serene sunday

I just found the full version of my favourite definition of contentment and thought I’d share it. It’s from an ancient Chinese herbalist and Daoist.

KO HUNG: The contented can be happy with what appears to be useless. They can find worthwhile occupation in forests and mountains. They live among  the plain and refuse all trappings. They leave the jade in the mountains and the pearls in the sea. They can be happy in all circumstances, for they know when to stop – they do not pick the brief-blossoming flower or travel the dangerous road. The ten thousand possessions are dust in the wind and they sing as they travel the green mountains.

Sheltering branches are more comforting than red-gated mansions, a plough in the hand is more rewarding than the prestige of title or coat-of-arms, fresh mountain springs are more nourishing than the feasts of the wealthy. The contented move in complete freedom. Competition, comparison, greed and envy are meaningless to them. Through simplicity, they have found the way of effortless ease, and all things are clear to them: the light in the darkness, the clear in the clouded, the speed in the slowness, the full in the empty. The cook creating a meal has as much honour as a famous singer or high official. They live with no profit to gain, no salary to lose, without applause or criticism. Looking up is without envy, looking down is without arrogance. Though seen by all, they are singled out by none. Serene and detached, they are free from all danger, dragons hidden in plain view.

I find Daoism (sometimes spelt Taoism) a really rewarding philosophy to live by. When Andy died people all around me were asking how it could happen, which I found really bewildering, people die suddenly, and too young all the time, why should it not happen to someone I love? Daoism is very clear that stuff just happens, no blame, as the I Ching says, we do not draw bad fortune on us. There are consequences to our chosen actions – to smoke cigarettes is to risk lung cancer, to smoke cannabis in the new genetically modified form is to risk psychosis (I’ve seen it) but things that drop out of a clear blue sky are the odds of the universe playing out, and to know that is to be free of torturing self doubt when bad things happen. Of course it means you cannot protect yourself by saying such things cannot happen to you, but then, my experience is that things are random, and trying to say people draw bad stuff to them is truly abusive, like kicking someone who is already down, and thin as tissue paper for protecting yourself. Although I’ve seen a lot of people try to use it, I’ve never seen it work! One of the hardest things to cope with as a survivor is the randomness of what happened, you were the wrong person, in the wrong place, at the wrong time and that’s why building and rebuilding self esteem is so important. To be treated like nothing, makes you feel like nothing. But while society is such a mess, with so many false values of competition and greed running it, there will be bad stuff raining down, and sometimes it will be raining on you. To have reserves within yourself, to be self-constructive in the face of adversity is the only call you can make on yourself, to climb back up, and to find the friends who know that and admire the flowers in your garden and ignore the broken gate till you can fix it…that is the way to live well after the bad stuff happens. Well, I guess you see why contentment means so much to me now! Like serenity, it is to be treasured, and the amount I laughed with Andy was enormously more in 7 years than the 37 previous years: having both had bad times, we really enjoyed the good times together. And now it’s a different time, the time after him, every cell in my body changed by all that laughter, full of happy memories that make me a little or sometimes a lot sad, finding contentment where I can. Sequins still sparkle, fabrics and yarns still make me go OOOOOOOH! and there’s still a lot of beauty to midwife into the world….better go play!

crazed quilting photos

So, after a burst of string quilting, I had this, which I should have ironed, but knowing the embellishing and quilting would have a puffed and puckered effect, I didn’t bother

and went straight on to run some lines of automatic stitch patterns over the top – blanket, lazy daisy and ziggurat stitch in reds and variegated threads.

Then I dug out some thin wadding, a horrid Brentford Nylon sort of quilted stuff – uck! – and some upholstery cotton. If this is a cushion cover, it will be inside, but if it is a block for a quilt, I will be adding more wadding and a nice back. Then I changed the top thread to a gold ochre (like for jeans) and ran a hem round three sides of the square and straight lines down from the top to the open end. Then I sealed that open end – doing it that way avoids a lot of bumps and puckers or measuring, pinning, fuss, bother and itch…..

