of fabrics (<– over there) with a lovely note this week. These are all green-hued, about 9″ x 9″ and I think (totally not sure!) they’re silk. Let me just tell you that my photo does not do these fragments justice. They’re beautiful, and have awesome texture and sheen. One is pebbly and rough and thin, another is thick and silky…

Having a weakness for fabric, I joined Ah! Kimono’s quarterly fabric club. I did that so that I wouldn’t be able to choose what colors or styles I get. I have a bad habit of picking the same things over and over, and I thought this would be a great chance to get something new and unexpected to play with. What will I do with it? I don’t know. I have an idea about a skirt, but that’s as far as I’ve gotten.

Also! SECOND. I got this book in: Fabric Art Workshop by Susan Stein. Very nice. I’ve looked through it about 5 times today since I got it. Fabric painting is something I’ve done a little, but technique and materials was sketchy for me. This clears some questions up, while giving me new ideas about things to try for decorating fabric. Like dyeing fabric with rust, that’s a new one. Got plenty of materials around here for that idea.

I ordered the book because I was curious about some techniques I saw reading a recent issue of Cloth P aper Scissors that I picked up (not the current one, the one with the yellow birdhouse on the front). If you haven’t seen it, it’s a lovely mixed-media magazine from Quilting Arts, seems like a nice bridge between sewing and painting.

So clearly I’m not doing well on the “fewer things to do” classification of life, but hey, I don’t actually have any fabric paint right now, so at least I can’t hare off to do it right now. The kimono fabric, on the other hand…

Fleurs and a Personal Challenge

Aaand, spring ….. go!  Aaaah, I love spring so much!  So much so much so much.  Flowers have to be the best thing ever.  April in central Texas has to be the most beautiful thing.  So, I have made a resolution.  I am going to pick five pictures and do something art-and-or-craft-ish with them.  Dunno what, but I’ll do something.  OK, and Picture #1 doesn’t count, because Audrey is just adorable.

#1 - I love the delicate white and the blue of the sky, and the rich greens, and dots of flowers.  That’s the best.  This was so wonderful in the breeze, the petals fluttering about.

#2 - Indian blanket.  I chose this because this daisy-ish flower is one of my very favorites, but also because of the many textures of this shot, from the petal veins to the spiky bits in the center, to the soft and delicate aspect of the petals.

#3 - Have to research what this flower is.  I like the blue/yellow element, and that there are several blooms on a tall stalk.

#4 - Strong color, simplicity of elements, strong shape, slight petal texture.  Clarity of color, mostly.

#5 - I like the varying shapes in this picture, from the stalk to the long, slender, dark leaves, to the flowers with multiple types and colors of petals, to the darker red unopened buds, and of course the dark, sunlit browns of the ground.

Interested to see what I’ll come up with.  I think I’m going to have to get out some floss.  Maybe some special fabric … hrm …