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I’ve just glanced over the front page and noticed that I said “I’m too old for …” at least twice. Well sod it, I’m too young to be saying that so often – 43 in 2 days, which means I’m not even in my MID-forties yet, let alone “too old” for anything but the monkey bars and fairybread.
night Home & hosed from Port Mac. I think I am officially too old to be sleeping on floors any more, even upon an alleged mattress. This was somewhat confirmed when I glanced in the mirror in the loos and realised how bloody GREY I’ve gone. I hereby withdraw prior griping about ill-lit bathrooms: I preferred not knowing. Yet another thing to add to the list of stuff telling me to pull my finger out – c’mon girl, do, do, do! Running out of time, do, do, do! Got to make your babies proud, do, do, do! Why yes, sometimes my inner voices do sound rather like peculiar children’s books. ANYWAY. Quite a few people were deeply enamoured of the carousel horse (an unsurprising percentage were under 4′ tall). Spent a fair bit of time explaining what I’d done & how, and what was going to happen next, and what the alternatives might be. One woman said she’s not a quilter and doesn’t even really sew, but she does decoupage and is therefore fascinated by the idea that you can basically decoupage fabric for wallhangings. Hopefully all the expressions of interest in a pattern will actually fork over once I’ve produced one :) Ditto the dragons. They always get a lot of attention, for some reason. I think it’s the eyes mostly, to be honest, like it’s apparently never occurred to most quilters that you can use weird stuff like marbles in your work. They do make a massive difference, I must admit – I remember when I finally put the marbles in it was like the dragons came to life instead of just being a picture. As well as the usual harassment for a pattern, I got a commission for a new design: a lady named Griffin wants me to design her a griffin/gryphon/griffon wallhanging. She’s quite happy for me to make it into a pattern for sale, possibly because it’ll reduce the cost of commission heh. The trees got quite a bit of attention too, mostly from the hippie/new-agey artier types. I get kind of a kick out of trying to guess what’s going to appeal to which subset of potential customers. I’m keen to get back to the trees actually, after all the recent lairy prettypretty stuff for ellybellanorah. Although, ahem, I did buy some GORGEOUS gorgeous gorgeous fat quarters today, in delicious yellow-orange-pinks of that Indian spice variety. I thought I might try and do something a bit geometric and trad with them. I also picked up nearly $200 worth of prints for $60 from an ex-customer who sold her store last year and sells her remaining stock at shows like this. I could easily have spent 2 or 3 times that amount, especially on flannels. Picked up a metric buttload of threads too at 50c each (~$2.70 retail), so I have no excuse not to do more threadpainting etc now. The prints are to be honest most likely to end up as cushion covers etc for my own use, because I’m well sick of having a boringass house. Exception is the two adorably cute cot panels; I’ll be knocking those up into inexpensive quilts for (hopefully!) quick sale at Connie’s.
Anyway. It was made in 3 sections. The background is mostly foundation-pieced onto some stupidly, annoyingly thin muslin (the sort you strain gravy with, not quilter’s muslin). The tiles on the floor are needleturned though, because I wanted that worn/hand-hewn wiggly edge. The background was freehand machine-quilted with snippets of verse etc I’d found all over the net, bits from the Song of Solomon & all sorts, starting with “the great look of love”. After that was finished, I stitched on the translucent wing fabric (handpainted rayon: I went hardcore “no synthetics!” on this for some reason. Insanity, most likely) and then did the wingstruts needleturn-with-trapunto.
The eyes are those flat-backed glass marbles you put in vases, with some gold satin & catseye pupils behind. I built the heads up with gaps between the pieces so you can see this mottley red fabric behind – I wanted it to look sort of like when you put a torch under your chin, or like when the surface of cooling lava cracks.
the top’s finished, yay. On display at our stall at the Port MacQuarie quilt show this weekend, and then I’ll quilt & finish it next week.
I really hope I can get a decent photo of it before I start sewing (in case I bollix it heh): the colours are much prettier IRL, and it’s a buttload less blurry (stupid rassafrassin camera). Tomorrow wendy. am really trying to get this finished by tomorrow night, so this won’t be a long post. Completely changed my mind about the background, which of course meant spending hours and hours trying to find the perfect set of alternative fabrics. It is just plain ridiculous that I dye & paint fabric for sale, keep far too much of the really beautiful stuff for myself, have access to the stuff mum keeps for herself AND to our two stashes of commercial fabric, and on top of that spend too much money at my friend’s fabric shop, and yet still get stumped for days due to lack of the exactly right fabric.
Apologies for the blurry pics, my camera’s not playing nice today & I don’t have time to futz. You’ll have guessed by the absence of self-congratulation and photographic evidence that I didn’t get the curtains finished by her birthday. I don’t think anybody’s that surprised – I’d have been SO proud of myself for getting something done by deadline for once if I had, and I may even have managed it this time, but I failed to allow for both of us getting miserably sick so eh. In any case, she’s pretty impressed with her special new princess bed as is.