Now for some fun! Starting at an outside edge, at a medium speed lock stitch/ running stitch, I ran some swooping spirals round the block. Having an up/down needle button is very handy for this, to keep the fabric anchored as you lift the foot and turn the fabric. But once you’ve been round a couple of times, the fabric flattens and you can turn without raising the foot. Practice helps! You can see these spirals on the reverse, with pinking zigzag following them, and turning over to the front, that  zigzag is couching and anchoring the lovely Italian embellishing yarn I sold my shoes for at Heath’s Country Store in Ollerton. (Only jokes!)

This left a vacant circle at its centre, so I dug in my box of tryouts and found some leftovers, cut a disc and some trapeziums (eh? triangles with docked heads? why didn’t you just say that then?) and appliqued them to the gaps there and in the corners. And then I waited for PoetrySue to arrive and did a curtsey when she expressed her pleasure at this new trick! Seen from a distance it is very striking, with lots to look at closer….it isn’t perfect quilting, but it is a lot of fun and busted stash on fabric, wadding and yarn. More will follow!                    

cracked collarbone, crazy quilting

I cracked my collarbone again and have been feeling a bit glum cos  that means the house is getting messy again, as I dump piles of tat when I get tired, then blitz cleaning up, but the last stage staggers a bit, cos reaching over my head gets tricky….however, finding my missing  photo folders reminds me that I’ve done more than I remember this summer :

that’s very pleasing, and the coal hole

changed to a tidier version before becoming full of 2 cubic metres of firewood.

these are baby things and felt brooches I made one very productive fortnight, the sleepsack, playmat and pram toy are for my stepson’s new baby, expected any minute, I enjoyed the kantha cross stitch applique elephants, I don’t hand sew much, so it makes a change. I’ve started a tapestry, random not printed or planned, very slow going with my left hand but I’m trying to be kind to my right shoulder and collarbone. Can you hear the frustration? I have so many things to crack on with

But today I took the eyecandy in to Julia and she asked me to make another, longer scarf in deep purples – for her! What a compliment! So I came away very cheered up, and played a bit with string quilting tonight. Stash Manicure (sorry no link)  is my favourite blog at the moment and I have been reading back. So many of the quilters there make the point that your first step should be to shop from your stash but as my stash is mainly large remnants earmarked for projects, I’m a bit reluctant to chop them into little bits, it’s counter intuitive! But I read a great post on string quilting where you basically construct a new fabric from your trim offs and then cut a block out of the cloth. It doesn’t matter how random the pieces are, it‘s crazy quilting, but on a machine. So I decided to put that crazed spin on it

1 dig out the bags of trim offs and pull out two colour piles so you can work two blocks at once, but not get muddled – I chose blues & greens and orange & magentas & reds (!)

2 cut lengths that suit the fabric, eg a long skinny piece, two chunky blocks joined to make a longer strip

3 try and mix at least 6 fabrics up so that the repeats spread out, but don’t be too fussy about what clashes come, all will be well!

4 join the strips, my first section was a lot of strips about 6″/17cm long, by about 18″/55cm wide – try to keep your foldbacks all going the same way

5 trim the higgledy piggledy edges so you can fold a neat edge, you should iron this but I score it with my thumbnail and whistle Dixie and it seems to work (sorry, OCD quilters, artists are kittle kattle, rules are there  to be broken!)

6 now work along the long edge

7  now make another set of strips and attach it to the (again scored) edge

8 I had to add more long strips to make it square

9 trim, admire and happy dance

10 LET THE CRAZINESS OUT! Remember that you will be quilting this later so leave room for stitch in the ditch, grid lines or wiggle of choice, but take a deep breath, choose an automatic stitch pattern and embellish at will! You could do this by hand if your machine has no fancies, but perhaps better to wait and quilt with an embellishing free motion pattern -  I did a couple of practice quilties last night, suggested by the SM (how appropriate for the slow torture of stash reduction!) team, in art nouveau/ Rennie Mackintosh/ Angie Lewin loopy flowers:

above, the back is gingham with top thread in navy, below, the front is a gold shot amber with variegated thread in the bobbin (yes, I was working upside down!) the navy has pulled through, adding an extra variegation. It’s prettier than this in real life but you just have to take my word for it!

