obsession

in which our plucky heroine declaims "I can stop at any time..."

Narrow trim bands all in a row (waiting on the ironing board for their turn to be heat set). I wanted to see how the various motifs looked on different colors of fabric; it is hard to choose which is my favorite...

I might have to try this again with a few different colorways, and I am going to rummage through my fabric stash to see if I have any nice thin finely woven linen or silk to print on, as my experiments so far make it clear that high thread count fabric is the best for nice clear printing

Three color block printed trim, 1/2" wide - black, russet, and metallic gold. I used the new tiny blocks in combination to create this, and the flat tip of a chopstick to print the golden dots

I initially tried printing with the tiny motifs in all golden yellow on the blue linen, but that looked too monotone. Adding pearl dots and reprinting the stars in russet really enlivened it.

I plan on using this set of sample trim to decorate young Aesa's wool gown. (I finished her gown at the beginning of April, it is fairly plain, being a brown twill wool, with the edges bound in a medium blue wool flannel, stitched down with golden yellow - this trim will add some pretty embellishment to the cuffs)

printing fabric with great enthusiasm...

in which our plucky heroine blocks out some time for artwork....

Finished up a small project yesterday, for my own SCA garb refurbishment, since camping season will soon be here!...
Pale green silk, block printed in green, used as neckline trim. The printed silk, edges turned under, is stitched to a striped fabric strip, which is then stitched to the neckline edge of the linen undergown.

The trim, only 1/2" wide, with the blocks used to print the motif. Working at this small scale, I thought that using safe-t-cut would be easier than trying to carve linoleum so small...

:::

Today my pal Dayna came over to Acorn Cottage so we could work together printing the fabric for her salwar pants. First step was to chalk in a grid to place the motifs... (she had already cut out the pattern pieces) I ironed the fabric to locate a centerline and the section edges, and then we used a wide transparent ruler and "chaco-line" marker to create evenly spaced sections

The first pass, white Neopaque and pearl Lumiere mixed... we initially tried just the pearl Lumiere textile paint, but it was *too* subtle, mixing in a bit of opaque white helped it contrast well with the purple linen

Also discovered that the pearl Lumiere paint does not work at all well with the DIY paint stamp pad technique. The mica powder, or whatever is used for the pearlised effect, impedes capillary action and clumps up below the felt. I am going to test whether the metallic Lumiere does the same thing. Fortunately I had a brayer and a piece of plexiglass, so we switched to applying the textile paint to the block that way instead...

The second pass on Dayna's salwar fabric was using the tiny geometric block, printed using a mixture of pale purple and violet irridescent fabric paint, for a subtle color variation. Printing the two pieces of fabric for the salwar pants legs took us about three hours.

There was some of the paint leftover, so I decided to try out my confronted horses block... I think it prints fairly well! Still need to carve an outer ring block to use with it. The motif is inspired by this 8th/9th C woven silk textile fragment

:::

April SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	charter painting	sink repair	yard waste bin
2	window panel rack	re-hem Maeva gowns	yard waste bin
3	Æsa gown	mend brown pinafore	-
4	3 Maeva gowns	add trim Farbjorn tunic	-
5	2 SR pillow covers	framed 2 prints	-
6	Farbjorn tunic	add green silk trim to shot linen undergown	-
7	Farbjorn embroidery	-	-
8	Thora embroidery	-	-
9	block printed trim	-	-
10	printed Dayna fabric	-	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-

blue Monday

Our plucky heroine had a random and mostly sort of lonesome weekend, reminding me that the responsibility of my solitary state lies squarely on my own shoulders. Somehow, the punctuation of a few hours of social time with friends, bracketing days without any at all is not adequate, but I have yet to solve this conunudrum. Still, there was assorted progress made on various necessary activities...

A good start on the next sewing commission, framing the two prints from the Letterpress Fair, a lot of housekeeping activity (including excavating Mt Dishmore down to the bedrock), and some walking and bike riding tucked in between the at-last-suitable rain and wind of April, which we have had nowhere near enough of. I suspect that my corner neighbors would disagree with that, since the storm broke the venerable (and now seen to be hollow) apple tree in their front yard. A third of the tree snapped off, fortunately missing both their house and the power lines, and entirely blocking the sidewalk with a chunk of tree and branches fifteen feet tall.

:::


"When Raven stole the Moon"

:::

Just a few smaller blocks carved this weekend, tiny ones not even an inch across, that I used to print some narrow strips of silk to mend and trim my green herringbone linen undergown. Soon it will be camping season, and while I have been busily making Blue Cedar House clothing, it would be a good idea for my own SCA wardrobe to get mended and refurbished, since most of those garments are close to twenty years old and rather threadbare in spots. One goal I have is to eventually print fabric inspired by Osberg silk samite fragments, and use that fabric as trim for new garb...

:::

April SMART goals

#	THINGS MADE	THINGS FIXED	THINGS GONE
1	charter painting	sink repair	yard waste bin
2	window panel rack	re-hem Maeva gowns	yard waste bin
3	Æsa gown	mend brown pinafore	-
4	3 Maeva gowns	add trim Farbjorn tunic	-
5	2 SR pillow covers	framed 2 prints	-
6	Farbjorn tunic	-	-
7	Farbjorn embroidery	-	-
8	Thora embroidery	-	-
9	block printed trim	-	-
10	-	-	-
11	-	-	-
12	-	-	-