fabric | textileshed

I posted the previous in a hurry and forgot to show off the reverse side of Esther’s cushion!

It’s a bit smaller than the front, there you go – we all learn about seam allowances, the sooner the better! I think we will put a color all ’round to make the pieces the same size.

As I unearthed all those fabrics I also found some unfinished business, and I was delighted to come across this mystery medallion quilt cover. I started it in 2011, I think. I got this far and completed maybe 4 clues, then school holidays began and my flow of thoughts (and compositional coherence) were interrupted. I think I will just leave it as it is, frame it and find a good home for it.

Amongst the hidden treasure was also a sample of a Dresden Plate (the big one) and an old applique block (no idea what it is called). I cut a number of small Dresden Plates (and sewed just the one) out of some old squares of red/ black and white fabrics and am wondering how to turn them into something nice… I love it, when things just grow organically…

I have forever wanted to learn to screen print! I am fascinated by textures and patterns, their rhythm and moods… It has occurred to me many times that screen printing is a lot faster than sewing bits of fabric together to achieve a pattern…Not sure why it turned (in my mind only…) into a ‘bigger than Ben Hur’ type thing. Maybe I thought it is rocket science, or that I need to purchase a huge amount of equipment to get started… So all of a sudden things fell into place. It started with my son mentioning that he’d love to sell some T-shirts and that he is looking into screen printing. I thought courses he is looking into, but no, he was looking into a company that would print his designs. By the time we had cleared up this little misunderstanding, I had already enrolled in a one day course at the local community college. Voila:

This was achieved in 3 hours in the lovely studio! I got inspired by this fairly basic goat (?) that I spotted somewhere, did a quick hand drawing, transferred the drawing on the ezicut paper, selected my frame and my color – DONE! There is so much to learn… I am really inspired to explore this further… so if I am organised with work, I may be able to skip Tuesdays and print!

But wait, there is more! Here are my feeble attempts at gardening. I am so over buying lettuce and herbs in the shops! Again, why was it sooo very hard? I wasn’t sure if I would stay interested, nor if the plants would survive my scatty memory (watering in this heat!), the possums, my judgement of a good place for a small garden in terms of light and so forth… so I took a ‘no investment – no pain at failure’ approach and planted all this in yogurt pots. I can move them around and they are free!

The parsley has not survived the possums! And all of a sudden this felt very easy and I went as far as investing into a seed tray and sowed a whole heap of herbs! And I bought parsley – it goes behind locked doors (laundry) at night! And as you can see, I have re-instated the compost bin (background).