Nearly a week has gone by and I don't have much to show for it except piles of rejected paint samples...do you know how many off white tints/shades there are? Impossible to choose.
And then there's the carpet samples.....so many factors to weigh - color/weight/loft/no loft/durability/adaptable to stairs and concrete base....geesh!
Next comes the really overwhelming brain teaser.....replace or repair poorly constructed (14 year old deck that was well maintained). We have 3 large decks that are unsightly and unsafe. Wish we could eliminate the largest open one but given the terrain it has to stay. One estimate for a direction that makes sense for us aging folks would be the less maintenance Trex brand. Good grief......it's more than the cost of our first house back in 1970!!!
The positive/negative chart we have going to supposedly take the emotion out of the decision to move OR stay and freshen up this house, now leans in one direction.......still leaving the biggest issue of finding a suitable home. Here in the mountains.....it seems the majority of homes are not one level living....rather 2 and so often 3 are the norm. That's what we are trying to get away from. So....enough of this....I'm sharing simply to let you know I'm still here, still creating, but a bit more slowly during this shift in our otherwise fairly predictable lives.
My
last post showed a dye painted - sort of landscape piece. It was done on Liberty of London's Lawn cotton fabric. LOVE the feel, but it's so thin and unstable that immediately I realize I'd have problems pursuing the design idea I had. First things first.....wishing to use a programed stitch on my machine to add texture and lay down lots of thread quickly.....thankfully I tested it first. The 'Lawn' fabric was spray starched to give it more body and further stabilized with a Pellon non-fusible lightweight interfacing on the back. I tried every trick I know with machine settings and nothing prevented the tunneling of the fabric....even when I added a layer of batting beneath the Pellon.
Here I stabilized a piece of the fabric with Terial Magic.....a liquid fabric stabilizer that supposed to turn fabric into an almost paper like quality. I know there are many who rave about this product, but yet again I'm a thumbs down. It makes a MESS of the iron and one really needs a place to hang the sodden fabric to damp dry without dripping all over. They say it doesn't mess the iron....oh please.....each time I've used it....my iron requires massive cleaning and this junk tends to get on the piece you are trying to press......even with the use of a press cloth it's troublesome to use.
In the end, I gave up my quest to use the programed stitched and went with a straight stitch using variegated thread which seemed to behave better. Come back and see how this once flat piece is now looking....