Next post, wear sunglasses, the orange/magenta/ brown/red/beige block will be shown before and after embellishing. That was a Public Service Announcement……….

papermaking tutorial

papermaking is a very satisfying way of repurposing and upcycling scraps that are too small/torn/ the wrong shape and recycling used envelopes and paper bags – I add lots of thread and fabric snips from my stitching too. If I have a lot of white or brown envelopes and not a lot of coloured to add, then a squeeze of acrylic paint can come in handy, but if you collect coloured flyers/leaflets, you’ll find the ink from photocopier paper and card is really powerful – one sheet will stain 3 or 4 white envelopes, as will a sheet of vivid tissue paper, used wrapping paper is great if you take out the sellotape out

you will need:

an old blender stick you no longer intend to use for food (cyanotype comes from cyanide, a deadly poison,’k?)

a bucket, a packet of Jcloths

a large gravel tray/seedling tray/washing up bowl

mould and deckle (stretch two layers of tulle, that’s tutu netty fabric over an oblong frame of wood, can be nailed together or screwed, but must be sandpapered down so no splinters! in a matching oblong. The two can be made easiest from old FLAT canvas stretchers or scrap wood. They must fit flush together or one cannot mould the paper pulp on the other for round paper try with two embroidery hoops you don’t mind warping …)

access to a washing line or enormous amounts of newspaper on plastic sheets out in very powerful sun

access to an iron and baking parchment, particularly if it is wet, cold or humid, because the quicker the paper dries, the less likely it is to go mouldy!

I collect coloured paper all year round, but only make paper on hot sunny summer days  or breezy winter days. I separate my paper by colour so I don’t find the perfect red when I’m tidying up afterwards! Tear your papers into postage stamp sized pieces, thinking fondly of the papers to be or fiercely of  annoying people and put at least a couple of handfuls into a bucket of lukewarm water. Potter round weeding or tidying for 20mins and come back to the softened paper. Stand the blender stick in the gack, making sure the water is a maximum of half way up the stick, but with at least an inch at the bottom not coated in paper. Blend just like for soup or pasta sauce, listening carefully - if the blade struggles, turn it off, clear it and carry on until you have paper porridge/thick soup. Remove blender, wipe off carefully or have paper cement….

Now the fun really starts. Thread snips, fabric snips, glitter, yarn, leaves, petals can be added now or on each wet sheet. Check the colour and add a little acrylic paint, about  a 1cm squirt will change a half bucket of pulp.

Use a yoghurt pot to measure 500ml of pulp into your tray half full of water, and swirl gently with your hand. Line your deckle and mould up like a sandwich,wood, net, wood. Now gently skim through the water and lift, and watch the pulp collect on the net as the water runs away. Balance it to drain back in to the tray. Lay a Jcloth out on an old baking tray or pile of newspapers. I cut the cloths in 4 because of the shape of my mould, see what suits yours. Now, invoking deity of choice, centre the mould in front of the Jcloth and swing it down, as smoothly as you can, like getting a cake out of a flat tin. If you miss, scrape pulp back into the tray and just try again! Flattening your hand, gently press the net against the pulp and watch water squirt out then tentatively lift the top edge of the mould away from the pulp, pressing any reluctant bits with your spare hand (3 would do it nicely!). Lift and separate! Now draw the next sheet and leave to drain. Take baking tray to washing line and with courage or the help of a friend, lift the Jcloth from the tray and peg to the line. This gets really easy but if you crash and burn, scrape the pulp back to the bucket and start again!

At this point, a break might be needed! But hopefully you are feeling increasingly confident and can get into a rhythm. Every couple of sheets add some more pulp and snips or glitter, the paper looks much thicker than it will be when dry. When the sheet is waiting to be hung is the right time to decorate with torn or cutout pretties. If you can’t use a line you will need a long surface with plastic and newspapers and to be frank, it is pretty draining checking and changing the paper. Don’t even consider it if  you have a bad back or neck.

