Friday, February 1, 2008

Buzz Buzz

I've been a busy bee this week. Working, running errands, cooking, doing the laundry, running around after my son. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it feels like it has been more hectic than usual. I think I'm longing for a change of scenery, so I'm rushing through the days. I'm feeling pulled again by my quilting. I know I promised that I would work in my sketch books on days I couldn't get to the quilting. I haven't been doing that because I've been crocheting. But I've got ideas buzzing around, and frankly, I would be better off if I got them down on paper. After all, I wouldn't just sit there and do nothing if the ideas were actual bees. Actually, I probably would. I don't make sudden moves around bees. But I would be way more attentive to them than I have been to my creative life these days.

I painted the tea dyed fabric for the back of the bad luck quilts. I was going for an old, wrinkled, rusty, patina stained look. Like beaten, leathery paper. And I'm pretty happy to say I achieved that. I dampened the cloth and then scrunched it. Then I took a cotton ball and pounced on light green and dark green textile paint. Then I used a wet makeup sponge to brush on copper Lumiere paint. I finished by dripping on green Lumiere paint and going over the drips with a cotton ball. I'm especially happy with how they look creased and wrinkled even though they are not. That's what I was hoping would happen when I wrinkled the fabric before painting. Every now and then, things work out the way you expected.

On the baby blanket front, I finally finished the bobble panel and I'm on to the yummy diamond panel. I love crocheting cables. It is one of the simple joys in my life. If you are keeping count, that is 5 panels down and 4 to go.

3 comments:

Dineke said...

Hi, your painted fabric looks just great, I love the soft pink and green

FatQuarterQuiltFarm said...

Fabric does look fabulous!! Cables are on my "to learn" list for knitting.....someday. Hope you and yours are safe and sound!!!

City Girl Quilter said...

Thanks. I can't imagine knitting cables. I tried knitting and I felt like all of my fingers were thumbs. I couldn't get the hang of using two needles. There are cooler patterns for knitting than crochet so I will probably give it another go.