Do you still call it “material”? Fabric indulgence.

Was flipping through some Google pages when my attention was grabbed by this pleasant- looking fabric:

Rather pleasant, I think

I’ve been picking out some fabrics for a couple of projects as I received a little cash for some work I did a while ago. Treats come rarely around here at the moment, so I’m indulging myself in small doses.

I get regular updates via email from Duck Cloth and saw some things I rather fancied for clothes sewing and some crafting. They arrived last Friday and I’ve been looking at them alongside some pieces I already have. My inclination is to make a Red Diamonds Quilt like the Kaffe Fassett classic from the original “Patchwork” book.

For a clutch of red fabrics I’ll need a few more new bits (whee!) so I ordered a few from Kelani Fabrics and have spotted some beauties at Fifi’s Fabriholics. For my (smaller) version of the Red Diamonds quilt

Kaffe Fassett Red Diamonds

I’ll need 9 diamonds in each of 14 colours. Already I can see 5 fabrics in the (visible part of) stash, so I need maybe 6 more to make a good selection to choose from. They all have to be fairly dense and vivd- not many white splashes of baby colours in the prints. It looks as though alternating very small and large prints by rows is one technique I could use, but I’ll decide when I have a mass of diamonds cut out to play with

Quite often I decide I will make an item of clothing incorporating some craft fabric to get a different look. Too bad if people look at me and think I’m wearing a quilt- I like to experiment; if I like it, the garment gets finished; if I don’t it might get chopped up for a quilt later! I bought a piece of Nani Iro double gauze

Nani Iro Fuccra teal

as I thought it would combine nicely with some navy blue ribbed interlock and make a nice summer skirt. I also bought some of a new Valori Wells large print of flowers and birds for the same purpose.

Valori Wells Linen/cotton

Meanwhile, I’m completing a floral skirt for which I made up the pattern as I went along! I wanted it to be easy, wit at least a partially elastic waist to avoid zips. I figured out I’d have a small curved yoke in front and a gathered back straight from the elastic. None of my friends ever wear gathered skirts as I do- I think its because they feel tey have big thighs and bums and they want to look narrower. My thighs and bum are quite small compared with the top of me, so I puff out my bottom half a bit and try to reduce the top by using darker colours and fitted sleeves- no billowy details! Since I’m very short, I don’t bother trying to increase the illusion of height- its a lost cause; just concentrating on getting a balance of top and bottom is enough.

Now to find those links and images to show you what I’ve been on about.

Day 6 NaBloPoMo: Without sight- I wouldn’t want to live.

Which of my senses would I miss most- sight, definitely- I truly would rather die than not be able to see.

All my life I have been a lover of colour- and bright colour, at that. No matter what the fashion or decorating trend, I like certain colours and combinations of colours above others- I love to design colour combinations for just about everything possible. I also love reading and finding things on the interwebs- without sight, all that would be lost to me. Knowledge is a great value for me too and I need my eyes to voraciously devour anything I can get my hands on. My job used to be very much knowledge-based (health research) and I would love to get another job in that area when I finish my Masters degree shortly. Merely filing and classifying things, or doing things using someone else’s ideas soon depresses me so I couldn’t get a job like that. However, when I don’t have a job (and I’m happy enough) I enjoy a myriad of things that revolve around vision.

It’s always great to move into a new place as I can give vent to my crazy colour sense. In our current house, I started painting it as soon as I could, although things came to a halt before We had finished. One day soon I’ll get going on it again. The outside of the house is OK as the previous person did it- variegated brown bricks with black window frames and doors. On the inside, it needed some pizazz! It was various shades of cream throughout with puke-beige window frames and skirting boards- blerghhh. I’ve changed the skirting boards and window frames to a greyed sea-green, planning on dark lipstick internal doors (we only have 4). In the front room, where we enter, the walls are a clear pale aqua and we’ve hung some screenprints of sandhills. In our combined kitchen/dining/TV area we have bright wall, the colour of orange peel!

In our previous house (a modern apartment with bedrooms on the mezzanine) we did the whole place in bright Mexican colours. There were 3 areas- one in deep turquoise blue,

another in dark, cool pink and another in terracotta. It looked great together! All the other apartments were bland white and grey- depressing!

I go searching for inspiring colour combinations on the Net sometimes, and on one foray I discovered Kuler. It is a colour-freak’s dream! You can play with the spectrum, using any shade or hue, extract the main colours from a photograph and get ideas from other people’s colour swatches. I have spent hours doodling around there- much to my partner’s puzzlement!

Isn’t this summery?:

Surf ski

Unfortunately I can’t make the images appear in here as Adobe has encoded them for use only in Adobe programs- more’s the pity! However, visit the Kuler site and have a look- heaven!

