A Pleasant Surprise...

when I decided to rake about in the book with the more complex dyed fabric....I found a piece that, whilst not perfect (what ever is?), works really well with the piece of fabric that has two goddesses printed on it...

It was originally stitched to another piece of fabric, but a bit of judicious unpicking, and I could tear it into strips.  It is, in itself, an interesting piece of cloth...it had been dyed twice, and then discharge dyed, which is particularly clear on the strip to the left hand side.  As you can probably tell, there is Just Enough, and no more.  I did consider narrower strips, but only after I'd cut them... the secret is to think it first...  I think there will be a poem for the central area, perhaps printed onto paper and cut into individual words, rather than a strip of fabric to divide them.  Yes, indeed, making a virtue of a necessity... And, rather than using the strips to their full width, I will use them as binding, which will be enough to showcase the goddesses, but not so much that they are overshadowed by the stronger colour.

The reason I went into the box in the first place, was to see if I could find some fabric to go with the other prints I've talked about recently...and I did...

The paler colour to the left of the upper selection aren't quite as pale as they appear.  I will add at least one more fabric to each of them, I suspect, and aim to make three pieces from each combination, six in all, of which two will combine fabrics from both selections.  That's the theory, anyway; things change as the work progresses.

So...a happy ending to a frustrating day, in the end. 

Oh, Wow!

It was just a plain brown envelope.  And then I opened it, and look what was inside...

Threads from Stef Francis...thank you, Stef, they're wonderful.  I really did look at them and say, 'oh wow'.  I bought them really to go with one of the pieces I showed you earlier, Borderlines, the piece with the textured paper.  That wasn't to hand, but these were.  Firstly, the piece I showed you yesterday:

The brown is really strong against that print, and I'll use it on the marks.  The orange, not so much...but it is a gorgeous thread.  And then there's this, which I wrote about here:

Now, I wasn't intending to put much in the way of stitch on here, but looking at the way that thread sits on this piece, I'm now not so sure... perhaps a stitched border round the very edges of the piece...perhaps more... I don't know, but I'll be having a good think about it.  I rather wish I had more of that coloured evolon; it would be interesting to make a pieced top from repetitions of this 'block'.  Life isn't like that, of course, but I may well follow through on this idea once the workroom has settled down a bit. 

And talking of the workroom...the shelves are now where they're meant to be, though I'm still working out what to keep, where.  I promised you a sneaky peek, and here we are...

Thread and fabric mostly along the long wall; paint, drawing materials, feathers and other embellishments tucked away in the corner.  The painting will go up in front of my sewing machine; it's a calming image called 'Goddess'.  My rulers will go up on the walls, too, and doubtless a couple of framed textiles, eventually.  What I don't have, is a design wall.  I had one in Norfolk, and rarely used it.  I did contemplate a blind on the front of one of the bookcases, but the boxes stick out too far.  Besides which, most of the work I'm likely to be doing in the future will be small scale, not much bigger than a napkin.  So I'll be doing what I advise my students to do:  stick it on the floor, and stand up...if you're careful, stand on a chair...just don't fall off.  Or, more likely, I'll take a photograph, and contemplate that.  Works every time: it's the distance that's important.

Things are coming together, finally, both with the work and the room.  If only I could find a new body...