Making a fabric book

I have become interested in making a fabric book. That is a book where the pages are fabric instead of paper, and they are decorated with dye, slow stitching, embroidery of all sorts, fabric paints, drawings, etc. The sky is the limit. They seem to be quite popular in the stitching community at the moment.

For a theme, my book will be 'favorites from the garden' and will be a compilation of favorite quotes, and observations from my garden: birds, flowers, and all things nature. I just finished my first page last night.

I don't know where this page will fall in the book; I do not yet know how many pages I will make and in what order they will ultimately end up. I'm working very impromptu and informally on this project. I want it to be full of of joy.

My first page began as a piece of white cotton fabric on which I made a cyanotype print using bits of flowers and grasses from the garden. It's the first time I ever make a cyanotype print. I made the print earlier this summer with the intention of using it [in some way] in my book.

I purchased the two cyanotype chemicals (ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide) online, pre-diluted to the correct levels so that they can be easily mixed 50/50. I should have taken notes on my process because now I can't remember if I mordanted the fabric before making the print! Oh dear. (To be fair, I did not know I'd be blogging about it.) I'm pretty sure I didn't because I had to order some aluminum acetate and the package has not yet been opened. A pretty good indicator I think. Aluminum acetate is a mordant for cellulose fibers; when preparing wool (a protein fiber) we use aluminum sulfate (aka Alum).

So quite likely I ran my first experiment without a mordant. The process for making a print starts by painting the fabric with a mixture of the 2 above mentioned chemicals. This needs to be done in a darkened room. I found that my upstairs bathroom makes an excellent darkroom since it has no windows. The fabric then needs to dry 24 hours. The following day, I foraged for some foliage and flowers to use for my print. The dried fabric was placed on a flat board, the bits of nature arranged on top of the fabric, and a sheet of glass placed over all to keep everything in place. I used clothes pins around the edge to secure the layers. All this done in my 'dark room'. This preparation was then brought outside and placed facing direct sunlight. I exposed the fabric for about 15 minutes, maybe a bit longer. The print was then brought back inside, dismantled, and the fabric rinsed well in tap water several times over. The image develops over the several minutes and hours, but when in a hurry, a splash of hydrogen peroxide in the rinse water will act as a catalyst and produce quicker results.

My print came out quite satisfactorily and I was well pleased.

I wasn't sure how I would use the print, and that came to me only recently. There is a poem/prayer in an old book I purchased at a thrift shop this summer. The book is entitled "Riley Songs O'Cheer" by James Whitcomb Riley (c) 1905. It's a beautiful book of poems and illustrations which ends with "The Prayer Perfect". It's a lovely poem and I decided to embroider it over my print, but since it is too long for one page, I will need to use two pages. The second half of the poem/prayer was worked over this cyanotype. I will work the first half of the poem/prayer on the previous facing page, when I get that page designed.

To get the letters on the page for embroidering, I used a product called "Transfer Eze", purchased from my local quilt shop; 8.5" x 11" sheets that can go in the printer. When printed, the backing is peeled off and the sheet adhered to the work. When the embroidery is finished, the sheet is removed by dissolving in water. It's weird and cool. Under the water the sheet turns to a gel which dissolves, leaving just the embroidery.

The completed page:

Late summer flowers and a fabulous chutney recipe

I took a quick stroll around the garden the other day where some surprises are in store for this time of year. The usual late bloomers such as Allium and Heliopsis are gracing the garden with their flowers, but a few roses also popped in for a final greeting even though they are usually done in mid summer. And quite a late Hemerocallis shines brightly in an otherwise winding down bed of ochre and brown foliage.

The Heliopsis helianthoides var. 'Bleeding Heart' is a favorite of mine. The coloring is striking and changes over time from bright orange to rusts. At the moment I have only one of these plants and that needs a remedy, I should have at least three. It grew quite sprawling this year, much to my delight, with more flowers than ever. The bed-to-be wherein it is situated is in a sad state at the moment but with all this summer's rainy days and other projects, it didn't get attended to. Oh well, next spring it is then.

This stand of Great Blue Lobelia (Lobelia siphilitica) was one plant about three years ago! I'm amazed at how it is flourishing. There is enough here to start a whole new bed somewhere... hm. I'm thinking about it.

