By Hook By Crook I'll Get My House in Order

It’s been quiet on my blog for a while, and the reason is that my life is going through a turbulent phase at the moment, and I’m trying to find my bearings. I bought myself a bunch of flowers, and after having spent ages trying to choose the right colour, I picked these white carnations. They have such a fresh and crisp whiteness to them that I decided I will let them symbolise a new page, a fresh canvas. For the fun of it, I also looked up the meaning of carnations in the Language of Flowers and, lo and behold!, they symbolise: health and energy, alas for my poor heart, woman's good luck gift. Excellent choice.

And then I finished my Passiflora cushion, which I’m very pleased with.

Alabama Studio Style footstool and cushion

Closeup

Passiflora

A while ago I jazzed up a cool footstool Alabama Chanin Studio Style, and I’ve been thinking that it also needs a fabulous pillow to match. Before I went to visit my folks up North nearly two weeks ago, I prepared a bag full of fun to take with me, and while there I cut out a stencil and printed some fabric to embroider on my train journey home. I was in a hurry when I prepared this project, so to save time I chose to use Natalie Chanin’s Angie’s Fall pattern, with some modifications, rather than designing my own. Isn’t it a gorgeous pattern?

Stencil cutting out in the garden. I used Magic (freezer) paper and cut everything out with a pair of small and sharp scissors.

 The Magic paper stencil’s ready to be ironed onto fabric.

Fabric paint has been applied over the stencil and is drying overnight.

The fabric is now ready to be stitched. I was careful when I removed the stencil, and will be able to use it again for another project.

So far I’ve stitched one of the four flowers, following Natalie Chanin’s instructions for relief appliqué in her book Alabama Studio Style. I might also add beads later, to add a bit of glitz. 

This is an excellent project to work with on the go, so I might save the rest for tedious train journeys. But… I doubt that I will be able to stay away from it. I’m too eager to finish it.

Experience is what you get when you were expecting something else

Almost a year ago I bought a cool footstool. I didn’t care much for the fabric, but the wooden frame had potential. As soon as I saw it I knew that I wanted to pimp it Alabama Chanin Studio Style.

The original footstool:

There have been various vague Alabama Chanin-related plans brewing in my head for some time. And this Friday I couldn’t hold them back any longer. I had to go and get myself some jersey and pimp that stool of mine NOW.

Off I went to the fabric store. Not surprisingly, I couldn’t find all the colours I wanted. That’s when I decided that if I can’t find it, I’m just going to have to make it myself. I had dyes that had hung around for a while and that I’d never tried before. What a great incentive to get started with them. Without further ado I threw myself into it. Read about the mess here.

And the result?

I got a very nice blue-purple:

Problem?
What happened to the red-purple that appeared on my scrap when I dipped it in the dye to test it? I tried to follow the directions closely, but it seems that something went wrong in the process. No matter how long I kept rinsing the fabric, the water just didn’t run (even relatively) clear. I know I made too much dye solution, and added more fabric to it to avoid waste, but surely any excess pigment should rinse out quite easily, shouldn’t it? I’m starting to suspect the fixative, or even the dye itself. Perhaps the dye was old? As I said, I was expecting a purple that would lean more towards red than what I got. I also noticed while I was rinsing that the water was more pink than purple. Could it be that there was something wrong with the red dye so that it didn’t fix?

Well, I got a very nice violet, which I’m sure I’ll make good use of it (with a note to self that the fabric isn’t necessarily 100 % colourfast). However, in combination with the two red store-bought fabrics I got for the footstool, it’s not the right colour. I don’t like it. Well, that’s not the truth: I do like it – it’s got oomph, but it’s not right for what I had in mind this time. So I thought of Liz Lochhead’s poem again: If the rhythm’s not right, it’s not right… Rewrite. I rummaged around in my stash and pulled out the jersey I used for the bandana. It’s not as bold a choice as violet, but it brings the harmony I’m after.

The bolder combination with violet (yummy, but for another time):

My choice this time (the photo doesn't do it justice):

Yum! I love it!

And if I change my mind, it’s quite easy to remove strings and replace them with another colour. Very convenient. I’d love it in white and beige too. And I want a matching pillow on top. But that’s for another day.

I hope I won’t have to tie another knot for the rest of the weekend. I just have to pick shoes without laces when I go out to enjoy the sunshine.