Once the paper is touch dry or even a tad damp but NEVER WET, lay it flat and gently pull the J cloth up  from the back of the paper. Now lay it in a sandwich of baking parchment or at a pinch, clean cotton fabric, and PRESS DON’T IRON with a hot dry iron. Press firmly down, but lift between each stroke or you may tear your lovely paper. This flattens and cures the paper so it keeps better, but never store it anywhere damp or it will turn to mouldy pulp……..yuck! Instead use it in your lovely creations, scrapbooking, stitching, cardmaking, varnish it for jewellery……playtime, peeps!

You now get why handmade paper is dear – it is quite hard work, but on a sunny day it can be a lot of fun and if you make your own, you get to add lots of little touches that can be really pleasing. And this makes the work all worth while:

at this point of course, I have to say you can avoid all this work by rewarding mine! Go to www.folksy.com and put in pretty thrifty to find my shop of pretties with many paper packs! But I do encourage you to have a go, and if something isn’t clear, ask me about it in comments

eye candy

but eye candy isn’t the half of it, Princess Nonie is very clear that she DESERVES a bed of banana fibre and recycled sari yarn scarves and we are failing in our serfdom when we take them away to put in a new outlet…….look, she’s not even playing tangle tear with all the lovely ends, surely a cat as good as this can’t be deprived of her only comfort in a cruel world?

Well………..well………sorry, owner fail again, these are promised to the lovely Julia Church, for her new open studio/craft outlet above Hopkinson Gallery at 21 Station St, Nottingham. You mean the Art Organisation? Well not as we know it, Jim, not as we know it. A big upgrade is in progress with a re-launch in October, and next Monday will see Thrifty climbing the stairs in an aged-to-decrepitude-gazelle style to deliver these lovelies with two more, as yet in process. Yes, I know it’s Thursday, hush up and all will be well. Particularly if  my collarbone stops creaking like the sails on the Marie Celeste. My chiropractor is not a happy bunny, and I’m counting bruises from where he hurt – to- heal me….:( Apparently I might have ripped it when I was coughing with the tonsilitis/fibromyalgia bout. Sigh….

Anyway, these artwear scarves are available there from next week, and hopefully the Affortable Vintage Fair on the 24th (? counts on fingers, Saturday week, anyway) will see the young gazelles tripping lightly upstairs to see Julia’s want shop. Pauline’s bags will be there too, and anyone who wants to buy me one of the wrist handbags, feel free!

I finally have some money to send AVI, two friends bought cards, so I can pop a cheque in with the letter about the online shop and the sale or return at Julia’s! (Happy dance!)

I could put in another photo – look, my potato harvest!- but one of the sad things about veg crops for me is that they look  just like what’s in the shop!

Which is good, kind of, but also a bit disappointing…these are  bonus potatoes that came up from the compost I used to fill my green raised bed, so extra welcome in these days of budgeting. It was lovely scratting them out (Suffolk for scraping, I guess) and putting more compost filler in before I sow green manure to overwinter. Of course I ache now, but I ache from sitting in bed too, with no taters to show for it. At least two big washing up bowlfuls, some bakers, some marbles! And almost no scab, which when I grew on the allotment, was over at least half. I really like this time of year when I get one harvest over (tomatoes in hanging baskets and dwarf runner beans in tubs) and another one up (potatoes) and then put the waste of one – nasturtium plants grown as companions to the tomatoes, and the tired out compost – into the gap of the other to improve the clay. If the green manure takes well (please let there be a long autumn!) there will be a nice replenishing mass of greens to dig in next spring before the brassicas go in. The cycles of gardening are very pleasing, the snake is always eating its tail, the end of one crop feeds the next…..

A big thank you to Jenny, who came over and sawed wood today, but also washed up and hoovered and hung washing cos my shoulder/neck and collarbone are so bad. You so earned your forest gateau top!