I'm quite sure this is a Helianthus of some sort (it was given to me and I don't know the exact name). It's a vigorous spreader underground and also pops up remote from the original clump via self-seeding. Luckily, it's pretty easy to pull it back, something much needed almost every year. But a lovely burst of yellow late in the summer.

This Daylily (Hemerocallis) is sharing the spotlight with wild, self-sown Goldenrod, whilst all it's relatives flowered in July/August. A special surprise at this time of year and a fun encounter.

Crabapple berries and rose hips. Really looking forward to harvesting the rose hips. I will make either a syrup or a tea. They are big and bright red this year.

I thought this Rose was done a month ago. How gracious of it to come again.

An annual Sunflower (Helianthus), a towering beacon of lemon yellow. A happy sight.

The Hollyhocks rose to phenomenal heights this year; way, way past my height. It's been exciting to see them reaching for the stars.

Back at the deck, I have this Easter Lily that I purchased at, well, Easter. After it had finished blossoming, I set it outside to soak up the sun over the summer. Much to my surprise, a new shoot appeared and look at it now! Easter Lilies in September! It is a bit disorienting to smell their distinctive, sweet fragrance at this time of year.

Roasted Tomato Chutney

I have to pass along this stellar recipe for roasted tomato chutney. I found it on Kate's second channel (The Last Homely Garden), so I'll post that and you will find the link for the written recipe in her video discription. It's absolutely scrumptious! I made a batch this afternoon, and even though the recipe states it is better after a week, I couldn't wait. Had some with a wonderful aged Irish Cheddar and crackers. Oooh, oooh, ooh. Yum! I'll be making this a lot. (I put olive oil in the roasting pan, and drizzled a bit on the tomatoes so they wouldn't stick.)

Hand quilting

I am getting ready to hand quilt a top I finished in July. It will be my second attempt at hand quilting. The wool applique top I made in 2018 was the first. After many starts and stops, I finally settled on "big stitch" format for that one, and once it got going, I was surprised at how quickly it quilted up. That is this quilt:

(The images will enlarge if you click on them)

My current top was finished in July. It took a year of hand stitching the turned applique in cotton. The pattern is called "Woodland Creatures", designed by Quilt by Rosemary.

My take on it (almost the same as original):

It was a very enjoyable project. Lots of motivation the first 3 or 4 months. I worked the blocks before working the inner top and bottom borders, followed by the side borders, and finally, the outside top and bottom. I can't say there was ever a lack of motivation, but by the time I reached the side borders, I was slowing down a little, maybe. The borders are long (quilt is 80" x 100") and each border is mirrored from the center, and mirrored from the opposite border meaning that each motif is repeated four times. I was relieved to get beyond the side borders. But never a dull moment.

Like I mentioned, I'm going to hand quilt it and want to get finer stitches on this one. To that end, I watched a series of very good videos on YouTube by a woman who grew up Amish. Her name is Esther Miller. The 6 part series starts here:

I especially like that she is conscientious of the possibility of hand/wrist injury (something I'm always aware of). I ordered one of her needle slides and a thread puller, and I'm using a thimble (that almost fits) that I found at the thrift shop. I may end up forking over $$ for one of her custom sized thimbles.

So I've been practicing small stitching and it has--up till yesterday--been majorly frustrating. I recall the week/week-and-a-half of frustration when I was learning to spin wool (I learned on a drop spindle), and saying to myself many times, "If ... can do this, I'm confident I can too!" And by end of the week two, I'd pretty much gotten it. Learning small stitch quilting is worse than that. Oh my goodness, it's been hair pulling frustration. But perseverance is paying off.

Something happened yesterday by 'accident '--after many, many attempts--that shed some light on the mystery. I discovered that where my needle is placed against the thimble makes all the difference in the world, and it opened the door to more successful stitches. Yay! Now I'm practicing on consistency and feel I'm almost ready to start on the quilt. But first, I also need to practice quilting in different directions. Right to left is proceeding well now, curved lines are OK'ish, Top to bottom needs a little practice. I haven't practiced Bottom to top but suspect it will be a challenge similar to top to bottom. Left to right is awkward right now.

Also, before I start quilting I need to decide on a pattern(s)!

In this photo of my practicing, I've circled the latest bit of stitching and it is in the color I will use on this quilt. It's been good to practice with contrasting thread, though. It really highlights inconsistencies! (Ignore the mess on the far right, I was practicing an embroidered bullion stitch--quite unsuccessfully.)