My hobbies usually involve colour- knitting, sewing, felting, a little painting and drawing, making kiln-formed glass and shape comes second. When I wanted a theme for a new garden after we had built a new house on an empty block, it was colour that came first, then adapting the type of plants for the climate, space and aspect. I tried very hard to obtain plants that would survive in the colours I thought would work. At our second house, once we had arrived for the handover of the keys from the builder, the first person on site was a petition-bearer from local residents objecting to the colours we had the house painted. (!!!) Although the house was the first on a new estate and at least 200 metres from any others, and the road past it was a cul de sac, the residents claimed our colour choices were decreasing property values, were “ugly”, “tasteless” and “too bright!! We had a cream rendered house with deep turquoise eaves, paler blue window frames and a bright yellow front door. Eventually we persuaded people that the colours were inspired by Mediterranean homes (it IS a Mediterranean climate here and about a quarter of the residents originated in Italy or Greece) and we only conceded to change the shade of yellow of the front door. We figured they wouldn’t go to the trouble of getting a court order and so we made the front door a more gentle golden wheat colour. I wish I had a photo- but I’d have to scan an old print and it wouldn’t be done in time!

Anyway, sight wins for me over sound/hearing although I have a degree majoring in music! While I can reproduce quite complex sounds in my head, I’m not nearly so good as with colours and visual stuff generally. If I went blind I could listen to music but I couldn’t produce or consume luscious colours any more. Nor could I read to fill my brain and keep it pulsing! Taste and smell would be a problem to lose, but I’ve had many times in my life where these were blunted by illness and I didn’t pine a lot for them. Touch has never been at the forefront for me, although without the feeling of pain I might damage myself irretrievably, like the crazy brother in the Steig Larsson trilogy. Due to the way I was brought up, it always puzzled me when people hugged each other. It was only when I got to the age of 25 that I found someone who could “make me feel something” when I was hugged! I have no memories of being hugged before that age and there are no baby pictures of me being held warmly- more stiffly or away from the body. So I can certainly live without that again- with some regret, but not devastation!

It seems as though I’ve spent far too much time on this blog, so I’d better do something else- it WILL be visual!

Seeya damorra!

 

Backing up to slam the knockbacks

This last week I’ve actually got a few things started. Even a few finished- the black delustred satin jacket for the wedding last Saturday was a major victory; but circumstances have been knocking me back at a rate of knots. If you’ve read UADLTAE before, you’ll know I have major probs doing anything due to inability to summon up enough motivation- and also that I HATE setbacks (grrrr- need an emoticon…).

OK- I got all fired up (pun…???) and put my dark blue glass into the kiln to finish my friend’s Christmas present from LAST YEAR. I had delayed doing this for various reasons- mainly trepidation that the whole thing would smash if I tried to drill out the large air bubbles in the glass that occurred mainly around the palladium leaf inclusions. So, worked myself into a Dremel frenzy and attacked the bubbles- tool- tick; assembled correctly…after a few tries to get the drill spinning… tick; water flowing across the surface…partial tick- difficult using electricity and glass; danged HARD glass to drill- skidding off the bubbles etc; finally.. tick!!! All the holes drilled and no smashing. Phew! Now- into the kiln…how the hell do I program a slump…Hmm- well to cut a long story short, I programmed, slumped and it was a bit overcooked. However, the bowl looks pretty good and only needs a few drag-trails ground back on the edges due to the slightly long holding time.

Leaf bowl

However, the lovely turquoise segmented bowl with the river running through it got quite overdone and is not good… Would take about 12 hours to redo to the same stage, and I haven’t got any more of the turquoise glass- would cost me a mint to buy at the moment… So there’s  a real knockback. I must go out there and retrieve it from the kiln and put it aside. My time would best be spent making something completely fresh and forgetting about that one, but it’s hard. It looked so pretty before slumping:

Aqua rivers

Now is the time to do something simple again- I might carry the idea of my Riverine tile on into some more dishes as lots of people liked it and it reminds me of my Colin Heaney bowl.

Another hiccup last night when I tried to start a knitted hat for a friend for Christmas- couldn’t find any circular knitting needles- not a sign of more than one spare straight needle in the whole house- what the?? Will try again today.

OK- so I can try to make some felt tree decorations for Christmas- I fancied some small owls and mooses, inspired by some photos on Flickr. Our Christmas tree always has multiple reindeer and mooses, with only a bit of extra tinsel and baubles. No Baby Jesus or Tree Fairy for us- just mooses!

Aha- another problem this year- our little pine trees outside in pots are looking half dead, so we need to buy a new tree or go artificial… I’d rather invest in a new live one, but expensive… hmmm.

I’ll just congratulate myself on having any motivation to do stuff at all and stop right here- I blogged as well- yeeharrr!!!