January blues

It is a lovely, rare, clear sunny day in SB. The winter sunlight is so beautiful! I always find, at this time of year, that I am attracted to blue. I get tired of the Christmas decorations. Red and gold and stuff seem too glitzy and cluttery, and I start paring things down and putting blue and white around. (I did my blue dyed drapes, and I actually dyed another bit of fabric blue, too, and put it up over a doorway, where I have had something else for a few years.) It seems like a Scandinavian aesthetic that I am attracted to in January... any other artists notice seasonal light affecting you?

Tie Dye Drapes

Today I did it. I measured, washed, folded and dyed cotton canvas drop cloths for dining room drapes! I decided to do this first as a way to get more material into the room to absorb sound. Without carpet, and with a lot of floor and wall, and wood furniture, the room is very "live". When we all sit at the table for morning prayer or dinner I have to be kind of strict to keep everybody quiet enough for me to stay sane! I would love to have some kind of beautiful, handmade "world" artisan fabric for drapes. Batik or something else earthy and textured and full of depth. But, have you priced fabric lately?! Yeah, no budget for fabulous fabric. So, I decided to research making some. Not sure where the idea came from at first, but i ended up watching a lot of videos on YouTube about how to tie dye! I researched drop cloths, too. And dye colors. Boy, I love Christmas break and this iPad. Anyway, I will link to the tie dye videos I liked the best. I bought 4x12 foot drop cloths from Harbor Freight. They are cotton, and have four finished edges! Did I mention how much I like projects with limited sewing? I like to sew, but I like to scheme ways to keep things as simple as possible. Results, that's what I want! So, four 4x12 foot panels for two windows. I want the drapes to touch the floor, and be mounted pretty high. But I did have to trim off about 16 inches. That will be the edge I sew for the rod pocket. The bottom has a simple rolled hem, and the other two edges are selvedge. Yay! I used Rit dyes in Royal and Denim blues. I tested their Navy blue on an old canvas tote bag, but it came out looking too purple. I tested my planned tying technique on that tote, and it was a good thing. I loved the pattern, but not the purpleness. And I found that when I folded the material more than double, the dye did not go through at all. Here should be a pic of my experiment: So I found I had to adapt my folding for this heavy material. I folded in half, instead of again into quarters, then did the curved guidelines for the "fish scales" pattern here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ude0HGhvFpY I have to show photos now! Tomorrow...

Time to learn how to blog!

So, now it is January first, 2013! I can't believe I have posted only about four times since 2007. I intend this year to learn how to manage photos and to actually use this blog to reflect on life and to share about projects and creative things I make and repurpose. Ceci wants to help me post before/after shots and final reveals of some of the things I try. That will be fun to share with her!

Homeschool Thoughts

So, we just finished school for the year--wooo hooo! Ceci completed second grade, Ian did kindergarten. For some reason, I'm already getting excited about next year's school materials. We have been very happy with Catholic Heritage Curricula this year for our reading, spelling and grammar. These materials are fun and charming, as well as being on target academically. If anyone is interested, check out their web site: http://www.chcweb.com
You can look at samples of the materials at the 'virtual conference' section. I'm investigating how to get free shipping as well(very exciting, naturally)....

August

Yay! planning and cleaning, organizing, moving furniture: done. Baby all baptized, too. I'll have to learn to put up pictures.

Baby Aidan is here!

I've joined our blog

Two years after this blog went up, I'm finally on it.