Quilt update slowdown

The quilting project has reached the next bus crafting phase. It is a bit of an odd, maybe crazy, way to do things, but I'm knitting the batting for the quilt. How can this make sense? My reasoning goes along these lines:

1. The quilt is a stash busting project.


2. The quilt should be warm, therefore it needs a filling.


3. I don't have any batting in my stash, and I don't want to buy any to add to my stash.


4. There is lots of yarn in my stash, including some bright synthetic stuff. (My mom is sweet and generous, but our tastes don't always coincide.)


5. So using the yarn just for its warmth, not its colour, makes perfect sense.

It will make for a much longer project. There's 10 cm on the needles at the moment, so I suspect it will keep me busy for a while yet. This means I'll rearrange my crafting time at home to focus on making stuff for the craft fair at Victoria Baths. I've never sold stuff before, so it feels like a very big challenge! I will make an effort to not run away and hide.

Under the influence

It was inevitable really, what with seeing so many fabric/fencing combinations, that I would give it a go. This is my newly embroidered balcony:

The fabric is some old medium weight cotton ripped into roughly 2 inch strips (I've been going through my stash to make quilt patches, just like I planned, so imagine me looking smug as I write this). I thought it would be just like cross stitch, but when I tried that it just looked like the wires were wrapped with fabric. Not necessarily bad, but a bit too subtle for what I had in mind. This 'stitch' goes across and over a gap, putting a longer section of the strip as the visible part of the stitch. I'm happy enough with it that I'm planning to do another on the other side of the balcony. The pattern is a bit twee, a bit cheesy, but that's just how I am.

I wonder how it will stand up to the rain?

Things and thinking

There's a nice-stuff-for-the-home shop on Prince's Street (that's in Stockport, in England, for readers not used to my usual geographic references). I can't remember what it's called, but I always glance at its display as I walk by. I do just walk by, as I know my home making skills don't extend to displays of nice stuff. Maybe that's why the similarity between the shop display and my art journal struck me. The signs and nice objects seem similar to the pretty pictures and words that I stick in the journal. Am I trying to make the journal into a nice home? Somewhere safe and relaxing? Just thinking.

I've had some trouble working on these pages. I really like the elements, but just can't seem to get them to work together. But it's reached the point where I can't see any way to improve it, and besides, I'm eager to start on this next set of pages.

I like the yellow and already have some pictures in mind. I nicked an old magazine from the office break room. I'm not sure about the etiquette of taking a magazine someone else has left for the office, but it is over a year old, so everyone has had time to peruse it. I also like the XYZ printed on the page and I'd like to do something with that. And I like how bits of the previous page have leaked onto these pages. When I was a kid I disliked how marker pens forced you to chose only one side of a page in a colouring book. Now I see things differently.

And on a quilt in progress note, I'm working on piecing the top together this weekend!