I finished up this week's assignment and am spending today doing website-related stuff and more of my current obsession: tying up loose ends and finishing up small, piddly projects. I feel big things on the horizon and want to have space and time for whatever shows up, so I need to clear out. You've seen the rearrangements and various small projects, and here's one I'm tackling today.
I bought this Faux Fleece (sounds so much better than "polyester fake crap") on clearance a while back. It must have been cold that day because this seemed like such an excellent idea for a cape. Sigh. I keep wondering why I get myself into these things.
I dicked around with it for a while and finally got a shape that didn't scream "I'm wearing a blanket!" and make me look as if I were not only too lazy to make up my bed but also weird enough to wear the bedding on my body throughout the day.
Some little lonesome neuron in some hidden part of my brain thought it remembered (!) some ribbon I bought long, long ago that would be Perfect With This (y'all know how that goes), so I went out into the storage building and dug it out and whoa! My brain was right. It's perfect.
It's going to be fringe--I've done another, much brighter cape out of flannel with this same ribbon in orange. It picks horribly, and I'm sure it's not washable, but hey: the whole huge hunka Faux Fleece was just $15, so if it gets horribly dirty, I'll make cat bedding out of it. they *adore* this ribbon, as you can imagine. Sheesh, they adore almost anything I'm working on--beads, fabric, paper, scissors, pins.
Little terrorists.
So this is what I'm doing: marking where I'll sew in the ribbons, which I'm cutting to 15". If it turns out I have plenty, I'll put more in between these, making it much fuller. I can do the sewing-in and tying-off after dinner while we watch a movie, but the measuring has to be done at the table so I can lay it out flat.
What are you up to today? Bring whatever it is and a cup of something hot and delicious, and we'll hang out here at the Voodoo Cafe and work and talk about, oh, I don't know--what shall we discuss?
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Well....I am working on re-covering a couch with fabric scored at SCRAP, a local recycle place that often has upholstery fabric. After taking the couch apart (bolted together pieces which are each upholstered complete), I was able to make the arm covers, kick panel, and the back cover and re-assemble the couch. Now for the cushions and pillows; (as I'm not going to remake the box cushions and pillows), I need to score some cheap polyester fiberfill for the back cushions. I don't want to use the boxy foam that the couch has now.
The fabric (bought too much) was purchased at SCRAP, as I said, for about 2$ per yard and the accent fabric I purchased there about a year ago, probably for about a dollar in total. The accent fabric is a jacquard type weave of stylistic donut shapes in shades of tan, brown, red and gold. The main fabric is a woven velour that is a light brown/dark tan with a pinkish tint in bright light. The browns in the accent fabric tone that down a bit.
This is a 'first try' at upholstery although, I watched my mother do it a long time ago. I read up a bit online and the most important information/tip I found was a caution about attaching the fabric down (stapling) taut, but not so tight that the fabric doesn't give when you sit on it.
Off to find a good deal on stuffing for the back pillows. The three pillows needed for the back may cost more than the fabric for the entire couch!
Fridays are my "in town" days. I do errands, pay bills, then go to my writers group meeting at 1:00. We call ourselves the Barn Owls, since we used to meet in the revamped barn at the Grants Pass Historical Society site. They moved us into the main, old Victorian house, and now we meet in the dinning room, sitting around an old table. Occasionally, we hear ghosts. ;=}
i've been shoveling snow and making myself a dirt/sand walk area so i don't fall and kill myself on the thick layer of ice left by the LAST storm. the plow has pushed the snow so high against my fences, i can't even see my horses anymore!
i know they're there tho, because they call out to me each time i open the door, hoping for more hay?
one more trip to clean the stalls (now that my plow guy has come and gone and i can actually push a wheelbarrow somewhere...), unearth my mail box (very important - books and magazines on the way!), and i may actually have the energy to finish the heart brooch i'm beading...yeah, right.
if only i could bead while lying flat on my back?
I'd love to see a plow (Lucky Geri!), so stuck inside doing laundry, ironing and darning socks! In between I'm working on little UFOs. Come by and see! xxoo Patty
Saturday is my day off from the studio (it is Saturday in Australia) so I am going to put up a post about the purple shirt.
I am going to do a little bit of cleaning inbetween fun stuff. The fun stuff is seeing if I put darts on the dresslet pattern or take in the side seams. It is going to be challenging to pin my darts in back while it is on me, haha.
Then I hope to have a look at my new scores from the thrift store, a stretch denim jumper and a top, and brainstorm some ideas.
i have spent the day organizing my taxes, watching the snow fall and checking on my cat. This is the 3rd snow storm this week, and while I don't have to shovel due to bad everythings, I am beginning to feel trapped in the house.
The vet took stitches out of my cat yesterday after an impalement of some kind( outdoors), only for me to bring him home, and later noticed it bleeding and looking like a big gash. Put the neck collar back on last evening, and back to vet for staples today. She said sometimes it looks healed but underneath it has not. So another 10 days with collar and house arrest for Sunni.
So have done nothing creative today. I decided tomorrow will have to now be an personal art day.
Hooray!!
That cape sounds like it will be toasty..could use it here with this brrrrrr weather. :)
patq
I wrote poetry into an art journal.
From, Julie
Hello!
I've been following your blog for, if I'm not wrong, something about a year now and I just wanted to tell you that you are an amazing inspiring person.
I'm extremely happy I found your blog/videos. You really changed the way I see life and the things I have, plus giving me the will of changing things and making them my own.
Thank you very much for sharing your life and being such an amazing individual. The colours you bring in life are indescribable.
Have yourself a great weekend!
ps.: I'm always excited to see your next post.... silly me for not having posted a comment before... but it was about time to let you know how much I admire you! :)
lindamay, we want to see photos of this! i went to your blog, hoping to see the whole process, but alas. it sounds like a real chore but also fabulously satisfying once finished. you go!
I spent yesterday painting two squares of calico. Both of them will be journal quilts. I worked on one today. It's finished now...I think. The other is more challenging for me. It's based around the NOH8 campaign. Anyway, all the photos of the painted fabric and today's quilt are on my blog. Would love some feedback. Blessings.
Inspired by you, I have been finishing projects that have been lurking around my studio. I've hand stitched the trim on two pair of sweater cuffs; sewed an embroidered motif, cut from a vintage tea cloth, onto a t-shirt; altered a top that was too big and fixed a jacket lining. My wardrobe thanks you for the new items I can now wear and my studio thanks you for the extra space those things were using.
I write this on Saturday, but hey, this lounge compresses time and space! Today I'm working on copying a drawing by John Singer Sargent for portrait class homework, and then I'll be messing about with a watercolor portrait I'm making of a friend.
I'm impressed, lindamay. Upholstery sounds so strenuous!
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