With my set of tools:

Bathroom renovation

I have just finished re-doing the downstairs bathroom.

Last winter I had a couple brainwaves for some remodeling. One was to do something about the dark paneling in the living room; the other was possibly removing the tub from the bathroom. I never take baths; the tub hasn't been used for a decade except as a catch-all for clothes, cleaning products, spiders, and at one time: An excersizer! (There is a shower in the upstairs bathroom.)

I took a little time to see what realtors are saying about removing tubs from houses and found a mixed-bag of opinions, so I figured it would be ok whatever decision I came to. I left the question hanging for the meantime, but I was intent on doing something about my former living room which looked more den-like than suits my tastes. I had an idea that I could take the top part of the paneling out and replace it with sheetrock, leaving just the bottom part of the wall paneled.

This spring I got in touch with a contractor who did the panel removal and sheetrock installation. Right away, before starting the job, he noticed the bit of sag at one side of the hall door leading into the living room. That's something I'd been aware of since buying the place and it was caused by someone(s), at some point in the history of the house, deciding to cut one of the joists under the floor in order to fit some plumbing! The contractor stressed that it was a serious issue and he'd love to do something about it, so I asked him for a quote. It was approved and he spent a day propping up that portion of floor with a new partial beam perpendicular to the joists, and it is held up with two acroprops. I am very thankful to him for bringing that problem to my attention and stressing it's importance and effect on the rest of the house.

After he'd taken out the top of the paneling, installed sheetrock and put in a chair rail, I wallpapered. The paper is from Little Greene (A UK company) and the pattern is called Great Ormond St in the green colorway.

My former living room is now to be known as my "grand salon" ...

Before (you can enlarge the pictures by clicking on them):

After:

It's so much lighter and airier now. I like it very much. I have decided I'd now like to replace the ceiling (it very much needs it) with a tin ceiling. But not this year.

While he was here working that week, I asked him for a quote to remove the tub from the downstairs bathroom. So a month later he came to remove the tub, sheetrock where the tub surround had been, and rebuild part of the floor under the tub because there was a big hole there. (My desk is on the other side of the wall from there and I wondered why it seemed much cooler in that corner in the winter!) When he finished his work, I painted and papered, lifted the old floor tiles, and installed trim.

I chose wallpaper from Sanderson in the pattern called Woodland Chorus. I need to take lots of time when I paper. I absolutely can't do it if I'm stressed or hurried, it's not a fast process. I may put up one strip and need to walk away to de-stress. I don't think I've papered any of my walls in one day. This little bathroom had it's challenges. But the papering got done and I really like it.

The sheetrock on the old walls (where the tub was not) was not like the stuff that's common today. When I was pulling off the old paper from those walls, sometimes the top paper layer of the sheetrock came with it. What a mess. After thinking about it for a few days I decided to skim the surfaces of the old walls with watered down sheet-rock compound and then prime it with sealer in order to put up the new wall paper. It seems to have worked quite well.

Then the time came to pull up the old floor tiles. My little video will explain the tricks I learned to make good work of it:

The challenges of not being professional at something are 1) we don't usually have the precision, high-grade tools available, and 2) we don't have lots of experience making mistakes to learn from. All this came into play when I did the trim work. My little chop saw is not up to the task, really--it doesn't saw straight when the blade is tilted 45 degrees. Oh well, I managed to get the trim in and it looks acceptable to me as a DIY project.

I had taken a "before" picture but I accidently deleted it from both my hard drive and my camera! Anyway, here's the "after" pics. I contacted the contractor today to let him know he can come and put the toilet back. As he was rebuilding the walls where the tub had been, I asked if he could build a niche on one wall. I've painted it robin's egg blue. I will go down to the glass store this week to inquire about custom-cut shelves for it.

A walk in the woods

On a whim I took a walk into the woods above my house this afternoon. Quite literally a whim: I had not planned to take a walk and had no premonition I'd be in the woods today. I haven't walked the pathway in several years mainly for fear of walking alone after having witnessed bear, moose, big cats, coyotes, and fox on my property. But I bought a personal tear gas canister a few months ago and had it with me; it eased my mind.