Festival Top Tutorial

Jenny and Lei love this backless waistcoat, but wanted some help drafting a pattern from it, Jen

wants a longer version, Lei a fuller busted version so she can wear it as a top, the kind I call a

festival top. So you can see it’s a very simple garment to learn to copy from, but lots of useful

tricks can be learnt. Fold the top in half, lay it on strong paper and trace round it. you can see

these images larger on flikr, just click the sidebar link. I’ve laid the central fold of the paper and

top together. I could trace round it as it is, but Jenny wants it longer – see the line of extra paper

at the bottom. Lei wants it fuller on the cup, so I’ve drawn a dotted line extending the side and

top. I then unfolded the paper, traced the lines on both sides. Then I cut one half out for Jenny

the other for Leilah. On each I’ve written that the long centre line is the length of the back ties

and the halter ties, so cut 2 at 4cm and 2 at 3cm.

Now I’ve been cheeky and copied it again to put on my fundraising stall!

I’ve compromised, a longer top with a centre slit to the waist, but fuller busted. This also makes

it different enough that I can sell it, though it looks like a traditional, read copyright free,

pattern, of course it might not be. See the pins flaring out from the bottom of the block?  They

should follow a woman’s natural hip line. Using striped fabric makes it really easy to see the line

flows and I’m going to split the front into two.  The striped half is the quick/plain half – the other side will be embellished, take longer and  would be too expensive for the market done whole – but that’s why I’m splitting them. See the three pins ? (apologies for unimproved photos, I did things in the

wrong order!) These mark the three small pleats that

put some ease into the bust area, not as supportive as a cup, but an accomodation area! If you

are very long bodied, or big busted, this line of pins is at the same level as the base band of

your bra, so try and match it, remembering that bra-less you will hang lower. These are

shallow pleats for a B cup, widening the pattern and doubling the number/depth of the pleats

will suit larger sizes. Over a DD think about constructing the top over an old bra, or

you will chafe in the heat and it hurts >ow< for a couple of days. To cover my probably wonky

pleats/darts I have stitched the shaping line over a piece of ribbon yarn. On the other side I

used the same lace that edges the centre front, which is much wider, so got two lines of stitch. I

like lazy daisy stitch, but zigzag overlaid in different coloured layers would be just as pretty.

Why different? Because trying to exactly match would shred my nerves! This way any small ‘slip’

won’t show but I can run the top up in just under an hour, including ironing, photos and playing

pretty on the seams. Oh yes, instead of  hemming with a straight stitch, use a pattern stitch, it’s

nearly as quick, but looks so much nicer. It’s also stronger because most involve oversewing, and going that bit slower means I can fold edges as I go,

and I HATE  pinning, I seem to never have enough room and my back aches and altogether, I find this way has an impact that makes it really worth it. Sorry the default format is messing with the layout, hope you coped

shopping is hot!

As in, playing with the Pretty Thrifty shop at folksy is hot! I just wrote a bio and explained how 33% of the marked price on sales will go to AVI, and why, oh I feel so hopeful about this. Now I can write to Ivan with good news, not as good as the way it was, but really good from where I am now. Oh relief! I knew it was getting me down (see kinda blue post,2back) but the lift from regrouping really lets me know how important the fundraising is as a self esteem strategy. Being long term disabled by trauma is juggling with fire and the batons slipped and burnt me there. Seeing that 3 people like the shop confirmed that it’s worth the effort. Big call outs for Cherry Simone for helping so much! She is probably buying my Janome 125, so I will be able to be her Tech Support, a nice return on all her efforts to get me plugged in on folksy. I’ve found my feet, am toddling nicely, and she can glow with pride – she did that!

Naughty but nice shopping, I bought 2 quilting magazines today, Sept 2010  Popular Patchwork for Viv Denscombe’s feature on fabric journalling and Quilting Arts issue 46 for the feature on setting up an art quilt group, though it also has a piece on easy fabric books, synchronicity! Oh, lots of eye candy! Something to boost my new project with the Fabric Follies, but that’s a major post, to follow.

CREATIVITY IS HOTTER!

