I have been thinking about big, thick, gold, French-Louvre type frames lately as we work on refreshing our living room project. I want to frame an old beveled mirror in that type of frame. This fits right into my thought patterns.
Laume also has some thoughts about inspiration. If you have someone who has inspired you, I would love to hear about it. Post your thoughts to the comments section and I may write about those comments later.
I come from a long line of needlewomen, some of whom I have written about before. One of my great grandmothers would crochet bread bags into little rugs. These rugs were pretty sturdy and we could wipe our feet on them when we came in from outdoors. They just got hosed off when became too dirty.
My mom tried the technique with plastic grocery bags and they worked ok, but weren’t as sturdy. Still it is a good recycling tip, don’t you think?
Actually, that’s a good post theme – who inspires you? In your art or in your life? Pick one (or more) people who have made a difference in your world and let them know. It doesn’t have to be a big thing, just drop them an e-mail or give them a call, mention it the next time you see them face-to-face. It will make their day, maybe even their week, I promise you.
A week ago Monday, I trekked over to Lafayette to take the 9000 in to be repaired.
Failure. They were closed. I thought about calling, but then didn’t, trusting that they would be open. I had to be over there anyway for a family event, so it worked out ok.
Fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on whether you are my wallet or not), the Cotton Patch is right across the street. I went over and looked around. I resisted a lot, but did buy a few things including those ever-so-tempting Japanese Quilt magazines. I bought 2 issues of Patchwork Quilt Tsushin.
Purchases, July 2009
See the turquoise and pink on the covers of those issues? I am like a bird magpie with shiny things when I see that color combination.
I bought the pear pattern for my Grama, who perpetually needs something to do. We’ll see if it sparks her interest.
There were a lot of nice fabrics, though I do miss their solids room. I tried to be restrained and just bought a couple of must have pieces. Dots, of course. The background of the green dot is the accent color of my living room.
The magazines were the coup de grace, however. Those Japanese quiltmakers are dedicated. The intricacy of their work is a never-ending source of inspiration for me. I was pleased to see a couple of coffee/tea/cup quilts with block patterns in one of the issues! YAY! Now I can consider the purchase research for the Tarts.
I am still working on that one last section of the Tarts, so these designs will be good inspiration. I thought of using a pattern to piece that section, but was disabused of that idea pretty quickly. Back to the drawing board!
I almost never rip the patterns sheets out of magazines. One of the issues’ pattern sheet was already ripped out and I didn’t notice until I got home. I took the opportunity to look at it and had no idea what I had been missing. I am not much of a maker of patterns, but the inspiration on that sheet is worth the price of admission.
Marsha McCloskey has a new ruler out, which I bought from her website. I bought it because of the 1/16th inch measurements. I was trying to cut pieces with 1/16th inch measurements for the Omega Teacher Pillow and was wildy unsuccessful.