It's so very beautiful a walk, super quiet solitude in a multi-hundred acre conservation forest. I did not go as far as the waterfall, going only as far the clearing in the path. It was a bit of a shock to see how much logging was done on the way to the clearing a few years ago. The lumberjacks were out there all of one season and they cleared a quite large area. I did not explore the cleared area but will do so in a future walk.

The space above this knoll was logged a few years ago. 

The clearing in the path. Great location for a picnic.

The clearing in the path would make a great place for a picnic and I think I'll plan one for September. Maybe Labor Day with friends and neighbors. I was thrilled to find milkweed gowing there; I haven't seen them in the wild since I was a child. The distinctive bird body-like pods that will open up soon to release thousands of feather weight fluff with seeds attached. A miracle.

Milkweed

A spring on the way to the clearing.

The walk came after some hours working in the downstairs bathroom remodel (a post about that soon) and switching the license plates from my old car to the new (a post of that to come soon as well).

I almost felt drawn to the woods today. Hard to explain how it was such a spontaneous impulse with no forethought. I had been doing some observation meditation in the morning which put me in touch with some very deep feelings and perhaps that was the driving force. I hope to soon have a post or two about what music I'm working on at the minute and what projects are in the works--there are a few of them.

Watch this space

As some of you might know (I know several of you do not know), my facebook account was hacked last week. Someone was able to get my password, and with it changed my account email address and password. They then proceeded to do things (I don't know what, but I can imagine) that are against FB policy and my account was therefore disabled. I tried going through the recovery process fb offers, but it failed to accept the photo id I uploaded (this older laptop camera isn't the best). There seems to be very little recourse for clearing up this mess.

I decided to create a new account with a different version of my name (leaving out the middle names, the one I was assigned at birth and the other I added some years back) but it too was immediately hacked and locked down. Ugh. I responded to an email from FB yesterday by uploading a photo of myself and I'm waiting to hear back from them about whether or not I will ever get my account(s) back. I think it's doubtful. FB is not known for their customer service and I've read some pretty discouraging reports online from people to whom this has happened in the past. If I do not get my accounts back I will write my congress persons to alert them (I'm sure they've heard before) to the shoddy way in which FB treats it's users. There should be a phone number to call, there should be a real person with which to converse, there should be very clear instructions about how to proceed. None of this exists as far as I can tell.

So. A crossroads. Part of me is thinking the universe may be nudging me away from FB. To be sure, I've been very displeased with it as a platform for some time. I do not think it is a good platform (too manipulative) or company. Still, with the add-ons I used and ad-blockers, the experience was manageable, if barely. Part of me is toying with the idea of setting up an email account solely for my FB account and creating a[nother] brand new profile using yet another version of my name. The problem, of course, is letting everyone know what my new account is. Several friends are only known through the FB platform and I have no other contact info for them. And then, part of me is toying with the idea of resurrecting this blog to use as a platform for sharing my craft works and important political thoughts now and then. So stay tuned, there may be life left in this blog! :)

Topped off ...

The Christmas quilt top is done! In record time when I look back on it: Just about 3 weeks. Holy Moly!

I really like how it came out and I had a blast making it. What could indulge the inner child more than thumbing through Christmas print fabrics? The reds and greens! The blues and silvers! The reds and golds! The silver and golds!! What fun!

Oh, happy memory of the red and green crepe paper streamers we used to string criss-cross up on the ceiling at Christmastime. Too much! We'd get up the next morning to find it had sagged almost to the floor! Crepe paper has a ton of elasticity. But the colors, oh my! I learned about complimentary colors very early on... don't really know or recall how I learned it. Must have been from a book. Red/green, yellow/purple, blue/orange. What a delight for the eyes. Much came flooding back while my younger self swam through the ocean of color in these printed fabrics full of Christmas.

The top is now at the local quilt shop getting prepped for the long-arm quilting machine. I'm having it stuffed with wool batting: My favorite. It is, after all, a winter quilt.

I am looking to donate it to charity or a charitable cause, although it may have to be put in storage until next year since time is running out. By the time I get it back from the long-arm (some time next week I expect) and hand-sew a binding on it, it may be too late for this year. But we will see. I would love for nothing more than to see it comfort a young child going through a particularly difficult time at this time of year.

It is 85" x 85" and is seen here on my queen size bed. A good size indeed.