The One .err...Two...That Got Away...

No, I haven't been fishing.  Heaven forfend.  But I have been transfer dyeing lutradur to turn it into samples for my workshops and stand at Festival Of Quilts.  Yes, it's a bit late in the day, but as you know, I've been battling demons for the past two years.  The good news seems to be that I've turned a corner, and feel well for the first time in a long time.  So, I'm applying myself with gusto, to make sure that I'm really well prepared to teach and demonstrate.  It's the first time I've done this under my own steam, having demonstrated for Colourcraft in the past.  It's scary, and a big risk.  This kind of thing is Very Expensive, and I haven't been making much in the way of money recently; illness will do that to one, especially a self employed one.  But I'll be bringing books, kits and myself, to show you what I'm up to, and hopefully encourage you to try some of it for yourself.

Anyway.... yesterday, I painted a lot of papers.  Some of them are monoprints, like the red heart shape, others are painted pretty much at random, mostly intended for colouring lutradur for beads.  So far so good, huh?   The monoprints are fine.  It was when I looked at the results of the random painting, that the trouble started.  I liked them.  They were interesting.  This is the first one;

And what I saw, was a landscape.  Rats.  Fortunately, I was able to cut off one of the prints (I got four, which I merged into each other to make a long piece of cloth).  Well, okay, it was really two of the prints, because I saw a landscape with a tree in it.  So far so good, huh?  The second piece of cloth, I thought, was much simpler.  I saw a sunset, in an individual print, so I cut it off, thinking that I now had lots of multicolour cloth to cut up for beads...good, right?  So I squared up to it on the cutting mat and.... couldn't...  

Now those of you who have met me in person will know that one of my mantras is, cut it, there will be a better bit along in a minute....   But I really can't bring myself to cut this up...so I'll have to see what it suggests.  I usually have Much More Willpower Than This when it comes to cloth.  Clearly I'm Going Soft.  Telling myself I can hang it in my booth, doesn't really help, either....  Ah well. These things happen.  Sometimes.  Cough.  Oh well, back to the beads...

ps in case you're wondering what I'm teaching, it involves pretty postcards, lutradur beads, monoprinting and a wee bit of appliqué (or cloth) design...  hope I'll get to meet some of you in Birmingham this year.