The top and bottom images are photos I’ve played with in Picasa (thanks Jazz) that I fancy printing on paper and cloth and quilting, the central one is a piece I made last year on C & G with a little bit of Picasa to offset the blur, it really is rainbow chiffon on denim! This I fancy printing on paper and collaging with. Let’s see what comes of that!

the tide turns

I don’t remember ever playing shop as a little girl, so that might be why it pleases me so much now! The lovely Cherry Simone was helping me (again! gold medal friend!) because despite her camera ackzident (mysteries of our time how it works in black on the screen but is fine on the monitor?!?) she took photys of my wares and laughed at my cussing as I got the hang of listing on folksy.com. Wanna see my new pretties?

PrettyThrifty @ www.folksy.com

ooh! And I even got a photo up for my avatar ON MY OWN! And there’s not even an eclipse, I must be finally getting the hang of some techy stuff… Course I couldn’t get in to write a profile, but with a pic of one of my distressed fabric beads, who needs blah?

this is that image, I’ll be making more of these when it gets cold enough for fires, I wind the fabric and yarn round a LONG copper pipe and hold it about 5cm from the hottest (no flames) bit of banked coals/wood and after 10 secs it’s normally shrivelled and fused and become a single piece rather than a loose bundle. After 10 in a row you’re a bit shrivelled y’self ….. I wish I’d played more with fire when Andy was alive, I made a couple of hot knifings but wood isn’t really something I’m very comfortable distressing, it doesn’t feel respectful when I do it. My cat Nonie catches moths and holds them in her mouth, struggling, she obviously likes the fluttering vibration. If she just ate them I’d not mind so much, it’s the unnecessary messing I don’t like. And that’s how it feels when I hot knife wood. Now velvet, no problem. Because it was never alive? And organza, well sorry, made to suffer!

All in the name of beauty/ the sublime/the process………

I seem to be constantly noticing little chances I missed to enjoy life more with Andy at the moment, and yet I KNOW  because of the bi-polar cycle we actually enjoyed what we could, as consciously as possible, a lot of the time, far more than a lot of people around us. There’s just always more I suppose….He would be a bit surprised by the embroidery bringing out so much mixed media making I think, I know I am. Just thinking about the winter then, it’s great to have such a positive feeling of things to be made. The wood came today (massed choirs singing Halleluia!) and Jennifer came and stacked lots, the little bit I did was quite enough to send my neck wonky, so many thanks there. She brought me a care package of books cos the tonsillitis of  a couple of weeks ago seems to have become another bout of fibromyalgia, which hopefully the chiropractor will send on its way tomorrow. I’ve been very depressed, literally held low by tiredness and pain, but I finally feel a rise in spirits….and a glimpse of winter’s artwork is really the icing on that cake.

I hope things will sell from folksy, once I’ve caught up on the losses, it’d be nice to send Action Village India a cheque that though small could be powerful enough to rebuild someone’s life. There’s a lot of suffering in the world and it would be easy to get disempowered by that, but being the change, as Gandhi put it, is a lot more powerful. Which is perhaps why I feel so much better tonight, the wood is here, the effort of finding a better source of heat feels justified, the effort of making things that felt so unrewarded after making a loss on 4 stalls (4!) is forgotten in the pleasure of the shop listings, I’ve managed to tidy/reorganise more shelves today (yes, feng shui might be at work here too), feeling more confident about some computer work…..

brusho papers, distressed brown paper,or soft and smooth art paper off the roll….

handpainted chunky beads, machine cord embellishing lengths in royal purple, bold, holly and mistletoe, autumn zest………..mmmmmmmmmmm….. only took about 10 goes to insert these about as long as to make the bottom row ha! by the way these are all £2  or LESS (!) including p&p, so feel free to indulge, it’s for a good cause. If you’re in Nottingham on Saturday come to the Art Organisation, Shiatsu Pete and friends have organised another healing fair and I’ve got a stall fuuuulllllllll of crafty goodness, with free buffet-style (help yourself to materials) workshop on collage journalling for positive energy. Check the TAO website, but I think it starts at 11 and runs till 3 or 4, sorry to be vague, never got told the times! Cherry Simone will have crystal jewellery for healing too, so come say hello!