waiting for the antibiotics to kick in. Zonked from the pain tab, which I needed because between my ear and my throat I couldn’t function. Trying to figure out how I’m going to finish these stripey curtains is a bitch when my brain is apparently swelling enough to push my eyeballs out of my head. I think I’m going to make a buttload of very pointy triangles, of the prints, and attach them as a kind of fringe into the black border. I may even get excited later and stitch a bell to the end of each triangle. Right now I’m going to bed, having accomplished sod all today other than figuring out that a) headcolds suck b) my brain sucks when I have a cold c) you take the stupid dual-feed foot OFF when you want to use embroidery stitches, moron; you don’t ring mummy and after whining about DYING I TELL YOU DYING take ages trying to figure out what’s wrong with the machine while she naturally assumes you’re not a complete bloody dumbass so of course you’re using the embroidery foot which is specifically for (shock! surprise!) embroidery. ever tried sewing with a miserable, snotty, overtired, snotty, wailing, drooling toddler on your lap? Did I mention snotty? Very snotty. The drooling is courtesy of the postnasal drip and inability to breathe through her nose getting too much for her, so she just goes screw this and wails about the snot & drool waterfall. Makes you wanna have kids, dunnit? Sewing with small person on lap not so successful. Progress has slowed a lot, so I’ve gone from “wow, I have enough time to actually get most of this stuff done by her birthday (Good Friday)” to “shitshitshit, what can I get done by her birthday? am I going to get the hanging finished by the SHOW, even??” Compounded by the delight of my life giving me her godawful cold, probably as a result of my clothes being covered in her effluvia every time she wants a cuddle. Which is often, because she’s sick. Doesn’t matter how often you wash your hands when it’s EVERYWHERE, man. EVERYWHERE! GERMS! Icky human waste crud! I deserve a freakin medal for not giving in to my squeamishness, I tellya. ODE TO THINGS I HAVE A CRAZY Crazy love of things. I like pliers, and scissors. I love cups rings and bowls - not to speak, of course, of hats. I love all things, not just the grandest, also the infinitely small- thimbles, spurs, plates, and flower vases. Oh yes, the planet is sublime! It's full of pipes weaving hand-held through tobacco smoke, and keys and salt shakers- everything, I mean, that is made by the hand of man, every little thing: shapely shoes, and fabric, and each new bloodless birth of gold, eyeglasses, carpenter's nails, brushes, clocks, compasses, coins, and the so-soft softness of chairs. Mankind has built oh so many perfect things! Built them of wool and of wood, of glass and of rope: remarkable tables, ships, and stairways. I love all things, not because they are passionate or sweet-smelling but because, I don't know, because this ocean is yours, and mine: these buttons and wheels and little forgotten treasures, fans upon whose feathers love has scattered its blossoms, glasses, knives and scissors- all bear the trace of someone's fingers on their handle or surface, the trace of a distant hand lost in the depths of forgetfulness. I pause in houses, streets and elevators, touching things, identifying objects that I secretly covet: this one because it rings, that one because it's as soft as the softness of a woman's hip, that one there for its deep-sea color, and that one for its velvet feel. O irrevocable river of things: no one can say that I loved only fish, or the plants of the jungle and the field, that I loved only those things that leap and climb, desire, and survive. It's not true: many things conspired to tell me the whole story. Not only did they touch me, or my hand touched them: they were so close that they were a part of my being, they were so alive with me that they lived half my life and will die half my death. - Pablo Neruda found here the Birthday Box arrived today, from the pook’s “Damma” in the USA, and of course I couldn’t resist peeking at all the clothes etc. Lo & behold, but there was also a set of these: how cool is that? I may have to nip down to spotlight & see if I can find some of these ones to go with them: There’s one flower fairies book that won’t be sacrificed for decor, I guess … I’ve been cutting out very many vliesofixed butterflies from various print fabrics, the last few days. I’m not sure how many of them will end up on this hanging, but some will (the rest may end up on the unicorn wallhanging that’s next on the todo list). Anyway. What little girl can resist butterflies? Dozens of butterflies? And not “Ehnor’s big scary yucky butterfly” (I have no idea, but whatever it is lives in the loungeroom when the lights are out. Trust my daughter to have a butterfly monster), but pretty sparkly bright soft butterflies! That don’t move or fly or twitch or do anything else disconcerting!
This would be the butterfly foiled net print I finally succumbed to. I’d been looking for an excuse to buy it since C got it in, and between her dramas and this project, who could ask for better? In the bottom corner are the pretty lei to be cannibalised for decorating the mozzie net. Here’s one of the striped panels, slung over the ironing board while I try to figure out what the hell to do next :)
Painted some fabric silvery grey blend with bare washes of pastels in a few spots, and chucked on a bunch of salt esp in the darkest areas & left it to dry.
Am trying to get it finished for her birthday, and if not by the actual day (less than a week now!) then by the following weekend because we’re doing a show and I’m turning it (and the rest of the drawings) into a pattern for sale. I do like it when I can make things do double duty!
Painted the bookcase and her wee rocking chair to match (altho it was dark when I did the rocking chair, so I really need to do some fixin lol). They kind of look eastery, a teeny bit brighter than sugared almonds, so I’m tickled. Have a little round “petticoat” table that I will also paint to match for her nightstand. May decoupage the top (or maybe the legs?) with this absolutely adorable curly-multicoloured-streamers giftwrap I found the other day, not sure. Shall see.
Anyway. Have almost finished the stripey curtains (trans: the stripes themselves are finished), am fairly happy with them. Exceeeeept that I forgot the rule for sewing strips together: alternate the direction you sew in (bottom to top one strip, top to bottom the next, for instance) or it all pulls ever so slightly off at an angle. A nicely cumulative angle. Don’t even ask how blue the air was when I realised, cripes I’m an idiot sometimes. Hopefully mum can help me figure out a fix that doesn’t involve unpicking, because that just isn’t going to happen. So yay, the thing I envisioned came true as hoped for, but boo, I’m a dick and did a weird thing to make it not totally freakin brilliant. … what a nong I am, and even if you do, I’m not going to tell you. I owe apologies to WordPress, b2evolution, Nucleus and whateverthehellelse it was I installed and couldn’t get working properly, for all the verbal abuse. I’m not going to embarrass myself by going into details, but if you know your rewrite rules from a hole in the ground, you can probably guess what I did (or more accurately, forgot to undo/modify). |
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