Organization! Oh Joy!

I am feeling great today because I had a terrific lunch with C, then successfully ran errands, went for a nice long walk along the lake with the pup, and now I get to organize my fabrics! The stash has been piled up for so long, I forget what I even have. Every so often I paw through and pull out my favorites of the day, which end up creating their own stacks elsewhere until they are shoved aside in a continous, unorganized cycle. But I've had enough! Not to mention, Ramona has discovered the joys of chewing on stuffing materials, and I am somewhat afraid my fabrics will be her next victims. So today bins were purchased, and now I am off to sort and fold and tidy. Its all pretty exciting.


This drawing has nothing whatsoever to do with anything, but I don't like to leave you pictureless!

My bag

I left for Toronto on Friday afternoon, after finishing up summer camp, biking around town in the interests of my fish, and generally trying to do everything last minute that I should have spread out over the past week. With half an hour to spare before leaving the house, I decided I absolutely must have a new bag.

Luck was with me (having deserted me the night before in a linen pants incident about which I am not quite ready to think), and the bag creation went smoothly and ended up pretty much just as I wished!


This lovely canvas-type fabric was a sort of impulse buy during my quilt fabric shopping spree, bought with the specific intent of making a new bag. I am ever so proud that I actually followed through.

Naturally, with more time, there are a few extras I would have added - interior pockets, probably an exterior pocket between the straps. It has a sort of secret pocket perfect for my fast approaching Central American travels - a flap from the outside folds over to the inside, the perfect size for passport and money protection.

I really just love the colors. Lately I seem to have been developing an unconscious affinity for dusty pink (the flowers are pink. Upon viewing my picture I see that this is somewhat indiscernible. Oops. In real life they are actually quite prominent). My mother says that it is generally a sort of grandmother color, but then I have always had elderly qualities :)

I think this post takes the prize for the most parentheses. Yay.

Finishing Touches

These are the final days! Of my college career, I mean. Probably, if I wasn't so horribly tired, this would be a bittersweet time. As it is, I just can't wait until the weekend, when the presentations are over and the final papers submitted, so I can just sleep. Maybe for a few days.

My squares have been quilted...



And bound in black...



The photographs were ironed on, usng "Wonder Under" (sounds like underwear, doesn't it?)...



And a cover was constructed...



(this is the front and back - I think it looks like a banner or flag and I want to make more).



Now the pages are sewn together and its all set up on a podium in the presentation room. I had some random pieced squares left over, and we stuck them in frames and hung them on the wall to complete the exhibit. They actually look really great like that and I think I will do more.

It feels so good to have this project completed. When I look at the finished product, its so small that I feel a bit odd about how much time and energy it took out of me. But looking through the book and seeing each tiny hand stitch and remembering all the thought and research I did to make it more than just fabric, I feel like I have actually accomplished something. Of course, now that the work is done I am free to get really nervous about the presentation.

More Advice on Liquid Emulsion, or What I Learned in the Darkroom

I spent this evening in the darkroom, making another attempt at developing photos onto liquid emulsion coated fabric. After this evenings trials, I have just one little additional word of advice to anyone wishing to try this sort of thing: don't.

Let me explain...

Liquid emulsion is, by nature, liquid. Or rather, it is liquid after the bottle has soaked for a good hour in very hot water. Until then, it is a white gel that does not, despite valiant effort, spread. In any way. When this substance has liquefied, it must be kept warm, or it will re-gel and become very sticky in the process. The brilliant idea upon which my project is based is to develop photos onto fabric using this troublesome substance. Now, let's take a moment to look at the nature of fabric, especially as it relates to liquids. As we know, or hopefully you do because it seems to have conveniently slipped my mind, fabrics have a tendency to soak up liquids. This is an agreeable quality when, say, you're emerging from a nice hot shower. But when you want a thick coat of emulsion that will produce a strong and recognizable photographic image, this quality works distinctly against success.

I have tried several methods for applying the emulsion to the fabric (putting primer underneath was not one of them - I want the texture of the fabric to be prominent and do not want the additional stiffness of paint). All of them, in some degree, suffer due to the aforementioned characteristics of the materials. The fabric soaks up the emulsion and refuses to allow a dense, even coating. This is what I have tried so far...

• First, I stretched the fabric in an embroidery hoop and painted the emulsion on with a paint brush. That was probably a great method, but I had low contrast emulsion at the time so things went poorly.
  
• Second, I though perhaps lying the fabric on a screen and squeegeeing the emulsion across would result in a nice thick coat. It didn't.
  
• Next, I tried the paintbrush again, with moderate success using variable contrast emulsion, but was too impatient to let it dry and apply a second coat. Instead I tried to brush it on especially thick and ended up with clumps.
  
• Then I put the emulsion in a tray and tried soaking it up with the cloth. Worked fairly well, but with a bad ratio of failures to successes due to excessive blotchiness and a difficulty in determining the right side of the fabric from the wrong.
  
• Went back to the paintbrush and managed to contain myself long enough for the emulsion to atleast partially dry before painting more on. Judge the results for yourself...
  

I am relatively happy with these pictures. I was hoping this would be the end of the photo portion of the project, but probably I'll have to go back to the darkroom. It could be worse.

Fabric obsessions

I really love fabric. I love to just be around fabric. It is actually somewhat detrimental to my sewing record, as I often get so involved in just enjoying the cloth that I lose interest in actually making something of it. That said, I also am becoming more and more interested in not accumulating too much extra stuff, and so I try to hold myself to strict rules about only buying what I need, and having an honest purpose for each yardage.

These inhibitions were thrown aside over the Holidays when I found out that my favorite fabric store is closing. The store is a clearance branch of Fabricland, stuck in the back-door basement of a strip-mall and literally overflowing with $2.00-$3.00 fabric tables and nearly anything else I could want. Of course, the store is in suburban Toronto, and I no longer live there, but it was always a destination when visiting and I will miss its presence from a distance.

The closing sales, and the prospect of never having another chance, filled my basket in no time with all sorts of exciting remnants and more. I told myself they would all become bags to be sold, or part of a quilting project, and perhaps they will. But I am a master of justification and I was in full swing. Oscar Wilde once said that "the only way to get rid of temptation is to yield to it," and I do believe the man had a point.