Oh the tide has definitely turned!

kinda blue

just home from the fourth stall in a row where I’ve not even made the stall fee, even though as usual I’ve shared the pitch.

sigh…………

so now I have to write to Action Village India and say I can’t do any more stalls, cos I just can’t afford it. It is very depressing to feel this poor, but I need to pay for the big delivery of winter fuel (good bit, I’ve found a sustainably managed forest about 70/100 miles away) and because of  fridge,  washing machine and  fridge/freezer all breaking down since xmas, my savings are looking a bit stretched and they’ll be absolute chewing gum after the wood’s bought. I really enjoyed fundraising for AVI and people in the projects over there get so much from them, but I don’t have margin any more. And somehow this makes me miss Andy even more, when he was alive, we had more money and I put homemade goodies on the stall and made tons, £2,000 in 2 years, now the fibromyalgia means I can’t make jams or bread and the way the economic climate is, I’d be better off sending AVI £20 every 6 months and not even trying to fundraise with the craft stuff. Bummer. Things are different, and I really liked how things were, I find sitting on a stall really, really hard when no one wants stuff, and coming home to an empty house makes it a whole load worse. Poor is having no one to love, according to the Jewish proverb, and when you can’t really afford to give to your favourite charity, that’s scraping the financial barrel, so really, kinda blue covers it.

How to make lemonade from these lemons?

My incurable optimist will get back to you on that later…….

thursday’s child has far to go

I am a Thursday’s child by birth and by nature: I love to follow up new interests, immerse myself in the techniques of a new craft, read up on a subject, the road is long and bends a lot, and I find myself quite comfortable with that, particularly as I get older. I throw a lot of energy and resources at whatever’s now hot, and rarely begrudge that choice as I move through to the next hot thing. The last couple of weeks I’ve felt a bit daunted about finding the money for changing from solid fuel to sustainably managed  forest hardwood logs for fires, and feeling a bit regretful of spending so much on sewing (course, stash, machines). But today I suddenly feel fine about it again, which is of course very handy, as there’s not much I can do about it, lol!

I think this is partly therapy work on the anxiety of moving to a much lower household income, partly the stash busting/crafting packs I am making and planning, partly the empowerment of getting on my bike and cycling a few miles today, but mainly a very simple thing. I was at Jan’s for lunch (c & g embroidery/Mickel Therapy friend) and she asked me what the next big piece would be, and I said I’m building towards a variation on Durham Quilting, where a plain surface is pattern stitched, but while I’ll stick to a non-pieced top, I want it vari-coloured. I’ll practice on upholstery fabric, but probably paint or dye the surfaces of the end piece. I hadn’t thought this out, it just came to me wholecloth, as it were! This has been simmering under the surface as I trawl the quilting blogs. I love the string quilts, scrap and crazy quilts, slow and complex cloth, but I’ve been looking for this and not finding it, I now realise. Diva Quilts comes closest, and I’m sure it’s been done, I just haven’t found it yet, but, it’s what wants to be made next. So I do need big harp baby and immediately, I feel ok about being broke! Ha! That is so like me, it makes me laugh. It’s always self-doubt that stresses me out, the rest can always be sorted.

Ideas in the pot:

clean and paint the two black plastic bins currently in the garden, to use for craft storage

make more paper while the sun shines

make more packs

sort fabrics as I make packs into: lap quilt/festival top/packs/remainder sorted by COLOUR, I am a colourist, that’s how I’ll remember where things are and never again go through 10 boxes to find 1 remnant, sigh…..

think out a better stall layout/presentation: with fewer choices, people  are more likely to buy (see Fashion Incubator’s pithy blog on this)

paint/print papers, my elephant block is still unstained!

cut up canvases (oh yes, people, it’s time!) cover with sheers and stitch, mmmmmmmmmmmm!

oh and a few details like clean, garden, play with Nonie, get on my bike, start cutting wood for kindling……………

far to go, indeed.