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stitchery threads |
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I admit it. I'm a fabric junkie. Have been all my life, and always will be. I've been sewing since I was about 4 years old. I made some of my own clothing in kindergarten. I guess I was lucky in a way, I was able to visualize things in my head and rotate them around freely. Apparently that's a rare talent, but second nature to me. So, I am able to look over a pattern and understand how it works almost immediately. I think things through, then do them. It's a good thing, since I am a little bit impatient. I have quite a pile of items that are "almost done", because I lost interest in finishing them once I figured out how they went together. But I've been getting better at finishing things off lately. I try to tell myself that I can't store more fabric until old projects are out of the way. Space is a great limiter of project numbers and complexity... or at least so I'm told. Unfortunately, that hasn't stopped me yet. Dealing with natural fabrics is a great experience for the senses. The smell of the fibres, the overall texture of the woven fabric, the responsiveness of fabric as a whole and as individual fibres. How it drapes, or doesn't. The amazing strength in something so very thin and flimsy-looking. The weave itself, the threads used for weaving - coarse, fine, uniform, lumpy, smooth, rough - it's all part of the feel. Knitted fabrics are fascinating, too, but I don't use them very often. And, I have to admit, some of the man-made fibres are pretty interesting, too; better living through chemistry I say! |
books visuals music sewing decorating Gary Numan |
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patchwork & quilting |
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Oh, yes, I love quilting. Whether actually making a quilt, or designing it, I am a sucker for geometry. I love creating non-obvious geometrical patterns, and mesmerizing patterns of colour and texture... a fugue of fabric. Optical illusions, mazes, cyphers, mandalas that let you explore as far as you dare: that's my kind of design. I appreciate the work involved in creating one of those 'crazy quilts' - completely random placement of randomly-shaped pieces of randomly-chosen fabrics - but I don't think I'd ever be able to make one. Most of my quilts tend to be patchworks, or whole-cloth quilts, not fancy-schmancy appliquéd creations since I don't really like appliqué that much. I will do it if I have to do something that can't be done any other way, but I generally try to avoid it. Whole-cloth quilts are fun, since you are working with one huge piece of fabric and the entire design is in the quilting pattern itself. But they take a lot more time to prepare before quilting, so I tend to do small pieces only with this technique. Another version of whole-cloth quilting is trapunto, which involves putting extra 'stuff' behind the quilting design, to give you more sculptural relief in areas. I like doing trapunto in the form of shadow quilting, where a fairly sheer fabric is used as the top piece, and other brightly-coloured fabrics are used behind it, giving a soft, hazy kind of coloured area in the quilt. Okay purists, I know you can use trapunto quite successfully in patchwork or appliqué too, but I basically don't do it myself. I hate selecting fabrics when starting a quilt project, because I know exactly what fabrics I want, and get frustrated when I can't find one of them. At that point, I have to trust the intuition and go with what appeals to me. Problem is, I often find a new fabric that would work well if combined with a couple of others I already have... and people wonder how quilters end up with SO much fabric. We're too creative for our own damn good. There are certain difficulties associated with quilting something in a flat with a cat. I can't use a quilting frame because it just doesn't fit in the allotted space, so I end up using a hoop or just basting the heck out of it and quilting it flat, or using the sewing machine. Machine quilting is great for small projects, but if I try to do anything bigger than a tabloid piece of paper, the bulk gets in the way of free flowing movement of the fabric. Also, whatever I do, Edmund insists on helping by either holding the work flat while I quilt or tunnelling between the folds and taking a nap (quality inspection, I suppose). He also enjoys pulling my basting stitches out. Nope, I can't imagine quilting without a sassy cat nearby. |
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periodicals |
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I love browsing through the various periodicals in my local bookshops. Although there are many I look at and occasionally buy, there are a few that I buy each and every issue of. The problem is, as a general rule it's cheaper to buy issues off the stand than to subscribe here in the Great White North, so if I don't remember to check regularly, I can miss something.
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Copyright © 2002 by Barbara Anne Richardson. All rights reserved. Send comments here. |